Some people prefer cooking in their kitchen at home.
Others like dining in gourmet restaurants. But there is a third way that brings the best of both together and adds value: a professional cooking class.
This type of leisure is increasingly trendy in Kyiv. Cooking classes for the willing are mushrooming.
The supply is getting more sophisticated. You can pick a one-off sushi class or sign up to a series of courses. You can learn to cook in a small group, or buy a corporate master class for the whole company.
A cooking class at Sam’s Steak House with Mirovaya Karta, a large Ukrainian restaurant chain, offers a good way to spice up a routine Saturday. The class gathers up to 20-25 food enthusiasts every week, working in two medium-size dining halls of the restaurant.
Aspiring cooks flock around the demonstration table to watch and listen to a gregarious chef cooking the featured meal, and then go back to their own cooking space. Each cooking table has enough space, utensils and ingredients for four people, and that’s where the action takes place. All of the cookware is top notch and looks like it just arrived from the store.
Although it gets a little stuffy, the atmosphere in the class is convivial and fun. The three-hour class is broken into two parts. The break is used to eat the first course over a glass of wine in a restaurant setting. All this package of fun comes with a price tag of Hr 600, and includes a branded apron, notebook and a gift bag.
Steak and Caesar salad
Cooking class menus are planned in advance, giving one plenty of time to pick what you want to learn to cook. On the day the Kyiv Post visited the theme was steak and accompanying sauces, as well as Caesar salad. Among the guests were thrilled housewives, young couples and aspiring chefs.
“It’s extremely useful to learn that you don’t have to run around searching for Caesar dressing, that you can just make it yourself with simple ingredients,” says Bogdan Rudenko, whose friends got him a gift certificate for the class.
The menu is revamped once every four months; the dished are picked from various world cuisines. You can cook anything from refined fish dishes, to elegant party snacks.
For those who prefer to cook in a more tranquil and intimate atmosphere, Barsuk cooking school and restaurant offers smaller classes of up to seven people. The class is taught by Dali del Hassem, who studied in France and Italy, and then moved to Kyiv, learning Ukrainian’s culinary preferences. In his assessment of what people like here, del Hassem said “tastes differ.”
“There is not one right taste. I allow them to deviate from one pattern, accentuating the flavor of their choice,” del Hassem added.
The bar stand serves as a cooking area for the students, where they are chopping and slicing, occasionally crossing into the front kitchen to fry and grill. del Hassem occasionally shows how to do it, but only when it’s absolutely necessary, allowing students to learn by verbal instruction.
The class costs Hr 300, and is less polished in some ways. Salads are mixed in a communal bowl, the pans come from the restaurant kitchen, and you might have to share a cutting knife and spices with your neighbor. Yet, the intimate size of the class, the chef’s professionalism and his unique recipes create a casual atmosphere for sharing culinary secrets.
If you are serious about culinary arts and long for more consistency than drop in master classes, consider a two-month course with the elite school of Kyiv restaurateur Mykola Tishchenko. Even if you have zero cooking experience, you will not feel out of your depth.
The school offers separate programs for professionals and beginners. But be prepared to pay a lump sum. A two-month course for amateurs will cost you about Hr 11,500. A course for professionals is even more expensive.
The schedule is rigorous and requires complete dedication. Three times a week, in the morning or during the day, students learn theory and get experience alongside professional chefs in the kitchens of restaurants belonging to Tishchenko’s “Nasha Karta” chain. The course organizers do their best to accommodate the content and schedule of the classes to students’ needs.
Chef Vitaliy Sytak, who made his name in the city after graduating from the London branch of the famous Cordon Bleu school, is now the face of the Kyiv School.
Normally, there are only three to five students in his class.
The Kyiv Post was not able to assess his style of teaching because journalists were not permitted to attend classes. But, the school claims that upon completing the course and an exam, an expert jury determines if a student deserves a culinary certificate, which can pave way to a professional career in cooking.
Kyiv Post staff writer Mariya Manzhos can be reached at [email protected].
