Take a Cooking Class

Tired of the same old dinner dates? How about learning to make dinner instead? No matter what your skill level in the kitchen, there may be a cooking class that's just right for you and your date.

Classes range from basic how-to courses to culinary adventures that will teach you how to prepare any type of food you can think of, including Thai, vegetarian, French, Southwestern, pasta, seafood, soup, breakfast, appetizers, desserts... There are even cooking classes for nudists, although you will want to be extra careful when it comes to slicing and dicing, and don't even think about deep frying anything while buck naked without grabbing one of those see-through plastic aprons that says "Kiss my rump roast."

Some classes are hands-on, meaning you help prepare, cook and clean up. Others are more lecture-based like what you see on the Food Channel—your eyes do the fricasseeing while your hands shovel junk food into your mouth. Whatever the subject matter, be sure to ask about the format.

COST

Expect to pay from $15 to $60 per class, but you'll find some that are free and some that are much more. The good news is that you usually get to eat what you cook.

HOW TO FIND CLASSES

Try the Yellow Pages under "cooking schools" or "cooking classes."

Your local community college or four-year college may offer cooking classes, or they might have an extension program that offers courses. (Exercise caution when taking a date to an extension class. For instance, in Southern California, UCLA Extension is literally the singles bar of the academic world. It's where the recently divorced Great Dates pp. 1-230 12/19/01, 8:29 AM 194 go to get lucky. Be careful when taking a date into shark-invested waters like that—he or she may end up with more phone numbers than recipes.)

Many shops that specialize in cookingware offer cooking classes. Even if they don't, they'll be able to tell you who does.

While some cooking schools are designed for students who want to be professional chefs, the majority are for people who want to learn how to cook or who want to improve the skills they have. Check the Yellow Pages to see if there are any cooking schools in your area.

Occasionally you will find a restaurant that offers cooking classes, especially those that specialize in foreign foods. Call around.

You will find hundreds of cooking classes listed on the internet. Enter the name of your town and "cooking class" or "cooking school" into your search engine.

COOKING VIDEOS

There are videos on how to cook anything from French Tarts to road kill. Your local library may be a great source of cooking videos. Also try your local video store.

There are too many cooking videos to recommend just one, but that won't stop us...

You might try the My First Cooking Video Series which only cost $12.98 per video. As they say in the advertisement, "These are fine videos for a family cooking adventure." Perhaps you'll want to start by cooking grandma or grandpa. Be sure to use lots of tenderizer.