Don't Know What's For Dinner? Take A Cooking Class

The art of creating culinary masterpieces is no longer the exclusive province of a Michelin-starred chef. If you dream about whipping up captivating canapés, mouth-watering mains and delectable desserts with which to entertain friends and family, why not try a cooking class?

Various culinary institutions in Cape Town offer a wide array of cooking courses, from formal kitchen training with the ultimate goal of working in a professional kitchen to part-time courses for anyone looking to hone their skill or simply get some inspiration to take home.

The Silwood Kitchen in Rondebosch is one of the most venerable culinary schools in South Africa and offers part-time cooking classes to cooks who want to experience something new. Silwood’s basic cookery course runs for three weeks and introduces the home cook to a variety of techniques required to create appealing yet healthy meals at home. If you just feel like a different kind of evening out, Silwood offers these classes on a one-time basis too. You get all the fun of going out to eat and the thrill of creating a gourmet meal yourself. In addition to the basic cookery course, Silwood Kitchen also runs courses on baking, bread-making and cake decorating. There are also classes for children and teenagers run on weekend mornings. The Silwood Kitchen is a great choice to take a cooking class if you live in the Southern suburbs.

Also in the Southern Suburbs is Kitchen Angel in Newlands. Kitchen Angel focuses on providing cooking classes for people who may not have the necessary confidence in the kitchen to truly unleash their inner chef. To this end, there is an introductory cooking class dealing with the basics of the kitchen. In this class you will learn things such as knife skills and how to debone a chicken breast before moving on to the exciting work of creating a meal using your newly acquired practical skills.

Near the City Bowl you will find the Giggling Gourmet, brainchild of teacher Jenny Morris. The Giggling Gourmet offers a wide range of fun cooking courses with an emphasis on healthy yet delicious food. Morris’s insistence on experience food with all five senses, whether cooking it or eating it, makes for an intoxicating mix of learning and leisure. The Giggling Gourmet is situated in De Waterkant and runs, among other courses, a six-week course which reads like a culinary world tour. Classes take place on Monday evenings and last three and a half hours.

For a more testosterone-fuelled cooking experience, try Kitchen Cowboys also in the Waterfront area. Kitchen Cowboys offers cooking classes for men who are already enthusiastic cooks but would like to refine their skills further. Kitchen Cowboys runs a six-week course with themed workshops each designed to focus on a particular area of cooking. The classes are run on Tuesday evenings and typically last three hours.

With this smorgasbord of cooking classes to choose from, there’s something for everyone. So why wait? Grab your apron and get cooking!

Cape Town resident and writer.