Cooking Class in October - help!

[pattikake]

I've been offering monthly cooking classes and am drawing a blank as to what I should do for the month of October. I've recently done Canning & Freezing Veggies & Fruit; Pizzas; Kids in the Kitchen; Budget Meals; 30-Minute Meals & most recently Power Cooking Beef.

For November I will be doing Holiday Entertaining and in December I want to do another kids class with Christmas cookies.

So - help me figure out what to do for October!!!

[ChefChris]

maybe soups & stews since it is getting to be fall.

[patty42240]

Do you charge for your cooking classes or do you do them as if you are hosting a PC show? How do you advertise and do you do it in your own kitchen?

[pattikake]

I charge $15 per person, which can be used towards a purchase from the catalog. I've had people purchase $15 worth of products, and some have spent $75. It varies from class to class. Yes, I do this in my kitchen which I absolutely love (no traveling!). I put it out in my monthly newsletter and also word of mouth.

[patty42240]

Great idea! Another consultant and myself offered cooking classes over the summer to kids and we printed up 3,000 flyers and passed them out to all the schools right before school was out but we only had 2 kids sign up LOL I like your way of doing it and I will try it and see if I can get any results.

[ChefPaulaB]

I agree that soups and stews would be good. Or you could try like apple pies or something like that. Or another thought would be a themed class like Mexican, Greek, Italian, something like that...

[Janis]

Apple Pie? We just went apple picking with the kids the other day. My son also has a field trip to the apple orchard this week. :)

[Janis]

Or Pumpkin Pie.

[cmdtrgd]

Hide the turkey? What to do with all the leftover turkey and sides.

[pattikake]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I ended up going with a Harvest Foods theme. We'll do a couple of soups/stews and then apple recipes (apple sauce, apple crisp, taffy apple tartlet, etc.) Sent my newsletter out yesterday - have 3 signed up for the Oct class and have 2 kids signed up for December.

[ChefPaulaB]

How many recipes do you do in one class? Let us know exactly which recipes you end up doing, I'm curious...

[pattikake]

I try to do at least 3. My last class was Power Cooking Beef (big hit). Previous classes include Pizza - I did one pizza on the grill, one in the oven w/ homemade dough, and one in the oven w/ store bought dough. For my budget meals class, I did 2 main recipes, and a dessert. I keep my classes to 2 hours, which so far has worked!

I haven't come up with exactly what we'll be making for October yet .. need to get going on that!

[ChefPaulaB]

Do you feel that you are making a lot of money from them? What is your average sales per class? or is it more getting your name out there?

[pattikake]

I generally choose recipes with ingredients that I have in my freezer/pantry/garden, cutting down the cost of buying groceries. I actually started these classes as a way to stay active, as bookings in my neck of the woods had slowed down considerably. I am making money on them, not a bunch, but more each month. And getting my name out there was one of my goals as well. Folks here in town have started approaching me, asking when the next one is, so that seems to be working.

[ChefPaulaB]

At my last show I demo'd the Grilled Chicken Penne al Fresco and I had my cookbooks displayed on the table and one of the ladies commented that she would cook things like that if someone would teach her how and said that I should have cooking classes and everyone agreed (this was a bunch of ladies that had been to a few my shows at this point). I kind of laughed it off at the time, because to me it's just about reading the recipe and doing it, but maybe I should consider doing some of these, might be fun and a way to stay active since I believe at the moment I might be inactive.... see how concerned I am about it? :blushing:

[pattikake]

You should try it. You'd be surprised at how many people say they can't cook! Like you said, all you have to do is read the directions! It really is fun and I'm surprised at how well received it is by my customers.

[yaryan]

You may have already had your class, but what about making themed cakes in your batter bowls? You could do a spider with the prep bowls and a pumpkin cake with the large batter bowl. Then use other products to show how to decorate them.

[pattikake]

You may have already had your class, but what about making themed cakes in your batter bowls? You could do a spider with the prep bowls and a pumpkin cake with the large batter bowl. Then use other products to show how to decorate them.

I'll have to add this to my classes in the future. I ended up doing 2 soups; Corn & Poblano Chowder and Tuscan White Bean & Sausage along with Taffy Apple Pizza and Apple Burritos. The class was a hit!

I'm doing a Holiday Entertaining class in November, and a Kids in the Kitchen in December.