allpowerfulbob ([info]allpowerfulbob) wrote,
@ 2007-04-16 17:18:00
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Huge Favor to ask, PLEASE READ!
I am coming up with an idea for a small company for me to run. And I would love to have some feed back from everyone. Please take the following survey and send reply to it here. I appreciate ll your help.

1. If you were going to take a cooking class, what kinds of things would you like to see on the menu you were learning?

2. What would you be interested in learning, please place an X next to each.
[] Wine paring
[] Plate Presentation
[] Increasing the range of your palate
[] How to make better sauces, gravies, and soups
[] Different cooking techniques
[] Cultural histories relating to cooking techniques
[] New Regional cooking styles
[] Specific Cultural Styles (please list):
[] Choosing cookware
[] Any thing else you would want to learn:

3. If you were to take a class with your friends in your home, what would you expect to pay for the class. Expect it to last 3-5 hours.

4. Would you prefer these classes to remain small, 4-5 people, or would groups as large as 10 or more be ok?

5. Finally, would you like it to be intimate and familiar, hosted in a friends kitchen. Or would you rater drive to a location with a professional kitchen to take these classes?

Thanks, Allpowerfulbob

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[info]jdporter
2007-04-16 11:51 pm UTC (link)
I really, really support your idea, Bob.
1. Enough to do a 3 or 4 course meal. Appetizer, soup, entree, dessert.
2.
[] Plate Presentation
[] How to make better sauces, gravies, and soups
[] Different cooking techniques
[] New Regional cooking styles
[] Specific Cultural Styles (please list):
I'm interested in learning traditional, regional european cooking. Not just italian and french, but spanish, german and eastern european, too.
3. I have no idea.
4. 8, tops.
5. I like a professional kitchen idea, just because it's sort of "neutral territory".

(Reply to this)

I have so many ideas for this...
[info]trillyon
2007-04-17 01:19 am UTC (link)
1. If you were going to take a cooking class, what kinds of things would you like to see on the menu you were learning?

A. How to cook for the week on the weekend, so prep ahead and converting a few weekend things into several meals for the week.
B. Meal plans featuring several dishes from a certain ethnic cuisine type (aka Greek, Thai, etc.).
c. I think a how to make your favorite take-out or restaurant food at home would be a great idea too.

2. What would you be interested in learning, please place an X next to each.

These are all good, my personal interests are below, but I think offering for the "host" to pick is a great idea too.

[X] Wine paring
[X] Plate Presentation
[] Increasing the range of your palate
[] How to make better sauces, gravies, and soups
[] Different cooking techniques
[] Cultural histories relating to cooking techniques
[X] New Regional cooking styles
[X] Specific Cultural Styles (please list): Thai, Chinese, Greek, Japanese, any really.
[] Choosing cookware
[X] Any thing else you would want to learn: Like I said, most people are so busy that cooking during the week is falling by the wayside. I would do meal planning and weekend prep for the weeks meals would be a great idea. And how to cook like favorite restaurants so people will want to cook rather than go out.

3. If you were to take a class with your friends in your home, what would you expect to pay for the class. Expect it to last 3-5 hours.

About $25/hr/pp for about 5 people. But the ingredients should be included and encourage tips. I know I would consider paying that and I think I could get that many friends involved:)

4. Would you prefer these classes to remain small, 4-5 people, or would groups as large as 10 or more be ok?

Hard to get that many people into a kitchen setting to watch. I think 5 is perfect. If you did 10 or so it would have to be an open kitchen or an island stove or something. And the price should be less for the bigger size groups.

5. Finally, would you like it to be intimate and familiar, hosted in a friends kitchen. Or would you rater drive to a location with a professional kitchen to take these classes?

I think starting by word of mouth in homes is a great start. Once you have some profit maybe renting a space and still doing appointments would be good. I would try to build a base first. But a series of classes that you have interest in would be good before you rent a space. That is the riskiest expense to face.

(Reply to this) (Thread)
Re: I have so many ideas for this...
[info]swgarasu
2007-04-17 06:06 pm UTC (link)
I love this:

A. How to cook for the week on the weekend, so prep ahead and converting a few weekend things into several meals for the week.


Absolutely agree. I'm too busy to cook most nights, I love making big batches of stuff. I would actually add to this that we love crockpot recipes for this reason....

(Reply to this) (Parent)
Here we go
[info]angry_joe_buss
2007-04-17 02:39 am UTC (link)
1. If you were going to take a cooking class, what kinds of things would you like to see on the menu you were learning?
I'm all about simple meals, so how to make something that is easy but also tastes good-and that not everyone might know how to make easily.

2. What would you be interested in learning, please place an X next to each.
[] Wine paring
[] Plate Presentation
[x] Increasing the range of your palate
[x] How to make better sauces, gravies, and soups
[x] Different cooking techniques
[x] Cultural histories relating to cooking techniques
[x] New Regional cooking styles
[] Specific Cultural Styles (please list):
[] Choosing cookware
[] Any thing else you would want to learn:

3. If you were to take a class with your friends in your home, what would you expect to pay for the class. Expect it to last 3-5 hours.
It would depend on if you held it in a private kitchen or in a rented area-it would change the price (overhead and all that).

In general my wife gets $30 per hour for private dance lessons, so I would shoot for that. I would suggest $30-40 per hour with a $5 per person charge, half down.
4. Would you prefer these classes to remain small, 4-5 people, or would groups as large as 10 or more be ok?
Keep the groups small unless a classroom is present. It dilutes the experience otherwise.

5. Finally, would you like it to be intimate and familiar, hosted in a friends kitchen. Or would you rater drive to a location with a professional kitchen to take these classes?
Both have benefits-the nice thing about hosting it in a friend's kitchen would be that there probably wouldn't be any special gadgets that I wouldn't have at home. Then again, a professional kitchen is probably easier to cook in.

(Reply to this)


[info]mightybakudan
2007-04-17 04:00 am UTC (link)
1. If you were going to take a cooking class, what kinds of things would you like to see on the menu you were learning?

Foreign foods, multi-cultural things, stuff I can't just get at a local restaurant

2. What would you be interested in learning, please place an X next to each.
[] Wine paring
[] Plate Presentation
[] Increasing the range of your palate
[] How to make better sauces, gravies, and soups
[X] Different cooking techniques
[X] Cultural histories relating to cooking techniques
[] New Regional cooking styles
[] Specific Cultural Styles (please list):
[X] Choosing cookware
[] Any thing else you would want to learn:

3. If you were to take a class with your friends in your home, what would you expect to pay for the class. Expect it to last 3-5 hours.

Off the top of my head, $100-200, depending on what's taught.

4. Would you prefer these classes to remain small, 4-5 people, or would groups as large as 10 or more be ok?

I'd be okay with larger groups, depending on the setting. In my house, I'd rather keep it small.

5. Finally, would you like it to be intimate and familiar, hosted in a friends kitchen. Or would you rater drive to a location with a professional kitchen to take these classes?

I would actually prefer it in a large professional kitchen. Lots more room, and maybe some time to practice what I've learned with the teacher watching over me.

(Reply to this)


[info]swgarasu
2007-04-17 06:02 pm UTC (link)
1. If you were going to take a cooking class, what kinds of things would you like to see on the menu you were learning?

2. What would you be interested in learning, please place an X next to each.
[] Wine paring
[] Plate Presentation
[] Increasing the range of your palate
[x] How to make better sauces, gravies, and soups
[x] Different cooking techniques
[x] Cultural histories relating to cooking techniques - note- to a point. I don't like history, unless it somehow contributes to the logic of something. Example: people started putting preserves in jars because it kept them from going bad, thus they could eat them in winter and not die of scurvy. Or something like that.
[] New Regional cooking styles - sorry, I don't really understand the difference between this and the next one- southern fried as opposed to asian stirfry or something?
[] Specific Cultural Styles (please list):
[x] Choosing cookware
[x] Any thing else you would want to learn:
Prep skills. Here's how to fillet a fish, or clean a chicken, or core an apple, etc.
Basic meat cooking: How do I know when it's done? How done is it? How done should it be?
Vegetables: What goes together, how should I cook it, and how can I make it taste good?

3. If you were to take a class with your friends in your home, what would you expect to pay for the class. Expect it to last 3-5 hours.
Probably $200 a head.

4. Would you prefer these classes to remain small, 4-5 people, or would groups as large as 10 or more be ok?
Depends on your set up. If everyone has room to work, I do fine in a classroom setting.

5. Finally, would you like it to be intimate and familiar, hosted in a friends kitchen. Or would you rater drive to a location with a professional kitchen to take these classes?

Either or. For a more social fun experience (entertainment) I would do a friends. If I were more serious about learning skills, I would accomplish more in a setting more geared to that (educational).

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]swgarasu
2007-04-17 06:09 pm UTC (link)
I would also add one more thing - here are some different spices, here is what they smell/taste like, here is what they go well with.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]bureinato
2007-04-19 02:15 am UTC (link)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/11/AR2007041100164.html

Read this article, you probably can't get DC prices but it's interesting.

1. If you were going to take a cooking class, what kinds of things would you like to see on the menu you were learning?
Veggies, I can never have enough veggie recipies

2. What would you be interested in learning, please place an X next to each.
[x] Wine paring
[] Plate Presentation
[] Increasing the range of your palate
[] How to make better sauces, gravies, and soups
[x] Different cooking techniques
[] Cultural histories relating to cooking techniques
[] New Regional cooking styles
[x] Specific Cultural Styles (please list):
Mexican
Indian (sub-continent)
[] Choosing cookware
[] Any thing else you would want to learn: Sara's spice idea is good. What spices combine with what to make x flavors.

3. If you were to take a class with your friends in your home, what would you expect to pay for the class. Expect it to last 3-5 hours.

This is hard, the $150 you had in mind sounds good.

4. Would you prefer these classes to remain small, 4-5 people, or would groups as large as 10 or more be ok?

Depends on how the kitchen is, in a private kitchen I'm thinking 4-5 would be a tight enough fit.

5. Finally, would you like it to be intimate and familiar, hosted in a friends kitchen. Or would you rater drive to a location with a professional kitchen to take these classes?

I'm thinking of a professional kitchen only because most folks I know have small or weird kitchens.


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