Se7en + 1 Conquer Yuppie Chef’s Cooking Course: Mastering Meat #1

I am all for kids in the kitchen… you have to know that the one skill that I hope my kids will be leaving home with will be the art of cooking… feeding themselves is fundamental to life, feeding friends and family at the same time will hopefully take them far. Too this end we are slowly but surely wandering our way through Yuppie Chef’s online cooking courses.

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Firstly let’s talk a little bit about the course… It is divided into six lessons, and each lesson has: A video, featuring Chef Peter Goffe-Wood of Masterchef fame; Printable notes and tips; At least two recipes and the recipes include the side dishes to go with the main meal as well; And finally a quiz to test your skills. It takes us about six weeks to get through a course of six lessons, it could take us much longer… we watch the lesson early in the week and then consider the recipes. Plan a shopping list, and prepare one of the meals later on in the week and the other one for the weekend. Meal preparation takes a fair while longer when everyone is working together and learning new skills… it is a lot of fun and a great way for families to spend time together.

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The first course in the cooking school, The Baking Course, is free so that eager students can try it and see if they liked the format. Thereafter you do have to pay for your courses… but to be honest, for far less than the price of dinner out for us, we can equip your kids with skills to prepare many delicious meals from scratch and they can build up their own personal recipe book as they go along.

Se7en + 1 Things to Love About this Course

  1. Basic Skills: When it comes to basic skills in the kitchen, I really want my children to be well-equipped… you cannot expect to make more than a jam sandwich if you don’t have more than basic skills. The thought of my kids headed off to college with only “jam-sandwhich-making-skills” is quite enough to keep me motivated to encourage cooking skills. Everyone really enjoyed the knife skills… when it comes to onions they are not that keen, goggles come out, and eyes stream… but I can categorically say that carrots will never be safe in our house again.
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  3. It’s Not Just About Steak: When I told my guys that they would be working through a meat course, they all said: “Oooh, steak!!!” Turns out, while there are a whole lot of meaty skills going on: Grilling, Frying, Roasting… there is so much more… The side dishes to go alongside the main meals are fantastic: red onion and rocket salad, grilled aubergine, potato rosti, charred tomato sauce, straw potatoes.
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  5. Peter-Goffe Wood is a Fine Teacher: If you have seen him on Master-Chef, then you will know that he doesn’t ever leave an up-and-coming chef without a tip or some encouragement, his video course is just the same. Lots of tips are packed into the videos, it looks like he is just popping a chicken into the oven for a roast, but actually he is teaching so much more.
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  7. New Flavours: My kids have no problem trying new flavours when they are in the kitchen… this course helped them prepare things that they hadn’t tried before… grilled aubergine was something totally new, I know where have I been, and they loved it. I always find new flavours are so much easier for them to try if they prepare them themselves.
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  9. Good Cooking Can Happen Anywhere: There was a whole lesson on grilling… that works for my kids. They love being able to prepare meals in the great outdoors that look just fabulous!!!
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  11. There Are Flavourful Sauces: Honestly, a fine sauce can take a meal to the next level… and having the skills to make a fine sauce then you are pretty much set for life in the kitchen. The course has quite a few sauces amidst all the recipes… a fine stock, a mustard sauce and quite a few more.
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  13. Recipe Book: We print as we go, each lessons tips and recipes get added to the “Cooking School File” and we are filling up a file with dozens of practical recipes that have all been tried and tested… and some are definitely family favourites.
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    And the se7en + 1th…

  15. It’s a Team Sport: A love that my kids will have a collection of recipes that they all know how to prepare together… can you imagine family get togethers years from now and they say, “Let’s make the Grilled Lamb Kebabs from the file,”or “I’ll bring the red wine butter.” Yes, I am thinking of family dinners twenty years from now… there is nothing like a meal to bring friends and family together.

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And all good things come to an end, just like The Baking Course, the Mastering Meat I course has come to an end… there was a bit of disappointment that the end came so soon. And they were thrilled to discover that there is a Mastering Meat II course… to follow. Click on the image to take you to a sneak peak into the Mastering Meat II course.

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If you follow our blog you will know that we absolutely love and adore all things Yuppie Chef… I was not paid to write anything about their courses, though they have given us free entry to their meat courses for us to try and tell you about. The opinions expressed in this post are as usual totally our own.

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