L'Academie de Cuisine for a beginner

I'm on-site near L'Academie de Cuisine quite a bit these days and due to all the fascinating cooking threads lately it sparked my interest.

I noticed that they have a set of three classes -- beginner, intermediate, and advanced. The sum of three is quite reasonable and the hours are convenient but it looks like only three sessions in total. There is a 20 week "Culinary Techniques 101" course which seems more in line with the experiences in other threads here, but the problem is my lack of experience.

I would love to learn how to cook, but my current experience level is microwaving stuff from Trader Joes, making sandwiches, making some chili a few times a year, and buying nice looking knives on deep discount at Tj Maxx when I come across them.

So, would taking the amateur 101 track at L'Academie be a good way to learn or will it be way too far over my head and/or a waste of time?

Why don't you start with the basics and work your way up? (And also to see if cooking is your cup of tea.)

If you don't cook regularly, anything they have will be over your head. Start with something you can manage.

Originally Posted by DarkNWorn

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Why don't you start with the basics and work your way up? (And also to see if cooking is your cup of tea.)

If you don't cook regularly, anything they have will be over your head. Start with something you can manage.

Well I enjoy a challenge. What do you suggest?

Originally Posted by DarkNWorn

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Why don't you start with the basics and work your way up? (And also to see if cooking is your cup of tea.)

If you don't cook regularly, anything they have will be over your head. Start with something you can manage.

I don't know if that's true. I think the assumption by the school is that you don't know anything. They teach you basics like stocks, knife skills, how to truss a chicken, etc.

After thinking it over, I believe I will take the basic, intermediate, and advanced one day sessions to at least become familiar with the kitchen.

When they offer the 20 week intensive seminar in the second half of the year, I will sign up depending on my experiences (and knowledge gained) with the first three sessions.

I think it's a waste of time doing an advanced class. They will most likely ask you to use techniques that you are completely unaware of, given your own admitted knowledge about cooking. Like anything else, cooking builds on the basics.

Originally Posted by GQgeek

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I think it's a waste of time doing an advanced class. They will most likely ask you to use techniques that you are completely unaware of, given your own admitted knowledge about cooking. Like anything else, cooking builds on the basics.

Beginner, intermediate, advanced then 20 week seminar.

I have Google, I'm sure I can figure it out.

Originally Posted by username79

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I have Google, I'm sure I can figure it out.

Originally Posted by kwilkinson

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They are amateur classes that meet once a week. If I take 3 courses to begin with (the first of which is for noobs like myself), and spend ample time studying and practicing in between, I should be able to keep up in a 20-week culinary 101 seminar (also for amateurs). Right? If I run into something I don't know, in this day and age, I simply state I have diarrhea, go into the hallway, pull out phone, watch an instructional video on YouTube/etc. and then return. When they say, this course "teaches the beginner the basics of the kitchen," they don't mean "beginner" as in someone with 5 years of experience, do they?

Originally Posted by username79

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They are amateur classes that meet once a week. If I take 3 courses to begin with (the first of which is for noobs like myself), and spend ample time studying and practicing in between, I should be able to keep up in a 20-week culinary 101 seminar (also for amateurs). Right?

In that case, yes. I got the impression from the previous post that you thought just reading it on Google would make you learn it, when you don't know what you're doing in cooking until you've done it hundreds of times.

Whatever you choose to do, good luck!