Yesterday afternoon, I went to the Whole Foods Bowery Culinary Center to teach Korean cooking.
First, I was very surprised to see the well-equipped kitchen. Whatever I needed, they had: hundreds of stainless steel bowls, butane gas burners, non-stick pans, food processors, lots of different size pots, steamers… Oh, except for 2 items: a rice cooker and a microwave oven. But I used their nice heavy-bottomed pot to demonstrate multi-grain rice making and it turned out great and fluffy. The little bit of burned rice on the bottom of the pot was very popular with the students. And we made a steamed egg side dish (gyeranjjim) with their steamer instead of using a microwave oven.
I was very happy to meet their staff Mr. Wai Hon Chu, a famous cooking instructor and author of cook book title “The Dumpling.”
He was helping me during my entire class! While I was explaining to my students what we were going to do next, he washed and drained my blanched cabbage. When I tried to wash my cutting board, it was already cleaned by him. When I show how to skewer some ingredients for pancake, he already prepared gas burners and pans for the students!
He knew exactly what I was going to do next each time… Awesome! : ) I felt very comfortable to teach there thanks to his help!
I told him, “I don’t want to leave this kitchen! I can feed hundreds of people if you help me like this”
I was wondering how the students found my cooking class: are they my long time blog readers? Or did they find it through the Culinary Center’s advertisement?
Surprisingly most of them didn’t know about my website until they registered for the class. When I asked them what made them come to learn Korean cooking on a precious Saturday afternoon, they said: “Oh, well, we like Korean food!” A few people said they checked my website after they registered the class.
Mr. Wai said there were about 50 people on the waiting list! 50 people! I wished all the 50 people had been in my class.
I taught 6 different recipes and it was another success! We finished on time and I did my best to teach as much as I could. We hugged each other when saying good bye!
All of the students were passionate to learn the recipes and they were very interested in listening to my own stories related to the food I was teaching.
They brought their cameras and took photos of me and them. Mr.Wai took some photos for us. I told the students: “I will blog about this class, let me know if any camera shy person is here.”
Everybody said no problem, and they look like they are saying: “are you kidding? Of course we want to be featured on your blog!”
How can I know?
I know when I see their sparkling eyes! : )
It sounds so much fun I wish I could be there. I hope you will schedule another class soon so I can attend when I get back.
Hope you all the best ^^
Thank you for your nice and encouraging comments here!
I am so desperate to take your cooking class, but the class was already full when I called.
If possible,Singapore also plzzzzzzzz
Thanks to Maanchi on-ni’s podcast and encouragement, I am now looking at setting up Korean cooking class in Singapore.
Will keep you posted!!
Congrads on having such a wonderful class! I so wish I could have been there!
Wow! Sounds like you and the students had a lot of fun!
wow!!! looks like it was a great success! i wish i lived in NYC so i could participate! congratulations!!!
Oh wow, Maangchi ssi!! So cool! Wish so much I lived in NYC so I could attend one of your classes, I’m so jealous! ^^ Congratulations on all your success Unnie, you deserve it and I know there’s so much more to come. Hwaiting!