The true value of cooking class

The first time I took a cooking class was about three years ago and it was part of a team-building event in my previous job. When we- a bunch of hungry employees- realised what we were getting into, we felt a bit disappointed. There we were at Christmas, getting treated to dinner by our generous employers, and we actually had to do all the work! We were divided into groups and each group made a different dish. I remember that the food was good (but there was hardly enough for all of us), we all got tipsy mid-way through and had to be really careful with those knives. However, I could not tell you now, no matter how hard I tried, what dishes we prepared. I don't remember any single recipe from that day. 

When it comes to cooking class, the value of these is rarely in learning a new skill. The cooking skill takes a long time to perfect and no matter how many classes you take- if you don’t regularly cook at home you can forget it. A cooking class is also not about learning a new recipe because you can get tons of these on the Net and you can even watch a video that will show you the exact steps. Cooking classes are actually about relationship building and bonding. They are a perfect team or better yet friend-building exercise. If you do it with friends you end up talking about the most intimate and funny things. If you do it alone, you get to network and meet new people.

In today’s cooking class, I not only had a great time with my friends but I also met a nice couple who live in my neighbourhood (the woman, Virginie works in communication- so we have yet to catch up) and a journalist from RTL.be (radio) whom I immediately sent over to the Batibouw fair (taking place right now in Brussels) to interview my husband on renewable energy. Who would have said that a Saturday cooking class would ever be so productive? So even if I do not remember what where the exact ingredients of the Dhal we prepared, and even if the sauce with condensed milk was way to sweet for me in the dessert, the whole experience was one of bonding and community building like no other.

If you want to learn how to cook, just get hold of some good cookbooks ( I love any book from Marabout editions as they are so easy to follow) ,watch videos on YouTube and just cook as often as you can- for family, friends and for yourself (no excuses single people!).On the other hand, if you are feeling sociable, want to catch up with friends or improve relations with colleagues, I encourage you to try cooking classes. The places I tried in Brussels that I can recommend: Slurps and Mmmmh!. Do you know any other fun cooking workshops that offer a friendly atmosphere?