"Brainstorming for Business" ideas...Cooking School in a Box

This innovative business idea popped into my head on the way home last night...as I was contemplating what to make for dinner (I'm feeding 4, 2 of them teens).

I'm not bad at the basics (casseroles, skillet dinners, broiled chicken, crock potc, etc.), and I'm very comfortable looking in the fridge or pantry and whipping up dinner with what I find there. I like spices and know a bit about how to use salt, sugar, sour, etc. to pump up the flavor of the food.

But - I would love to someday take a cooking course, and learn from the pros. How to chop, how to prepare more basics (steak eludes me), how to season, etc. Yes, I've been watching too many episodes of Top Chef and Chopped!

As a busy wife, mother and business person...finding the time (and the money) to step aside and go off to cooking fantasy school isn't in the near future.

However...why couldn't the cooking school come to me? And to my friends?

It's time for some enterprising young (well, age doesn't really matter, does it?) classically trained chef to step up to the plate and offer:

• Cooking School in a Box...group cooking classes at home

Some of my friends have wonderful gourmet kitchens with lots of room to chop, prep, mix and cook. I'd love to see a series of classes that they host, taught by the enterprising chef. The chef can buy all the ingredients, show up that night, teach us a new technique or two, let us practice, and then we all prepare and eat a meal/appetizer together. Repeat the following week, or two, or three, etc.

By meeting as a group, we can share the cost, receive relatively personal instruction, learn from the chef and each other, and have a great night out. Wine should be involved.

Churches could host such an event in their kitchens (wine probably optional in that case)...businesses could use this as a team building event...it's a great girls night out activity...restaurants could offer their kitchen on a slow night...etc. Many creative ways to play this one idea.

In a day and age when cooking at home is becoming increasingly important, lots of people need to prepare economical, nutritious, interesting, tasty dishes. I'm sure someone is doing this somewhere, but I haven't seen this idea in any of the groups I frequent.

Who's ready to run a small business teaching others to cook?

Comments

[cindy]

This is something I would love to do! I actually have cooking lessons for my friends all the time. I never thought of making a business out of it being that I am not a trained professional chef; just a really great cook!

Cindy J.

[Jane Neumiller-Bustad]

Cindy,

Go for it :). I think great skills for this sort of business would include patience, and the ability to teach. No need to be a trained, professional chef (no harm in it, either!)

You need a way to communicate your message with humor, and the ability to create a fun, supportive atmosphere. The rest will come. If you move ahead with the idea, keep me posted! Would love to hear how it goes ~

Jane