Online Cooking Classes

I’ll admit it. I had a hard time wrapping my brain around the idea. When KC Miller, the owner and founder of SWIHA (Southwest Institute of Healing Arts), in Tempe, AZ, first mentioned the idea of taking my 5-week Whole Foods Cuisine I and II courses online, I dismissed the idea.

The picture on the right was made by one of my online Whole Foods Cuisine I students. It's the Parboiled Crudité Platter of Seasonal Vegetables with Cashew Dill Dip, (the recipe also works with macadamia or cashew macadamia nut butter).

I’ve coached people by phone, answering their cooking and nutrition questions, but I didn’t see how we could replicate the experience of the on ground cooking classes without a face to face format. Seeing, smelling, and tasting the food is what attracts people to a cooking class, right? 

The plan
When the director of dducation contacted me to set up a meeting with the curriculum developer, I knew they were serious. They’d already taken many of their courses online. The were going to do it with or without me…and I wanted to be in. I spoke with Kathy, the curriculum developer. She took the courses and learned what the students learned, watching from the position of a student and a curriculum designer. We discussed which recipes and techniques we thought the students would want to see on videos, the teaching points we wanted to emphasize with weekly study questions, how we could facilitate interaction between the students from a distance, and my role as a facilitator. In the process, Kathy and her entire family became fans of my recipes and cookbooks and shared them with their friends.

Roll em
We created a taping schedule for the videos utilizing their in house Video Producer and Media Specialist, Merry Lucero, and one of her colleagues, Ben Avechuco. Merry scouted for a kitchen we could use for taping and we settled on Classic Cooking Academy in the McDowell Mountain Ranch area. We set six dates for taping between December of 2009 and April of 2010. We had our last taping session on May 3rd.

Take two
I had so much fun using the clapperboard. You may have seen something similar on outtakes from movies where the director said “cut, cut!” or “take two,” noting the act or scene being re-shot. I recently learned what that board is so important.

A clapperboard is used to assist in the synchronizing of picture and sound; additionally, it is used to designate and mark particular scenes and takes. Merry uses it in editing to sync up the audio and video tracks on the tape from two different cameras.

The loud clang it makes produces a spike in the audio file that allows her to line up two tracks of tape shooting the same scene from different angles. You write on it with chalk, erase, then repeat as needed for different acts, scenes, and takes. In our case, Merry wrote the name of each recipe and the version we were taping.

Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about clapperboards

Before taping each new recipe I had to say the name of the recipe than clap the two pieces of wood together loudly. If we had to tape a recipe in parts, for example, because we had to wait for it to finish cooking, the fruit gel wouldn’t release from the mold, I tripped over my words, broke into laughter, or I accidentally flipped a spoon, or spilled something, or  we had to stall taping until a garbage truck backed up to all the dumpsters in the strip mall, then I had to clap the board again when we resumed shooting.

For the first four days of video taping we didn’t have an actual clapperboard, so I had to loudly clap my hands at the start of each new video or segment to mark the audio and video files. By the fifth day of taping, we had an actual board, made by one of Merry’s friends or relatives.

You can see the clapper board above in the picture and YouTube video. Watch the video through to the end to see my blooper, when I put down the squash. There was a funnier scene taping the same recipe where I hit the end of a spatula with my hand and it flipped off the counter. I kept a straight face and kept going for maybe a minute, then broke into laughter and another one of me serving the pie, which was not as firm as I had intended. These scenes are not on the tape but I plan to post them on my blog with a few more bloopers this summer, after Merry gets caught up with editing for the classes. Here's the Vanilla Ice Dream (photo right) and Dark Chocolate Ice Dream (right below) that I made for the camera last week (recipe for Vanilla Ice Dream here and in my Ice Dream Cookbook).
Photo credits: Rachel Albert, 2009

I got so excited, like a little kid with a new toy, whenever it was time to clap the board. I actually wanted to take it home with me. I imagined how fun it would be if something didn’t go smoothly in my own life and I could just whip out the clapboard and say “Cut! Cut! Let’s take that scene again, this time with a little more_______ ” or “with less_______.” If someone said something harshly, I imagined clapping the board and saying, “Let’s take that scene again. Can you say that again, this time with a little more tenderness in your voice?” I know it’s just a fantasy but don’t we all have acts and scenes in our lives we wish we could do over? I would also like a magic wand but I don’t know who would make one that actually works!

Where are we now?
I’m now teaching my second online section of Whole Foods Cuisine I. I have eight students in this section. I had 9 students in the previous section. We plan to launch the first section of Whole Foods Cuisine II in June. Click here, here, or check SWIHAs website for details. Or call the Southwest Institute of Healing Arts at 480-994-9244.

Here are pictures of some of the dishes my recent crop of students made and emailed to the group along with their homework. I think they did a fabulous job of replicating the recipes after watching the cooking videos and reading through the recipes. They’re expressing a lot of enthusiasm about what they’re learning.

Honey Mustard Chicken and Blanched Crudite Platter of Seasonal Vegetables with Cashew-Dill Dip from The Garden of Eating

How does the online cooking class work?

Students are required to do weekly readings from The Garden of Eating: A Produce Dominated Diet & Cookbook (for Whole Foods Cuisine I) and from The Ice Dream Cookbook: Dairy-Free Ice Cream Alternatives with Gluten-Free Cookies, Compotes and Sauces (in Whole Foods Cuisine II). They are given DVDs that include videos of the recipes and techniques covered in the course. Interactions happen through a discussion board. Students also have the option of sending in some of their assignments as audio files.

Better Barbecue Sauce, photo right, also taken by one of my online cooking students

Each week the students must

• watch the recipe and technique videos that go with the week’s assignments
• answer two discussion questions
• make at least two recipes from the book and/or supplementary recipe packet
• write about their experiences making the recipes
• write about any “ah-ha moments” (successes they had integrating material from the class)
• write about at least one “uh, oh" moment (a challenge they faced integrating the course material and recommendations
• respond to at least two posts made by classmates on the discussion board for the course
• email photos of the recipes they make, if possible
• email cooking related questions; I respond to their questions and posts

Each week I read their posts on the discussion boards, email comments, answer questions, look at the food photos they submit, and grade their participation. It’s a very different format. So far we’ve had very positive feedback and students have found the course life changing (something I hear regularly in the on ground courses).

Click the links below to read more about the course objectives and curriculum and the kinds of recipes covered in Whole Foods Cuisine I and Whole Foods Cuisine II. If you have trouble with those links, check out the web site for Southwest Institute of Healing Arts or call them at (480) 994-9244. If you’d like to take the classes in person, you’ll see a schedule of upcoming dates (scroll down to the bottom of the page to see the dates). To find out about upcoming dates and fees for the online version of the classes, click here.

This is the Spicy Peanut Sauce from The Garden of Eating with a different blanched veggie tray, also taken by one of my online students

Comments

[connie hicks]

how much does this cooking school coast and where do I get the books and videos.
Thank You
Connie

[culinary classes]

It is an informative post as it consists of detailed information about online cooking classes. By going through this post I came to know about how these classes work and skills teaches in every session. Attending online classes to learn cooking skills is also one of the best and affordable for the people who can not go outside for learning these skills.
http://www.cookingclassesschools.com/