Portuguese Cuisine Workshop & Organic Wine at Chef’s Home (private class, Lisbon, Portugal)
“The highlight of our four-day stay in Lisbon was our cooking class. We love taking these classes because we are invited into the home of a local person and in addition to learning how to cook local dishes, we get a glimpse of life in another country. Throughout the evening [the instructor] explained the origins of the food and techniques for preparing each dish. We kept the conversation going well after we finished the meal.”
Baking Classes (King Arthur Baking Company; online)
“I have been baking for ~5 years, but the fundamentals learned with King Arthur will make baking easier and has given me the confidence to take on more complicated recipes.”
Advanced Lessons in Chocolate with Paul Young (Milk Street Cooking School; online)
“I learned new techniques for melting chocolate and folding it into other ingredients. The class was very enjoyable and we were able to interject questions during the demonstrations. I am an avid cook and like to learn new techniques so this course was valuable to me.”
Big Beef BBQ Class with Andy Husbands (The Smoke Shop BBQ, Methuen, MA)
“The class was fantastic and I look forward to engaging in more as they become available. We learned about different cuts and grades of meats, as well as recipes for BBQ sauce and rub. This included some take-home tips and recipe documentation to try on our own. One thing I had never heard of was something they call ‘cooking dirty’, which is cooking steaks directly on the coals.”
Contract Bridge (Cambridge Center for Adult Education)
"When the course ended we found that the Cambridge Adult Center had no follow-up advanced course and we were rearing to go, so we formed our own bridge club! Five of us met every Wednesday to play for about three hours….This course has definitely added another dimension to my retired life and I am so happy I signed up for it."
Let’s Cook in Umbria (Italy)
“We made Torta al Testo an Umbrian specialty, sort of like pita bread. We stuffed it with a wonderful creamy cheese and spinach. We then rolled out and cut our own tagliatelle.”
Techniques of Cooking I-VI (Cambridge School of Culinary Arts)
“Offered a wide range of cooking skills and recipes that exposed me to a new way of cooking. There are some things that we don’t think seriously about, namely how to hold a knife or how to use the wrist to properly cut food. It’s basic but it’s also important.”
Techniques of Baking (Cambridge School of Culinary Arts)
“I am glad that MIT helped me realize my dream to learn more about baking and add to my baking skills...I am now confident that having made pastry at the School, I can make them at home and deliver perfect pastries every time."
Techniques of Cooking II (Cambridge School of Culinary Arts)
“The highlight of this class was making lasagna noodles, which was something I had always wanted to do."
The Basque way to Tapas: Pintxo (private class, Northern Spain Gastronomy, Bilbao, Spain)
“We made a variety of delicious pintxos, and had so much fun. My favorite was the goat cheese with pink onions."
Hands on Bird Science (Hog Island National Audubon Camp, Bremen, ME)
"We worked side-by-side with experts from across the country and learned how to band birds, track migrants using the latest technology, prepare museum-quality specimens, record bird song and other natural sounds. ... I'm pursuing a retirement program o become a Naturalist, to teach and encourage enjoyment of nature."