Freestyle Cooking

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Learn to cook delicious, healthy, and affordable meals without a recipe.

You don’t have to be a professional chef to make really good food. This course is designed for anyone who wants to make actually delicious food at home. In four weeks, you’ll begin to build a cooking practice that will enable you to eat well, save money, and unlock the lifelong joy of improvising in the kitchen.

Instructor: Eric has almost a decade of cooking experience, and for the last 5 years he has cooked regularly for 3-12 people. He has explored a wide variety of cuisines and cooking styles (Chinese, French, Indonesian, Indian, Caribbean, Central Texas BBQ, among others).

Logistics

TIME: Wednesdays from 6:30-9:00pm
PLACE: 248 McKibbin St., Brooklyn NY 11206
TUITION + SUPPLIES: $400, financial assistance is available

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Freestyle Cooking 101 is designed as an experiential learning seminar. Each class will consist of a short instructional segment (where students will learn basic techniques and principles) followed by a longer period where students will practice cooking for themselves and their classmates. It’s like a series of educational dinner parties :)

There will be two cohorts of FC101 during the summer semester. Tentative dates below:

SESSION 1	SESSION 2
Wednesday, May 15 6:30-9:00pm	Wednesday, June 12 6:30-9:00pm
Wednesday, May 22 6:30-9:00pm	Wednesday, June 19 6:30-9:00pm
Wednesday, May 29 6:30-9:00pm	Wednesday, June 26 6:30-9:00pm
Wednesday, June 5 6:30-9:00pm	Wednesday, July 3 6:30-9:00pm

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COMMITMENT IS REQUIRED! This course will teach you the fundamentals of home cooking. However, the only way to build your skill is practice. Unless unavoidable conflicts arise, students are expected to attend all four sessions in full and complete the homework tasks each week (don’t worry, it’s not boring school homework).

A few things Eric has cooked recently. Clockwise from upper left: zhajiangmian, mexican lunch bowl, jerk chicken with red beans and rice, red-braised pork belly with charred garlic green beans, Chinese steamed eggs, fennel pollen chicken thigh with kale and asparagus.

🛒 Week 1 - How To Shop For food, and How To Store It

The first (and possibly most important) step in cooking is going to the store. But where do you go? What do you buy when you get there? And what do you do when you get home?

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🥕 Week 2 - Fundamental Techniques and Knife Skills

Once you get the food back to your house, you need to prepare it. Week 2 covers basic cooking techniques and the tools you’ll need to make just about anything.

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💡 Week 3: Freestyle Cooking 101

How do you start a intuitive cooking practice, vs. just following a recipe? And how do you build the confidence to experiment with new ingredients, especially ones that could make you sick?

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🍽 Week 4: Dinner Party

It’s time to celebrate the end of class and bring it all together! We’ll put what we’ve learned into practice by planning, preparing, and eating a beautiful meal together.

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