Cookery classes sell like hot cakes as companies cater to new appetite for gastronomy

Romanian cuisine has yet to taste much international acclaim and most natives’ palates are not what connoisseurs would call sophisticated. Nevertheless, Romanians savor their status as huge food enthusiasts, with the proof of the pudding in the smorgasbord of cookery classes available in Bucharest. If you are looking to extend your culinary skills, feast your eyes on the following

Simona Bazavan

Whether we are talking about haute cuisine aficionados or more down to earth food fans, taking cookery classes is turning into a fashionable hobby for cosmopolitan Bucharesters and the local range of such services is definitely on the rise.

“I know of cookery classes in Paris, Tuscany and London. Actually cookery classes are offered all over the world. I went to a chocolate workshop in London, loved it and ever since have imagined myself spending a lifetime traveling to charming places and learning about fine food and wines,” Raluca Ichim told Business Review, recalling the beginning of Société Gourmet. She set up the business last year with German chef Daniel Wendorf. It was the first in Bucharest to offer cookery classes, including private lessons, private chef services and “team cooking” workshops for companies, says the owner. “What we offer is a complete experience. It gets one inside the ‘secret’ world of high quality cuisine, good wines and bien vivre,” she adds.

“Our cooking style is international and classes are a mix of serious cooking, professional information, a lot of fun, great food and wine pairing, with our guests learning professional high-level cooking tips and tricks from Chef Wendorf,” says Ichim. The typical customer is generally aged between 30 and 50, has travelled a lot, already has a background in the field and is eager to learn more. “We have many expat guests and the majority of our customers have had at least one Michelin restaurant experience,” says the owner.

And although now is not exactly an auspicious time to start a new business, Ichim says that this niche market has potential, with Romanians being very open to the concept. “60 percent of our clients have heard about cookery classes from abroad, approximately 20 percent have already been to cookery classes in France or Italy and the rest of our guests find this experience completely new and amazing,” says the businesswoman.

The most popular classes that Société Gourmet offers are corporate team cookery classes and private lessons. “We go to the customer’s home and organize a cooking class for their friends and family,” Ichim explains.

Cooking experiences at Société Gourmet are priced between EUR 60 and EUR 120.

A normal cookery class that teaches a three-course menu and wine pairing is between EUR 59 and EUR 67 per person with water, coffee and recipe booklets included. Prices for team cookery classes vary according to the number of participants, menu chosen and number of workshops.

The initial investment in the business is approximately EUR 25,000 so far. “At the moment the investment hasn’t been recovered but we have high hopes that 2011 will bring a positive outcome,” concludes Ichim.

Another option for haute gourmet food aficionados is the five-star Carol Parc Hotel. Its Haute Gourmet Cooking Lessons are organized in the hotel’s Poem restaurant and include classes such as Cooking with Champagne, Men in the Kitchen, I’m on a Diet!, Sushi with Joy and Sauces of the World. Another two will be added starting November 20 and December 4, Journey to the Middle East and Cakes-Mini Cakes. For RON 200 students learn to cook three courses and at the end get to eat their own creations in the hotel’s restaurant.

Cookery classes appeal particularly to people interested in what they eat and how their food is being prepared. And their number is growing, Violeta Dinca, owner of Violeta’s Vintage Kitchen, a local bistro that also offers cooking workshops, told Business Review.

“Cooking is therapeutic. It gives us back our normality, the safety and warmth we need in these bizarre times we live in,” Dinca says. The big picture is that people are becoming more and more concerned about the quality of their food, the slow-food movement is gaining ground and fairs for local traditional suppliers are becoming a common scene in Bucharest at the weekend. “And this is great!” Dinca reckons. “People are rediscovering the pleasure of watching, picking, shopping, cooking and eating real food, the kind made from fresh and natural ingredients.”

Violetas’s Vintage Kitchen offers bread and sweet-baking workshops both for adults and children and as of this spring the owner plans to include soup workshops. The price of a workshop is RON 100.

If you are a sushi fan, the Bucharest Japanese Language School also offers sushi classes for RON 45 a session. The school organizes Makisushi and Nigirisushi classes that require two sessions each.

OPINION: SO YOU THINK YOU CAN COOK?

Let me assure you of one thing. There is no shame in taking cookery classes, unless you are in Romania where attending a cooking class is considered to be emasculating for a man, and even worse for a woman!

To put it another way, all over the civilized world, being a top chef is considered a glamorous and sexy job. But yet again Romania bucks the trend, and being a chef in this gastronomic desert is considered by the ignorant population as being on the same level as that of a construction site worker. How little Romanians know about the real world. They have no idea that in Europe and the Americas, top chefs are treated like rock stars.

These chefs have fan clubs and groupies and television camera crews chasing them down the street, and paparazzi sneaking intimate photographs of them. And above all, they earn millions and millions. Yes, my friends, chefs are the media darlings that outlive sportsmen, musicians and movie stars! So do you want to join them? If so, read on!

Put your pride aside and recognize that every top chef went to cookery classes in chef schools around the world. Whatever you know, you will be shocked when you are tutored by a competent commercial chef. For example, when I went to chef school the first thing they taught me was how to hold a knife. Then they taught me how to respect my knife, to love it and to look after it. Then we were trained in the art of simply chopping vegetables, and eccentrically carving vegetable sculptures. At the end of a training course, you are taught how to use your knife to butcher meat. If you think this is easy, whoooah there – it is not!

A good chef school will teach you how to balance flavors whilst maintaining the texture of the dish. This word “texture” is hugely important because it means NOTHING in Romanian cooking. This is a country which simply burns food in unhealthy oil and throws it at the table. There are methods of tenderizing food which are unknown in this country.

So let’s look at how to learn to cook in Bucharest.

GO ONLY TO a school which has a European chef. If you go to a Romanian chef, he will simply teach you to perpetuate the worst food in the Western world. Yes, that means Romanian food. It is not “cuisine”, it is just anything served hot. Sarmale, mamaliguta, mici… it doesn’t matter. In the beautiful world of sophisticated international cuisine Romanian food is nothing more than a principle of eating to stay alive. There is no beauty, no skill and no talent in cooking this crude, peasant stuff. But millions of Romanians still love it, and who am I to say they are wrong?

TELEVISION CHEFS can teach you a lot. But there are fraudsters on the screen. My golden rule would be to watch only Western chefs, which you see locally on television with Romanian translations. There are so many fabulous cooking programs. But there is one program to be avoided at all costs and that is the ghastly Martha Stewart’s. This fraudster, who recently came out of prison, had conned Americans into making her a television icon of all things society. To the trailer trash American public, she was idolized by telling them how to arrange a bowl of flowers or how to set the dishes on a table. After casting off her orange prison jumpsuit, this chancer has re-invented herself as a chef. If you see her on television, switch off. You will learn nothing.

ROMANIAN TELEVISION CHEFS. Oh, this makes me laugh.

But I do applaud Romanian television for broadcasting so many international foodie programs. If a new generation of Romanians can tear themselves away from peasant food by watching these programs, the country will be the richer for it.

Michael Barclay

Mab.media@dnt.ro

Photo: Courtesy of Carol Parc Hotel

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