Vaughan - Culinary 101: 4-week Culinary Basics Cooking Series

Welcome to The Chef Upstairs’ Culinary 101 Program!

This 4 week program of “the basics” will guide everyone from the amateur cook to our self-proclaimed home gourmets. Starting with essential knife skills, our chefs will help you learn to be comfortable and confident in the kitchen. Using easy-to-prepare recipes and basic cooking techniques, you’ll learn about the importance of advance preparation to save you time and reduce stress in the kitchen. This class meets once per week over a 4-week period.

Our class topics will be: Knife Skills, Stocks, Soups and Sauces, Italian Essentials and Butchery of Fish and Chicken

Week 1: Knife Skills

• 3 essential knives for your kitchen
• Honing vs. sharpening
• Julienne vs. batonette
• Fine Dice vs medium and large dice
• Mincing

Recipes:

• Chicken Soup with Greens and Vegetables
• Chopped Mexican Salad with Roasted Peppers, Corn, Tomatoes & Avocado

 Week 2: Stocks, Soups and Sauces

• Learn the difference between white and dark stocks
• How to prepare stock using beef, chicken, fish and vegetables

Recipes:

• Mushroom Veloute Soup
• Fish Stock
• Pan Roasted Chicken Breast with Demi-Glace 
  

 Week 3: Italian Essentials

• Learn to make pasta from scratch
• How to perfectly cook pasta

Recipes:

• Pasta from Scratch for Tagliatelle Noodles
• Bolognese Sauce
• Slow Cooked Garlic Butter for the Perfect Garlic Bread
• Fennel and Orange Salad
  

Week 4: Butchery of Fish and Chicken

• Learn basic kitchen sanitation/safety and cooking techniques with chicken, fish and shellfish
• How to cut up a whole chicken
• How to properly debone and cook chicken breasts to perfection
• Prepare a simple mussel dish
• How to fillet fish and to prepare using both a pan searing and poaching method

Recipes:

• Mussels Steamed with Leeks, Tomatoes & Garlic
• Pan Roasted Chicken with Chimichurri
• Seared Mediterranean Sea Bass with Spicy Orange Salsa

 What to Expect:

• Classes are about 3 hours long
• Our classes combine safe fun and learning through an interactive, team approach 
  
• Guests will work together to create a full meal of several courses with multiple steps, under the guidance our chef - learn and then eat!
• Each course is broken down into key steps and recipes will be emailed after the class so you can recreate the meal at home
• The chef will offer tips and tricks based on their personal experiences.
• When not cooking, relax with a glass of wine, beer, cocktail or soft drink (available for purchase during the class)
• Note, we require a minimum of 6 participants to run the class - in the event that we require to cancel this program, all participants would be issued a credit for future use.
• All sales are non-refundable and final - you can view our cancellation policy here

Please note, if you are using a Gift Certificate with 7 digits to book your class, add a 0 to the start of the code and do not use any dashes. For example, 12-345-67 should be 01234567.

Need a hand? Give us a call 416.544.9221