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MARCH 4, 2021 | The Jewish Home OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home
On Instant Pots, Cooking Classes, & Kosher Food Trends TJH Speaks with Chef and Cookbook Author Paula Shoyer BY SUSAN SCHWAMM You’ve been giving a lot of cooking classes over the past year. Tell us how that got started. It kind of happened by accident. Sometime around Pesach, a few organizations contacted me to do some virtual events for them. We didn’t know how long this pandemic was going to be going on for. I did some classes for different shuls and organizations, JCCs and Chabad. But then a parent contacted me, probably in early May, saying that their kids’ programs were all canceled for the summer. She wanted to know if I would consider doing a virtual cooking and baking program. It was a great opportunity. I started with one group, and then I ended up teaching ten sessions throughout the summer. Some were cooking; some were baking. Some were two sessions a week, a morning class, an afternoon class. I got really busy doing those classes. Then I realized in July that everybody was going to be stuck at home this fall. So I started my dinner prep series. Tell us about that. For the dinner prep series, teenagers work with me – virtually – at 4:30 p.m. after school until about 6:30 p.m., and they make an entire meal for their family. What a great idea! I’d love for someone to work with my kids to prepare supper. Oh, I’d be happy to! It’s so funny. The parents always joke with me: “Are you teaching them how to wash the dishes, too?” But the truth is that kids are slower at doing certain things in the kitchen, and it could take all of the two hours to make a meal. Granted, there are some kids who are more advanced than others, though. Initially, we started with some vegetarian classes. Then I moved into some chicken dishes. My next series we’re doing chicken scallopini and spaghetti
and meatballs. I’ve had groups that keep signing up for more sessions because the kids look forward to it every week. And the parents love the idea that their kids are learning how to cook, and they’re cooking for the family. I’m working on two more sessions coming up soon. This Sunday, I’m starting a six-week advanced French pastry class where we only do one to two recipes each time. Most classes are doing one, and I keep the class really small. I’ve maxed it out at six students so that every student gets everything perfect. We’re starting with crepes on Sunday. We’re going to be making a tart, a layer cake, eclairs, napoleons.... These classes keep me busy. And I’m also doing my other classes – for shuls or organizations. For example, this Motzei Shabbat, I’m doing a group in Stanford, Connecticut, where we’re doing sweet and savory babkas. We’re doing a chocolate babka and a pizza babka which I just invented last week. It’s highly addictive and very dangerous to have around the house because I ate the whole thing. It sounds pretty dangerous. I know. It’s so delicious. I’ve discovered over time what different age groups can learn, what kinds of recipes are great for doing on Zoom and which ones aren’t. Popular classes for adults have been challah and babka and black and white cookies. I’ve also been doing a lot of healthy meals. Some classes are demos – where I show them how to make something – and some classes are when the participants cook along with me. It depends on the group and how much time they want to devote to an event. Do you have to change your techniques because you’re teaching kids to cook and bake as opposed to teaching adults? Well, first of all, with kids’ classes you have to be
extremely patient. With adults, you have an expectation that the adults are going to have some basic skills – but sometimes they don’t. I don’t assume anything from kids. You know, I was doing one of my dinner classes with the kids two weeks ago. I don’t remember what we were in the middle of doing, but we were doing a recipe that most of the group was working on really slowly. And then one of the girls in the class announced, “Oh, while I was waiting for the class to continue, I made mozzarella sticks.” One of the boys said, “How’d you do that?” I said, “Oh, I’m sure she just took them out of the freezer and warmed them up.” No. She took string cheese out of the fridge. She dipped it in a combination of eggs and she made a batter for it, and then dipped it in panko and baked them in the oven while five of her peers were still trying to finish the recipe. It was so adorable. But with the kids’ classes, I don’t assume anything. I teach them to clean leeks or green onions. I show them how to chop and sauté, how to control the temperature on the stovetop. When we make salads, I show them how big the pieces should be when they’re chopping vegetables. I show them how to chop efficiently, so they’re not chopping one celery stalk at a time. I want them to finish the class feeling comfortable that they could open up a cookbook, they could pick a recipe online, and have some basic skills to understand what’s being asked of them. So far, I’ve done over 106 virtual classes since the pandemic started. 106? Yeah. Isn’t that something? 106 with no end in sight. I would say that half of the classes were for teenagers because these kids were stuck at home this summer with no camp. I keep the kids busy. I remember having one class where we made scones. And I was like, “You know, while we’re waiting for
