Sharing this with you because I think it’s pretty cool. We are always looking for free entertainment, and some evenings you just want to get out of the house.
While looking for cooking classes nearby for my hubby’s new-found hobby, I came across what I thought was a little too-good-to-be-true offer at Zehrs. They call it a “What’s For Dinner” class, and you pay $10 for the hour long demonstration class and then at the end they give you a $10 Gift Card to use at Zehrs. Basically, it’s like buying a gift card to the store but getting some free cooking tips, information and larger-than-a-sample taste tests. I bought a few classes for my hubby and a class for my roommate and I to join him one class, which we did the other night.
CONS:
· The meals are decided the day-of, so you can’t book in for a specific recipe or know in advance if it’s a class you want to go to
· They don’t make any allergy accommodations
· They will pre-do some of the steps in an effort to stick to their time slot, so you might miss how long to cook an ingredient
· The meals in my opinion can be described as “weird”, but I believe they classify as “raw eating”, “dairy-free”, “healthy living”, etc. They are not the sort of meals you would naturally think of making so at first you may seem hesitant to try it
· The price of the ingredients then is pretty up there, like the dairy-free/gluten-free pomegranate “cheesecake” pie we sampled would have cost $50 to make if you went out and bought all the ingredients
· Everything uses a stand mixer.. and these are not cheap
PROS:
· It basically ends up being “Free” as you are just buying money to spend in the store later on stuff you were probably going to buy anyways
· Because they are “weird” meals, they expand your taste palette and introduce you to foods you might not have thought you could like. Like, my hubby’s first class was making a “Quinoa and Kale Taboulleh Salad”, which had two of his most hated ingredients of quinoa and cucumber. However, after tasting the meal, he discovered he actually liked it and promptly came home and made a big batch of it. Then a taste test of some cooked nuts actually made him realize that foods can taste different raw vs cooked.
· They let you ask questions.. so you can clarify if some things freeze well, what an alternative could be, etc
· There is a dietician present at the class, talking through nutritional content and explanations of food descriptions
· You will come away with some tips, like when to know when quinoa is done, how long a pomegranate will last in your fridge, which soy sauce to buy with low salt etc
· You get some free food (It’s a decent portion to try of the two recipes, but I wouldn’t call it a meal), and usually water or coffee is provided
· You get the recipe and instructions to take home with you
· It gives you a good base to then add and remove ingredients from your own kitchen and tastes. Like, the one we all went to was for a quinoa stir-fry of sorts, and while I might not use all the same ingredients they did, it made us realize we could replace rice or pasta with quinoa to get a little more healthy ingredients into us and any veggies added to the meal are good, so remove the onion and add celery if that’s what’s going bad in your fridge first
· It lets you know that foods can serve a dual purpose, like avocado can be a good base for anything needing a creamy texture and crushed nuts can make a pie crust base
· Compared to their other cooking classes, this is a more relaxed and basic class – recipes you can actually make!
· You can sign up for classes really easy online, or at the Customer Service desk
The class we all went to was the only after 4 class in the week, so it was packed with about 20 people. We had some laughs, ate all the food, and I think learned some stuff. At the end, we walked out with the $10 I paid back in our hands and a lot of paperwork (with upcoming classes, tips, the two recipes and more).
I would suggest you grab a friend and do this together, as it’s always more fun to do new stuff with a partner in crime.
