Best Vegan Cooking Classes Near Me
Cooking can be a chore for some, but for others, it can be the best part of their day. Regardless of where you fall, we all have to eat, and to eat; someone must cook. Learning to cook has an extensive range of possibilities. You may want to learn to cook to stop burning your meals, or you want to expand your palate and add some variety to your everyday vegan meals. Whatever the case, learning how to cook vegan food can be fun. There can also be more than one reason you might consider learning to cook vegan meals; it is up to the potential student.
Why You Should Learn Vegan Cooking
Learning how to cook vegan food can be fun, and veganism continues to gain popularity. According to the NIH, the number of Americans following a vegan diet increased by 600% from 2014 to 2018. While this could be related to the growing popularity and exposure to vegan food, it could also be because of the health benefits. Learning to cook vegan food or any food really, can be beneficial to your health. When you cook at home, you can pick your fresh ingredients, pay attention to what you’re adding to the recipe, and reduce your use of processed foods. In addition, if you monitor things like sodium or sugar intake, cooking at home can help you control your consumption better. When eating at a restaurant, you have little control over what additional oils, spices, or other ingredients they put into the food.
Another benefit of learning how to cook, it can be fun! Taking a cooking class can be an exciting new hobby that allows you to meet new people and have fun while learning a new skill. Cooking classes tend to be engaging and a place where others are making a mistake, giving it a more relaxed feel and making it easy to have fun. The fun doesn’t end at the cooking class, though. The actual act of cooking can be fun and a great hobby. You can invite friends over and cook meals for them or look up new recipes in your spare time and test them out on your day off.
Cooking for others and even for yourself can be a great way to increase your productivity and can be a great stress relief. Finally, cooking can turn into a “side hustle” or a great way to break into a new line of work. According to Indeed, an executive chef in New York can make an average of $103,000 a year; in Los Angeles, an executive chef can make approximately $92,000. While taking one cooking class might not get you here, it can be the start of something great. Learning how to cook vegan food can open you up to other networks. If you don’t want to make it into a whole career, perhaps you can consider making it into a side hustle by cooking for special occasions such as parties or weddings. Again, you could open new doors with a few cooking classes and the proper licensing.
5 Ways to Learn Vegan Cooking
Technology makes it easy to learn a new skill, and cooking is no exception. If you want to take a leap and dedicate yourself to learning cooking, the most obvious way is to take a formal cooking class. While this is the most obvious, it can also be the most costly, but it could be worth it. Formal training in cooking can go faster than more non-traditional methods, and an expert will train you. Formal training in cooking, particularly with specific types of food like vegan dishes, can make you appear more professional in some cases and could be required depending on the kind of work you plan to do. Most well-established restaurants look for a chef with formal training, and cooking vegan dishes requires additional knowledge.
While in-person training is usually the go-to and most apparent, you could take an online course to learn vegan cooking. Live, interactive, and formal lessons hosted by a reliable cooking school can be just as beneficial as an in-person course, but you don’t have to leave the comfort of your home.
More informal methods are acceptable ways to learn vegan cooking if you are not looking to take your talents to a top LA or New York restaurant. You could try an online on-demand class, like on YouTube, which could be where you start. There is lots of free content on YouTube or self-paced classes that can teach you what you need to know about the basics of cooking. The information obtained in these courses is just as essential and can be a great way to explore cooking.
Let’s say you have started teaching yourself to cook at home but want to take your talents to the next level. You might consider an apprenticeship as your next step. Becoming an apprentice means you would work full-time under a qualified chef while, in some cases continuing in culinary school. While working under a talented chef, the expectation is that you will gain all of their knowledge while also getting real-life experience in a restaurant. As an apprentice, you can expect to learn not only cooking but personal hygiene, food presentation, and the professionalism required from a high-quality chef.
Finally, if all these ideas seem overwhelming and you want to learn how to make a good meal, you can simply experiment in your kitchen. Find a recipe and continuously practice and take risks with ingredients, try new spices, add flavor, and build your comfort level in the kitchen. Now, this could be a costly way to learn, but if you want to expand your skills for your curiosity or interests, you can take all the time you need to experiment.
In-Person Vegan Cooking Classes
In-person cooking classes are a great way to learn how to cook vegan food; even better, you can find cooking classes just about anywhere. SunCafe is a great school located in Los Angeles. They are dedicated to serving healthy, organic, exceptional-tasting meals to help you change your thoughts about healthy food. They’ve won awards for their unique cuisine, including vegan-cooked food, and everything is made from scratch. SunCafe knows what they are doing, so it should be your go-to for cooking classes. For example, you can check out their Vegan cheese course. Students will learn the benefits of vegan and raw food while watching a live Demonstration Format class. While the instructor prepares the meal, students can ask questions, and finally, everyone gets to enjoy the dinner at the end. This class is a great way to learn and be inspired by food while being fed some great, healthy, organic food.
If you are looking for cooking courses on the East Coast, New York might be the first place to come to mind. Mukti’s Kitchen, based in Brooklyn, offers delicious and healthy Indian food and Indian cooking classes. They teach students how to cook both vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes.
Mukti Banerjee founded this school and feels that her family’s strong culinary prowess and eagerness to learn have shaped her into the chef she is today. She has the characteristics of a great chef to learn from and offers classes to make you feel right at home in her Kitchen. She provides a Delicious Vegan, Gluten-free, Indian dishes course for $165. Students will learn how to cook and enjoy a five-course meal during this class. Mukit teaches this course, and students will learn how to create these fantastic dishes and about masalas, or spices, which are the basis of Indian cooking. She will teach students the nuances and secrets, where to get the masalas, and how to keep the aroma intact. After clearly understanding masalas, students can move on to the menu. In this class, she prepares okra bhaji, Baigan Bharta (smoked eggplant mashed in spices), Chana masala (chickpea online, ginger and garlic infused with spices, Pakora (onion fritters), and vegetable pulao (basmati rice infused with carrots, onion, cashews, raisin, and spices). This class is hands-on, so students should expect to have a chance to cook at some point during the 3-hour course, and at the end, everyone has dinner together like one big family.
Mukti’s Kitchen also offers a Healthy Indian Vegetarian Dinnerthat is sure to please. This class teaches popular Indian vegetarian dishes such as samosa from scratch. Samosa is a ball of mixed vegetables and species wrapped with dough and then deep-fried! As if that’s not delicious enough, students will also learn how to make Malai Kofta (potato ball stuffed with paneer in a thick sauce), Aloo Gobi and matar (cauliflower, potato, and peas curry), Navaratan Korma (mixture of your favorite vegetables, cashews, paneer, and spices), and vegetable pulao. Like other classes at Mukti’s Kitchen, this one ends with the group eating a delicious meal together and connecting with classmates.
Miette in Little Italy, New York, also hosts some great cooking classes. Italian Classics for the Modern Vegan is the class you want to take if you love Italian food but are also a vegan. This class transforms some of the classics into a vegan feast that everyone will love. Students will make a Caesar salad with a tahini miso depression, butternut squash risotto, carrot cashew miso spread over crostini, and ending with a delicious raspberry sorbet. Vegan or not, students will love learning and eating in this 3-hour course.
Virtual Vegan Cooking Classes
Virtual classes are trendy right now. They have an added level of convenience because you can attend the course from anywhere, literally anywhere. Going on vacation does not mean you must miss your next cooking class as long as you have access to the necessary tools and ingredients. Additionally, y taking a virtual class opens up more options. Once you cut out the commute time, you could fit more class options into your day. While having more time for classes, you can register anywhere as long as your system meets the requirements. If you live in a different state than the virtual course offered, that is no longer a barrier for you. Like most things, if there’s a positive side, there are also some pieces to consider. When taking an online course, you have to supply your materials. This means the student will need to provide ingredients, cooking utensils, and any unique cookware. For some, this could be limiting, mainly if a class you are mildly interested in requires extra materials; you might be hesitant to register.
Additionally, if you want to take up cooking for connections or meeting new people, this goal could be more challenging to accomplish in a virtual space than in-person. Virtual classes tend to have less downtime or mingling time than would occur naturally in a traditional classroom. Though not impossible, it could be harder to connect with others virtually.
Considerations aside, there are many online vegan cooking classes to choose from. Teaching table offers a Cook with What You Have class. It’s a 4-part series with each session running 45 minutes. Students can expect to learn how to shop less, cook more, and waste nothing while creating meals they can be confident in sharing with others. The class sessions are live via Zoom and hosted by a highly effective culinary instructor who will give you the confidence to cook without recipes and save time and money.
EZCompliments Indian Cooking Classes also host a Tuesday Workshop Series. At $50 a session, students will learn how to make a complete meal with leftovers for the rest of the week. The dishes can be personalized to the cook’s dietary needs. The well-informed instructor can assist you if you need the dish to be vegan or vegetarian, gluten-free, or any other requests. The menu for the month is released in advance so students can select which course they would like to attend based on what will be prepared that day.
Finally, the League of Kitchens hosts an Uzbek Cooking Online with Damira course. The class is $60 and is 2.5 hours of an interactive cooking course and a virtual dinner party. The instructor Damira wants students to feel like they’re in her home. The classes are designed to be a meaningful opportunity to share cooking and culture. Students can expect to spend the time learning how to make a delicious dish such as butternut squash and salad, and at the end, they will dine with other students virtually, to connect over a family meal. A shopping list, equipment list, and recipe packet are provided to allow students to shop in advance and make alterations to the recipe, for example, to accommodate vegan needs. After class, the recording is sent to the students to keep.
Private Group Vegan Cooking Classes
If you want the convenience of an online class, but you are looking to connect with a group of friends or colleagues, a private group vegan cooking class might be the next team outing. CourseHorse has live online group classes to accommodate your team’s needs. For example, they offer a Candy Making: Truffles and Brittle group course, and the materials are included. You and your team or friends can learn to make dark chocolate truffles and brittle with peanuts. While participants are expected to provide the more common household items such as sugar, baking soda, a cooking sheet, and a runner spatula, the ingredients are shipped to each participant, except for perishable items, which they will be provided with a gift card to purchase. Booking the group class is $1050 for up to 10 people and $105 per person after that. CourseHorse makes booking events with large parties simple; you can even change your group size after booking if needed.
If you don’t see a course you want on the site currently, CourseHorse has a solution. Contact their free event planning team using the contact form on their site, and someone will help you plan your event. The virtual planning team will need to know the group size, event date, and details on what you are looking for in an event. You can expect a response within two business hours of completing the form. CourseHorse continues to make the process easy by not charging a booking fee, allowing you to change your group size after booking. In addition, they support multiple platforms making it easy to tailor your next event to your needs.
What Will I Need to Learn Vegan Cooking?
Materials to learn how to cook vegan food can vary from class to class. Most of the materials you will need on hand are not unique to cooking vegan food such as a non-stick skillet, a good quality knife, a cast iron frying pan, or even an immersion blender. Some tools that are less common but worth the money could include a robust mixer, a pressure cooker, and even a food processor. These tools make it easy to ground up certain ingredients, make different sauces, and cook more efficiently. When you take an in-person class, these materials will usually be provided. It is good to learn how to use them, and if you like the results, consider adding them to your kitchen to help you continue to make good vegan meals at home.
Is It Difficult to Learn Vegan Cooking?
Like any new skill, learning to cook can be challenging, depending on the level you aspire to reach. With vegan cooking, many think it’s harder to learn, but it is easier to get than many people think. If you genuinely want to learn how to cook vegan dishes and cook them well, you have many options available. There are many ways to learn how to cook, from an online class to books, self-paced tutorials, and even cooking shows. The hardest part of learning any new skill is starting and practicing; once you start, you must maintain your talents with dedication and a continued curiosity to learn new things. The great thing about wanting to expand your cooking skills is that you can test a new recipe one day, and then if it’s good, you’ve saved money. On the other hand, making mistakes in the kitchen can become costly and wasteful if you butcher a recipe, so you might have to stomach a few rough meals.
