Tim and I took the hands-on cooking class “Crawfish Pies, Veal Des Allemands, Bayou Ratatouille and Pecan Pie””
During the 2018 Mardi Gras season, we took a break from catching beads to attend a cooking class at the New Orleans School of Cooking.
hey have 2 kinds of classes, a demonstration class (they show you how to cook) and a Hands-on Class (we do the cooking!), check out at their website and book the class at https://neworleansschoolofcooking.com
We did the hands-on class which is $139 each, including all ingredients. This School was established since 1980, the cooking class and general store is at 524 St. Louis Street, about 5 mins walk from Jackson Square.
When the class started, our chef offered us drinks, there were 3 guys (including Tim) hands-up for beer. Then the chef just brought them a big pitcher.
Tim shouted “I love this class already”!!!
There were soda, ice tea, water, red or white wines, he had it all for us!
The hands-on class is good for 10 people, but there were 8 of us today.
We introduced ourself, start with me and Tim, we just told everyone that we’re the locals and we liked to do something for fun during Mardi Gras week. When they went around the table, the others are all tourist from different cities, but the other 2 couples said that they did this for their Valentine’s.
I think that made Tim feel bad, he raised his hand up and said: “I forgot to mention about that, we did this for our Valentine’s too” LOL!!!
We totally forgot about Valentine’s (only 4 days away from today!), we’re only here for the basics of Louisiana Cooking!
The Chef talked us through some NOLA (New Olreans – Louisiana) food history. Louisiana has such a different experience than the rest of the country, it was so interesting to hear.
Perhaps the most difficult task is explaining Louisiana food in a few short sentences. All you really need to know is, Cajun & Creole cuisines are the most popular in Louisiana.
The Cajun and Creole foods are cooking with the same ingredients but just different cooking style. The Cajun will look more “brown” and spicier, while Creole is more in “red” because they put more tomatoes (that’s the short explanation)!
After we got some informative from our Chef, everyone was paired off and given a cooking station. They provided all ingredients we needed for each menu. and we all started cooking at the same time/menu.
First, we did the Pecan pie because it took time to bake.
Then we started making our dinner. Our Chef will walk and guide us exactly what we all have to do.
There are helpers in the kitchen if you are missing some ingredient on your station.
It was fast cooking like food competition tv shows, but we could follow it all and cook well.
After cooking, we’re all back to sit at our table with our food ready to eat!
But our chef forgot the baking time for our pecan pies, it was a little burnt (but we could eat some of it!). He felt bad about it, so he made us all banana foster to make it up for all of us.
The Banana foster is very easy and yummy! Especially served with the ice-cream!!!
Actually, I don’t feel like he had to do that, but he was very nice!
The Chef told us and we can pack our food and/or drink to go if we wanted.
He said, he would only ask for some dollars for the other 2 helpers in the class… They did all the cleaning!
We had a wonderful time and a delicious meal at the end.
No matter if you like to do this for a special occasion or just for fun, we are sure it’s one of the best activities to do in New Orleans!
Date: 2/11/2018
