WE TRIED EVERY ONLINE COOKING LESSON WE COULD FIND
It’s safe to say that the team at Experience Days has been going fairly stir-crazy in lockdown, and with takeaway delivery services dangerously close to our fingertips, we thought we’d fill our spare time with some virtual cooking lessons to expand our culinary repertoire – and keep the Chinese takeaway container collection to a minimum.
Over the course of Lockdown 3.0, we’ve taken part in every online cooking lesson we could find – from decadent macaroons to spicy Mexican tacos and everything in between.
Below, we’ve compiled a handy guide to at-home virtual cooking lessons, so you can see all of our reviews in one place!
So what are you waiting for? Read on to find the ultimate virtual culinary gift.
1. Flow Cooking
This cooking lesson from Flow Cooking was a top quality experience from start to finish. The attention that chef Hayley Pople put into each and every aspect of the lesson was clear to see, with welcome pack, recipes, ingredients lists and full time assistance before and after the class itself. The recipes themselves were stand out. I'm not exaggerating when I say that if I went to a restaurant and was served that punchy sea bream ceviche, vibrant pickled beetroot and zesty buttermilk dressing topped with crispy fish skin and served alongside a freshly baked focaccia, I'd be raving about it.
This lesson is currently the most expensive one we've tried at £30 for a one off lesson, or £99 for the 4 week package. However, if you love food and are looking to learn some serious skills and recipes to keep forever, I would definitely recommend it despite the high price point.
2. Ann Smart School of Cookery
Macaroon making can be challenging. However, this virtual cooking lesson from Ann’s Smart School of Cookery was incredibly straightforward and lots of fun! Ann provided so many helpful tips on how to create the perfect macaroon, even if you have never baked before.
The cooking class itself costs just £9, great value for money if you ask me! A few days before the class I was sent an email containing the shopping list and the recipe we would need to follow in the class. The ingredients came to a total of just under £15, making this a very affordable experience!
I really enjoyed this macaroon making class; it was a great way to spend my morning and learn a new skill that is deliciously rewarding. Without Ann’s helpful tips along the way I doubt they would have turned out as good as they did!
3. Colombian Cookery Class
Had a holiday cancelled but still want to get that vacation vibe? Book a cooking class with someone on the other side of the world, and learn traditional cultural dishes! Hosted by Daniela via AirBnb Experiences, this Colombian Cookery Class had us making plantain patacones, beef empanadas, fried arepas, and two classic sauces; hogao and suero.
Ingredients were simple and easy to source, and Daniela was with us through every stage of the process offering tips and guidance, plus backstories to the dishes and cooking techniques. You get so much more out of an interactive cooking class versus a recorded video, with loads of opportunity to ask questions if things seem to be going awry!
The end result was a delicious spread of flavourful food made entirely from scratch – quite amazing in only an hour and a half! The empanadas didn’t turn out so well because we bought the wrong flour, but everything else was amazing – just make sure you know the difference between the names of ingredients across countries. I’ll definitely be making the patacones again, they were so easy and went perfectly with the hogao.
The Colombian Cookery Class was great fun and a truly enjoyable way to spend a lockdown evening meeting new people and learning global culinary skills, can’t wait to see what else is out there!
4. Make Mexican Street Tacos with a Pro Chef
5. Jamie Oliver Cookery School
This Jamie Oliver Cookery School class was hosted by chefs Coral and Francesco via Zoom. The class was set up 30 minutes prior to the session so you could see how the hosts set up their kitchen while they played some music. I could see all the other participants dancing along in their kitchens and drinking wine; it was nice to see a variety of different faces instead of just my household in this lockdown!
This experience cost £24 which I thought was good value for money as I learned new cooking skills and have re-made this dish twice since the Zoom class because it was so delicious. A week prior to the cooking class I was sent an ingredients list, cooking equipment list and a step by step guide via email. The ingredients cost me £12, and I will be able to use some of them over and over again which will save on costs next time. This experience is definitely one I would recommend if you want to try cooking a new dish and it was a great way to meet new people and learn new skills.
6. Chocolate Truffle Making Workshop
The second-best thing about this chocolate truffle making workshop is the fact that all the ingredients are delivered straight to your door! They come in a well-presented box, with two types of chocolate, decorations, and toppings, which were: honeycomb, coconut, white chocolate flakes and berry dust. The best thing about this experience is, of course, getting to eat the chocolate afterwards. The white chocolate and honeycomb were my favourite, but all were super tasty!
The lesson itself lasted an hour. Our chocolatier, John, was friendly and enthusiastic. Everyone in the call is on mute, so it’s not massively interactive, but you are able to write messages and ask live questions into the chat box. The kit made a total of 28 tasty truffles. Not only was the chocolate delicious, but the experience was also fun and gave us something to do without needing to leave the house. We’d definitely recommend this one to any chocolate lover.
7. Bake Club Baking Kit
If you are looking for a delicious and stress-free experience, this bake box from the Bake Club is perfect for you! There is a range of different bakes for you to pick from, all with different difficulty levels. If you are a beginner or more advanced, there is definitely something for everyone!
Every box costs £24 which is a great price considering everything you need will be delivered straight to your door! My Bake Club box arrived soon after it was ordered and contained all the pre-measured fresh and dry ingredients needed to complete my bake. The fresh ingredients were kept in a mini cooler box to stay fresh in transit. All the ingredients were clearly labelled with either Kit 1, Kit 2 or Kit 3. This made it very easy to ensure I was using the correct ingredients with the corresponding step.
No matter how strong your baking skill is, there are plenty fun bakes to pick from to suit all skill levels. I thoroughly enjoyed my experience with the Bake Club box, and I have learnt lots of new skills that I will be able to use along my baking journey. I will definitely be trying out some more of their recipes in the future!
8. Kari Club Recipe Box
If you're missing the hustle and bustle of your favourite local Indian restaurant, this Kari Club recipe box from Brighton-based restaurateur Minesh Agnihotri will come somewhere close to replicating that feeling from your very own kitchen.
I chose my recipe box ahead of time from their huge selection, opting for the plant-based box: Butternut kofta in a roasted garlic sauce, with a cabbage and cashew thoran (dry salad) and methi roti bread.
With an easy-to-follow recipe video and pre-portioned ingredients in recyclable packaging, this recipe box really took all the guesswork out of cooking, so I could just get stuck in!
There were so many components to this meal – crispy koftas, silky sauces, fresh veggies, chewy chapatis, and even a gorgeous chutney to dip your poppadoms into. Every dish was delicious, but the unexpected highlight for me was the cabbage and cashew thoran. Luckily, there were some leftovers – which tasted even better the next day!
9. Pasta Making with Sicilian Farmers
This online cooking lesson with two Sicilian farmers was a unique experience, where I got the opportunity to make fresh pasta in a cheesy sauce with fresh lemon zest. It was extremely delicious, yet so simple to make. Fabio and Annarella made me feel comfortable from the beginning as they showed me around their farm and explained the history behind it. They had some incredible lemon and orange trees that were so vibrant and brightened up the whole farm. The whole experience lasted almost 2 hours, however this dish is so simple and would be perfect for a quick 20-minute dinner once you've got the swing of it.
This lesson cost £19.30 which I think is reasonable as I had a unique, authentic experience with two friendly farmers, all the way from Sicily! They even invited me to visit their farm in Italy one day. I did have to purchase my own ingredients which came to £10, however, I had left overs so I could make the dish again. If you are a pasta lover and would like to learn how to make your own fresh pasta, this is the perfect online cooking class, and I can’t recommend it enough.
10. Jamaican Chocolate: Origins & Making
Heading to Jamaica, Nick hosted an online chocolate making class via Zoom that was interactive, entertaining, and involved creating our own delicious custom-made inclusion chocolate. I didn’t know what to expect from this chocolate making class however Nick gave us a real insight into tempering chocolate and shared many stories with us.
This experience is most definitely worth £10 and I would encourage anyone to join a session as it was an authentic experience and the chocolate melting process was interesting to learn about. I added chopped nuts and fruit to my chocolate as Cadburys fruit and nut is my favourite. I used an ice tray and egg poaching plastic holders as my moulds and they looked and tasted incredible! This experience was meant to last 1 hour however Nick did overrun by 20 minutes as he wanted to show us the farm and take us on a tour around the cacao estate which I really appreciated.
11. Polish Pierogi Making Class
It was time to push myself out of my comfort zone and cook something I had never made before or even heard of. As I was the only one on the Zoom call, Tomasz went at my pace which definitely made the experience less stressful.
This pierogi making class was only £12 which is great value for money as you learn all about the importance of pierogi, the Polish culture and how to make the pierogi to a high standard, not to mention all the funny stories that Tomasz shared throughout. When purchasing the class, I was given a list of ingredients, this came to £9, however a lot of them can be found in the kitchen cupboards! I was shocked when he said that his 13-year-old son ate 44 pierogis in one day, as I was full up after 5, but they were extremely delicious so I’m not surprised he couldn’t stop.
I thoroughly enjoyed making Pierogi and will carry on making them in the future with many different fillings that Tomasz inspired me with!
12. Scott's Pizza Dough Masterclass
13. Chinese Soup Dumplings Class
There is nothing quite so singularly satisfying as a perfectly made Asian dumpling; soft and pillowy on the outside, rich and spicy in the middle, this Asian appetiser is one of my favourite things to eat, but difficult to recreate at home if Asian cooking is not a regular part of your repertoire.
That’s where Cici’s Chinese Soup Dumplings Class comes in! This online cooking class is booked via Airbnb, and comes with a little bit of preparation. The afternoon before my dumplings class, I made my vegan mushroom jelly which would magically turn into soup when the dumplings were cooked, along with my three-mushroom-extravaganza filling for the inside.
On the day of the class, I joined my instructor Cici and the other participants via a live Zoom call, and created my vegan Chinese soup dumplings with her expert guidance. After seasoning my mushroom filling, I followed along with Cici to create my dumpling dough.
This was a fiddly part of the process, and required quite a lot of oversight from Cici. Finally, I had created a few passable dumplings by following along with Cici’s dough-folding techniques. I steamed these in my bamboo steamer, and ate them with the recommended sauce of rice vinegar and julienned ginger.
It’s safe to say my dumplings were nowhere near as neat as Cici’s, but she is an expert after all!
Thanks for reading!
Thanks for reading our reviews of every online cooking lesson we could find. We hope we inspired you to learn some new culinary skills from the comfort of your own kitchen!
We'll be continuously trying new virtual classes and adding our reviews to this blog, and if you're still looking for a fun at-home experience you can browse our full range.
Got a question, or an at-home experience you want us to try? Please feel free to leave a comment; we'd love to hear from you!
