Lindsay Smith adjusts her workspace and looks over her notes as guests start to arrive for a demonstration at the Co-op Food Stores.
But like so many other activities these days, the format is Zoom videoconferencing and the guests are virtual, logging in from their homes instead of crowding into the kitchen space where Smith previously held a variety of cooking demonstrations and classes. Last Thursday’s topic was Pots de Creme — essentially, chocolate pudding.
“Attendance has changed, audience has changed,” Smith, the Coop’s food education specialist, said in an interview prior to the demonstration. “The people who came to my classes for the social aspect have not been coming, but I have gained some new followers who are stuck at home and discovered that they really loved doing cook-along classes, who by the end of the hour and a half they have a meal they can put on the table.”
Thursday’s hourlong demonstration drew seven attendees. After greetings were exchanged, Smith talked about the two recipes she’d be demonstrating.
“Recipes are guidelines,” she advised, noting that there are dozens of Pots de Creme recipes online. “That helps you to come up with your own.”
In pre-COVID-19 times, Smith would likely include more recipes that the class can sample. In online classes, it helps to keep it simple.
“That doesn’t work at home because no on wants to make four or five recipes,” Smith said. “The singular recipes are more functional.”
The online classes began in May after Smith did research, including taking remote cooking classes as a student. She invested in three webcams, rearranged her workspace and adjusted the lighting in the kitchen.
“The limitation is that they are static. It’s not dynamic. I can’t always get a full picture, but I can move around,” Smith explained. “The workload, I’m not doing two hours’ worth of dishes after every class, but I’m doing two hours of computer work.”
She asked a teenager to explain TikTok to her so she could better connect with adolescents involved in the Co-op’s summer cooking challenge and upped her use of social media.
“I will say it’s been tough that there’s a lot of competition for people’s online attention which is different,” Smith said. “I do think that people become Zoomed out. Our classes have been met with some success, but it’s still a learning process.”
Renee Vebell, who’d previously taken in-person classes, signed up for the remote ones as a way to occupy her time during the pandemic.
“I tried one and thought it was magnificent to be able to use your own pots and pans, your own stove,” said Vebell, of Hanover. “For me, it was completely different than taking a class in somebody else’s kitchen.”
In in-person classes, cooking a meal is more of a group effort. Each participant takes on a specific task instead of making the meal from start to finish. Remotely, that’s not an option. While it does take away from socialization, it can add more to an attendee’s skill set.
“I think it increases the knowledge and the confidence in the application process,” Vebell said.
It also forces participants to take stock of their home kitchen space and make it adaptable. People also have to purchase their own ingredients ahead of time.
“In cooking remotely, when you come to class physically, everything is laid out for you,” said Ralph Hammock, who has taken multiple remote classes. “When you’re cooking remotely, you have to do all that prep work yourself, and it’s just getting yourself organized, which most people aren’t all that organized when they prepare their food.”
And despite the advances in technology, it can be difficult to see the texture of certain dishes.
“When I want the instructor to see where I am in the cooking process, I have to pick up the computer, go over and make sure I line the camera up with whatever I want the instructor to take a look at, not get it too close, not get it too far. So there’s some technical challenges there as well,” said Hammock, who lives in Hanover. “For me, cooking is all about learning new techniques, learning new recipes, trying something that I haven’t before, and things taste better when you make them yourself.”
One downside, of course, is not being able to taste the finished product, particularly during a demonstration. While gathering with people online is nice, it doesn’t replace in-person interactions.
“In the beginning, it was a little bit harder for me,” said Christine Gosselin, of Hanover. “I hate the fact that I can’t taste the food, smell the food, and the companionship isn’t exactly the same, but it’s been nice to catch up with some of my old friends who have shown up on Zoom.”
But there have also been added benefits that didn’t exist in in-person classes: Gosselin can take a remote class and prepare the meal to serve to her family that night for dinner.
“I have good eaters at home. However crazy the day gets, I like to sit down and have a good dinner,” she said. “I just go along and, by the time the hour is done, my dinner is almost ready also.”
Smith also records the classes and sends them out to participants. During a dessert course, Gosselin initially struggled with a strawberry shortcake made in a jelly roll pan.
“I had to try the cake over and over again. You also have to do it yourself, really yourself. So it’s really different,” she said. “I can do any rolled up cake now. I have no problem with that. I can use it as my go-to.”
The Co-op’s remote fall classes and demonstrations will begin in September.
“Since COVID has struck, we had to shift gears and try some things we’ve never tried to do,” Hammock said. “I take them because it’s a learning process. I enjoy learning to do new things.”
Liz Sauchelli can be reached at esauchelli@vnews.com or 603-727-3221.
