Ken Staiger of Pennsylvania is a single father, caretaker, and amateur chef who is passionate about cooking and volunteering at church functions. In the following article, Kenneth Staiger discusses the reasons behind the growing popularity of cooking classes, and how many are considering it as a newfound hobby.
Cooking is something most people do on a daily basis, whether they enjoy it or not. Cooking and preparing food, either for sole consumption or to feed a hungry family, is to some a relaxing pastime, others a necessary evil.
However, Ken Staiger reports that cooking classes are becoming more popular by the day, and below, he dives into the reasons why.
Eating Has Become Expensive
It seems that there's more bad news being reported every day on the cost of living, and this hits family food budgets hard. Rising prices are a dilemma affecting every corner of the food industry, from fresh foods to canned, from flour to meat.
Kenneth Staiger says that cooking classes don't just teach future world-famous chefs how to sear the perfect filet mignon. They encourage people to shop smarter, create delicious meals on a budget, and to utilize ingredients effectively so as to avoid waste.
Cooking is a Life Skill
For many of us, cooking is a skill that's passed us by and perhaps hasn't been all that necessary until now. Ready meals, TV dinners, fast food, or even a family member who takes on the responsibility for cooking for everyone are all reasons many others have little culinary experience.
But cooking is a life skill, one that when learned, is never lost. Kenneth Staiger says that to learn the basics is to achieve competence in a useful, and even life-saving way.
For some, it can be a daunting task, to step into a kitchen and learn from scratch. But one reason cooking classes are becoming more popular is that they're fun, exciting and bring a new way of learning into the kitchen. Teachers will rarely pair beginners with experts. Classes are set according to ability, so everyone's in the same boat, and ready to learn.
Great Social Pastime
Ken Staiger says that the pandemic has made people appreciate even more the value of socializing, and the creative ways that we used to interact with one another during lockdown has spilled out into real-life meetings.
Bars and restaurants are no longer the go-to for a night out. Instead, people are craving more authentic, unusual interactions as they develop skills, take up new hobbies, make new friends, and push themselves out of their comfort zone.
And cooking classes are the perfect way to satisfy all of these needs according to Ken Staiger of Pennsylvania. Cooking with others, no matter the level of skill, means laughing together over culinary disasters, tasting each other's food, helping one another, and ultimately celebrating each other's successes.
Food and drink pair perfectly with social situations, but it doesn't always have involve sitting in a restaurant, eating a meal that someone else has prepared behind a closed door. Often, the preparation of the meal itself, especially with the people you love, is what makes cooking so fun reports Kenneth Staiger.
Casting Off Old Habits
Another post-pandemic resolution many made to themselves is one of trying new things, of pushing the metaphorical boat out and venturing into new, uncharted waters.
There are so many varieties of cooking class available in local towns and cities. Whether the desire is to get into crafting delicate French pastries to impress at dinner parties, or to create hot, spicy Indian dishes, there's no end to the kinds of cuisine to be introduced to.
Ken Staiger says that many of these classes have foregone the old faithful, tried and tested, and frankly boring meals and presents something new and exciting with fresh ingredients and flavors. Not all meals will be a tremendous success, but it's the process and the experience of trying brand new flavors that makes it so exciting.
Several classes show aspiring back-to-basics chefs how to grow their own gardens and use home-grown vegetables in easy to prepare meal creations. If the pandemic taught us anything, it showed us that self-sufficiency is an invaluable asset.
It's a Boost of Confidence
Like all skills, cooking is not learned overnight and can always be improved on. Seeing the results of hard work is one of life's most rewarding endeavors. A class in cooking techniques can give attendees a real boost when they take home their triumphs.
Ken Staiger says that even those with moderate to excellent skills can always find something new to try out and work on, from presentation skills to fine knife work, from rolling exquisite sushi to baking fresh bread.
Those who attend cookery classes often find that the food us just a bonus - it's everything that goes along with its creation that's most exciting.
