Last year and the year before I went to loads of cooking courses and thoroughly enjoyed most of them, then I changed jobs and did not go to courses for months. The cooking classes I like are the ones where you physically cook the dishes. Demonstrations are a waste of time for me as I can watch cooking channels on DSTV, go through numerous recipe books or get if from the Internet.
I said it before; my favourite cuisine is Indian, then the rest of Asia which for me includes Mexico. Lol!! I tried Italian, but find it very bland (except the dishes you add cheese to) and tart because of the use of tomatoes without balancing it off with some sort of sweetness. The French are to pretentious and showy for no reason and the English are trying so hard to be French. The Americans … well; we have the fast food companies to thank for bringing their cuisine across to us.
Round about July this year, I saw some cooking courses being offered at discounted prices and decided to buy some vouchers to broaden my cooking repertoire. But, before I did, I investigated the establishment as I was very disappointed in a paella course I did a while ago. Read my post about it – https://gatsbyandbunnychow.wordpress.com/2013/07/16/the-perfect-paella-or-so-i-thought/. Their website satisfied my gut-feel that this might be worth my while and I purchased 4 vouchers at half the price for courses at Stir Crazy Catering – www.stircrazycatering.co.za.
I booked myself on the following 4 courses, Cape Malay, Soul of the Sea, Mexican Extravaganza and Flavours of Vietnam & Cambodia. I’m not going to bore you by taking you through each course, but rather give you my honest feedback on the overall experience.
The venue itself is very strange in the beginning, or should I say, the location of the kitchen. Stir Crazy share office space with various other companies and you get the feeling of walking through an art, museum or some interior designer business. Once you step inside the kitchen, normality returns and you know you are there to cook. The kitchen is smallish, but well equipped for up to 9/10 participants. My first 3 courses were with Chef Brett, a seasoned chef at teaching courses and running restaurants and Chef Hilary Hefner was equal to the task when she took us through the Vietnam & Cambodia class.
Basically, the evening starts with the chef introducing everyone and finding out how well or not, a cook you are. Then the chef goes through the recipes, about 8/9 recipes for the evening, before letting the participants decide which recipe they want to attempt for the evening. At first, I found the cooking courses very chaotic as everyone was trying to gather their ingredients for their dishes from a table at the back of the kitchen. But, I realized that it teaches you to start identifying ingredients by sight, smell and touch and not by their usual labels and packaging they come in.
I enjoyed the overall experience and would recommend Stir Crazy to anyone wanting to experience cooking courses. Don’t get me wrong, there were a couple of low points, some of the recipes did not work for me as far as taste was concern, but that’s my personal opinion. The constant looking and asking for utensils was the other thing that got to me a bit, but that’s just me being a man that can’t find anything. Like my mother use to say, “was dit n slang, dan het hy jou al lankal gepik”! hehehehe! The last course I attended, we were 14 participants, which was far too much for that kitchen. Fortunately, there was a family of 5 which shared 2 stations amongst themselves.
They end the evening off with a feast, at a set table, of the night’s spoils. This was the perfect way of sampling everyone’s dishes and discussing it with the instructor and the participants who made it. It’s basically a knowledge sharing session that will help you when you try the dishes at home, which I think is great.
Below are a couple of photos I took during the 4 courses I was on. I will provide more detail when I attempt these recipes at home and post it on this blog at later dates.
It’s a perfect fun group activity and you learn so much, while sipping on your favourite beverage. So, go out there people and try something new, you will be richer for it. You meet the most interesting and funny people on cooking courses! I promise!!
Gatsby and Bunny Chow 