Newbie Chefs Rejoice: Learn to Cook at These 8 NYC Classes
How long can you sustain your body with Ramen and takeout? Chances are not that long. Eventually, you'll have to learn how to cook. You probably even want to! Luckily for you, you live in one of the food capitals of the world with a number of excellent cooking academies and schools open to the public. For you newbies out there, here are some cooking classes we recommend to get you off your noodle diet and onto the finer things in life - without the risk of setting fire to your kitchen.

Intro to Time Management and Other Useful Cooking Skills

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For true newbies, this is the perfect introductory cooking course. Workshop your knife skills and knife safety knowledge, time management, seasoning and more as you prepare a meal full focused on grilling, roasting, stir-frying and sautéing. Bonus points for being designed to teach you how to cook for only one or two people

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Basic Kitchen Techniques

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Prone to burning water? Chopping off fingers? Using the microwave to heat up bread? If you said yes to any of these, you need a crash course in real cooking skills. Here, you'll learn all about knife skills, browning meats in a skillet, making pan sauces, cooking rice and other grains, roasting root vegetables and cooking leafy greens to break those bad kitchen habits for good. Bring a bottle of your favorite wine to enhance your experience - but maybe hold off until after the knife skills part.

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Intro Guide to Farmer

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In case you've been living under a rock for the better part of this century, farmer's markets are the best. Period. Done. Yet, they can still be quite overwhelming. Enter a shopping and cooking class designed to guide you through filling your grocery bags with what's most important for your pantry and your weekly entrees. After grabbing some unfamiliar ingredients, you'll learn to cook with them by making a familiar meal with a twist.

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Italian Cooking for Beginners

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If you love talking with your hands and eating with your eyes, nose and stomach, then this Italian cooking course is tailor-made for you. Excellent Italian food invites the senses to take over for the simplest of dishes. While working on your cooking basics, you'll prepare a classic Italian menu of fresh egg pasta noodles, a perfect ragu sauce, Chicken Scaloppine and even tiramisu that will titillate all the senses and have the stomach crying for more.

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Coffee: Home Brewing

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Enough with the Starbucks runs - it's time to learn how to make a good brew for yourself. Invest in this coffee-making class to learn how the baristas roast and steam your coffee and milk so you can pair a good cup of joe with your morning meal without changing out of your pajamas.

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Healthy Cooking

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Who says healthy has to be boring? As it stands - literally no one. Healthy cooking is becoming the new norm for most New Yorkers, so it's important to start your cooking expertise off right by cooking healthy in this course. Learn how to select wholesome and healthy ingredients as you prepare a healthy meal with an Asian twist, including Indian Red Lentil Stew, sauteed eggplant with pomegranate and tahini, Asian-spiced salmon with roasted bok choy and napa cabbage, and white bean and kale soup.

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Shopping & Cooking for Fish

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A little-known fact: Chinatown is the best place in NYC to shop for fish and groceries though it can be a little difficult to navigate for first-timers. In this shopping and cooking course, venture out to Chinatown to shop for affordable and hard-to-find fish and groceries before heading back to a premiere kitchen, where you'll learn to fillet, sauté, poach, bake and grill like a professional from one of the best chefs in NYC.

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Fresh Pasta Making

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Every self-respecting chef can make fresh pasta from scratch, but for a newbie to do this is down-right impressive. It might take some practice, but making homemade pasta is actually quite simple - and this class is framed around experimentation for that perfect pasta recipe. From egg pasta recipes to using a pasta machine to cut beautiful pasta pieces, you'll have worked through many methods of pasta making madness. Plus, the class offers a mini-crash course in making two types of sauce to complement your work. All supplies and equipment included with the exception of a "World's Best Chef" apron!

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