Ever wanted to learn how to cook in a classroom kitchen setting? Ever noticed the price tag (RIDICULOUS) on those classes and decided to hold off on the class?
Well, Nick and I gave in to the temptation and splurged on a date to learn how to cook seafood at The Chopping Block here in Chicago. Thanks to a gift card Nick got as a birthday gift, we had 50% off. With the half off, the class was well worth it! (and so much fun!)
I even got my own chopping block “station” with my own set of recipes and a super sharp chef’s knife!
“Seafood 101” Menu
Macadamia Nut Crusted Sea Bass
Pan Seared Salmon with Sesame Ginger Glaze and sticky rice
Grilled shrimp
Sweet potato, corn, bacon and chive succotash
Pineapple Relish
I hauled my lazy self out of bed at 9am on a Saturday to make it to class on time, which starts promptly at 10am. We arrived a little early and found this! Surprise! A breakfast granola with yogurt and fresh berries.
I immediately helped myself to some deliciousness while I made my name tag and we waited for other members to join the class. Though the yogurt was really runny, spiked with lots of honey, and went extremely well with the crunchy, slightly tart, cranberry-studded granola. Needless to say, this was only the first of 3 helpings.
I took some pictures of the huge kitchen we were cooking in. On the counters are 12 “stations” for all 12 students to chop and cook. The kitchen is actually much larger than it looks. I couldn’t capture the left side of the room.
Going further past these counters, there were 3 big wooden dining tables with chairs that made me feel like I was Goldilocks in the 3 bears’ cottage. Lots of natural lighting!
Before class started, we all washed our hands and put on aprons for obvious reasons. Then we went to work. The first dish we made was THE most Amazing Pineapple Relish. EVER. I can definitely get used to having all my vegetables washed, pitted, and peeled…Here were all our raw ingredients set up on the counter between the 4 of us.
It was basically pineapple salsa with a heck of a lot of ingredients (including cilantro, shallot, mint, mango, and a whole jalapeno!). It was a lot of fun working in a group of 4, slicing and dicing all the individual components then combining it! (I’m going to save the end product for the end because this was my favorite dish)
Next up, the Bacon, Sweet Potato, Corn Succotash. In our group, Tom decided he was going to be in charge of cooking the dish and he did a mighty swell job of sauteeing all the ingredients. He was a huge bacon-lover. 🙂
The big hunks of bacon aren’t obvious in the picture, but there were plenty. While Tom cooked, Nick and I diced EVERYTHING (onion, garlic, chives, cilantro…). And we got to roast the poblano pepper!
I worked on my knife skills chopping up the chives. We were taught the “correct” method to chop vegetables and I was able to produce this mound of chives! I haven’t felt this proud of my knife skills in a looong time…or EVER for that matter.
I also got to be in charge of making the macadamia crust and crusting our Macadamia Nut Crusted Sea bass. As you can see, this wasn’t a particularly difficult crust to make. Simple simple ingredients.
I was sort of meticulous when it came to coating the fish fillet’s. We coated 4 fillet’s with 1 whole cup of roasted macadamia’s, panko breadcrumbs (unexpected but yummy!), flour, chives, and 1/2 cup of melted butter. A decadent crust it was!
We marinated shrimp, seared salmon, and made an amazing sesame ginger sauce to glaze the fish (no pictures, I was too busy dicing at the time). Before we knew it, everything was ready! And it was noon! Here was our other group mate Diane, de-panning (is that even a word?) our bass which was broiled in the oven.
When all the dishes were ready, we set all our goodies on the counter for one final picture, and then moved everything to the Goldilocks dining table so the four of us could dig into our feast. 🙂 We didn’t even care what the other 2 groups were doing, we just ate and ate and ate.
ROUND 1! Here’s my plate of goods. Of course, there was a ton of salsa and shrimp and succotash. I am not embarrassed to say that I literally ate all of the pineapple relish after everyone else took their spoonful. It was DELICIOUS – refreshing, tart, sweet, fresh, but maybe a little too much cilantro. My tongue was numb after all the acid by the end of the meal.
My review of our Salmon: The sauce was the best part. Though we put an entire hunk of ginger in it, the flavor of the honey and mirin was able to counter that and bring out sweetness instead of fishiness. However, I would have liked my fish less well-cooked (we pan-fried it for too long!) The sesame seeds on top really do make a difference! Look at all those Chinese fermented black beans on top! Nom nom nom…
*Tip* When peeling ginger, use the curved edges of your spoon to scrape it off! Saves time and energy!
My review of our bass: Though I loved the fish – tender, flaky, and light, the crust was in general too heavy and a little disappointing. Surprisingly, the macadamia and panko didn’t give the crust much flavor, but did provide a good texture. The panko got soggy but the nuts were crunchy! I would have preferred my sea bass topless and eaten with a mound of pineapple relish!
My review of our succotash: Sweet potato’s browned on a pan with corn + bacon + roasted poblano pepper = flavor explosion. I actually didn’t feel that the bacon added much to the flavor of the dish, though it helped grease the pan! That night, we went home inspired to make sweet potato souccatash without bacon! Unfortunately, Nick bought a yucca instead (thinking it was sweet potato) and needles to say…we kinda failed. 😦
My review of our Shrimp: You cannot go wrong with grilled shrimp that was marinated in olive oil. It tastes as good as it looks! They key is to have a sizzling hot grill pan when you throw them on. Char on grilled food is just…amazing.
Overall, it was an insanely fun class!
I learned a TON of cooking tricks, and I really ate a lot of delicious food. Our teacher Quincy was hilarious and everyone had a ball! I would totally do another class if only it weren’t so expensive. That best part is, NO NEED TO WASH DISHES!!! woohoo!!
Would I take another class at the Chopping Block?? Although I had a blast, I’d probably say NO – one class just to get the experience is enough! These classes are more fun when you go with someone else you know, but the price tag is too steep. An exception might be if there was a special occasion or if there was a specific class offered that was especially interesting to me and that I couldn’t find recipes online for.
Now if ONLY The Chopping Block will realize we are in a recession and adjust their prices accordingly! Let me know if anything looks good to you and you’d like the recipe. I’d be happy to share.
So now I ask you this, if YOU taught a cooking class, what would be on YOUR menu??
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Oh man, that looks like such a fun day! Definitely something to be experienced
wooo!!! cooking class? that’s soooo cool! I always wanted to go to one of these class and learn tricks of big chefs!
If I had to teach a class, I’d make either chinese food from shanghai, homemade kind or argentinian food! 🙂 and if I were to take a class, i’d love to learn how to prepare squid and/or octupus! 🙂
That sounds like such an amazing opportunity! Thanks for the recap 😀 The food looks delicious, too!
I really want to take a cooking class!!! That sounds like so much fun, but yes the price of them is a bit ridic. I think they should have budget friendly classes. All that seafood looks delish!
Wow. Cooking class looks like so much fun. So many little neat tricks can be learned.
ack! SUCH a worthy splurge — and what a fun thing you got to do with mr. nick. I want to take a cake decorating class..specifically with Duff from Ace of Cakes .. I ❤ him!
Wow – what a fun class! I agree with you on the expense, but am glad that you two decided to live it up for an evening 🙂 I love their menu selection (nut-crusted fish is my FAVE) and you did such an excellent job – everything turned out very professional!! Delish!
I’d probably go with Jenny to that cake decorating class…our any sort of baking class, because I’m such a novice when it comes to baked goods!
how fun!!! I wiiish I had money to take cooking classes because they are RIDIC expensive! But sounds like you had a great deal and the food looks utterly deliiiiiiiiiiicious!
my cooking classes would be super cheap bc we would make oatmeal and greek yogurt messes hahaa
This looks like so much fun, Michelle! I’ve looked into a few cooking classes around her, but you’re right – they’re crazy expensive. I think the cheapest one I found was $40, but that adds up if you go w/ somebody else! Most were in the $70-100 range, too!!! Crazy!
Hmm, very good question! I think if I were to teach a cooking class I’d probably teach Italian things I know. Maybe homemade pasta, meatballs, sauce, and maybe a dessert with a pie crust, to teach people how to roll those out.
OMGG i am overwhelmed and drooling and amazed all at the same time right now!! That is literally all my fave foods rolled into one crazy meal 😀 It sounds really fun, esp going as a couple- u guys are so freakin cute (and PS awesome that u have a great bf that is a foodie and will do stuff like that with u!) But i agree on the price factor, yikes, but it would be a great gift or double date! Have a great night M!!
omg!! i had my first sea bass this past summer and now I am just obsessed with seafood. Its so tasty and goes well with almost anything 🙂 this post is basically making me drool 🙂 haha
I loved the review – I’ve always wanted to try the Chopping Block myself, but the price tag scared me away! Looks like fun, but I wish it was more affordable!
I am so jealous of your time! We don’t even have anything similar to that around here–but I am hired to teach cooking classes for the Community Education programs January-May so I am extremely excited!
All the food looks amazing & so gourmet :o)
I SO want to take a cooking class!! Especially one that involves seafood…I don’t know why, but I’m terrified to make it on my own.
Hmmm….I’m not the greatest cook, but if I taught a class, I would definitely BAKE something! And….I love to “test” doughs and batters. 🙂
what a great way to spend the day! i love the menu you guys cooked- everything sounds so yummy! i agree that the classes are so expensive…especially when you can look up recipes online or watch foodtv! i like taking ethnic classes though because you learn little tricks and information that you can’t get from just a recipe.
omg that looks amazing!!! the fish sounds fantastic crusted in macademia nuts!! wow, you are quite the chef 🙂
also very cool pic with the roasted pepper on the flame!!
i would certainly take a baking course, this is something that my mom and I just haven’t mastered. Baking a beautiful cake! I would love how to master this art!
Hi Michelle,
We’re so pleased you enjoyed your class at The Chopping Block with Chef Quincy this weekend. I’ll be sure to pass your reviews along to him and your pics are great!
I wanted to let you know that we have heard concerns about pricing from our students and we’re acting on them. You’ll notice a lot of our November class prices have been reduced… some of our most popular hands on classes are just $60-$65. That’s a great deal considering the amount of food and instruction that’s offered in our classes. Plus, all of our Thanksgiving prices are lower than last year.
We hope to see you in class again soon!
Please feel free to contact me directly with further feedback as we are always striving to be better.
Thank you,
Andrea Miller
Public Relations
The Chopping Block
312-307-3344
andrea@thechoppingblock.net
Michelle – what a great time! I agree, some cooking classes are really expensive – even the ones by me – $75 to $125 PER CLASS! I just can’t justify the expense, but would love the experience.
I, of course, would have PIZZA on my menu! 😀
That looks like SO much fun! Everything looks incredible too! Jealous 😀
❤ jess
xoxo
Oh my goodness, I would love to take a chop class! One of the things I’m dying to do is take a cooking class but I haven’t had the time or opportunity to do so.
I love fermented black bean sauce too, nom nom, and very much dislike over cooked fish!
I would definitely have some fish in my menu (love seafood), a unique veggie dish, and maybe a stuffed squash. I’ve been dying to make that too!
sooo much fun! i wish i had $$$ for a cooking class – it all looks so fresh and delicious, i want to eat it up!
ahhh, looks like such a fun class!
i would do a menu on locally grown seasonal and organic food. 🙂
[you may see this veerrrry soon on my blog]
Cool FREAKING cool!!!! WOW! This brings back memories of Zucca! I had SO much fun there! But yeah, one class lasts forever! And that Macadamia Nut Crusted Sea Bass!!! My head spun when I saw that on the menu, but too bad it was flavorless…I guess macadamia themselves are kind fatty and less tasty than nuts like almonds and pistachios.
omg that is so amaazzzing! i want to do that 🙂 one of us needs to move to be near the other! this is VERY IMPORTANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What a fun day 🙂 I would love to do some cooking classes like that. I was actually signed up to do one with a friend a few months ago, but the class was cancelled due to low enrollment 😦 I think a sushi making class would be awesome, or really, anything tasty. I just like cooking.
Michelle! First of all, THIS IS SO COOL! What a fun experience. The sea bass and shrimpies definitely have me DROOLING.
Second, thanks so much for your comments lately–they always make me smile and it’s been WAY TOO LONG since I’ve caught up on your blog!!
i am so jealous of this. how fun! i have only done one cooking class and it was thai. a seafood one would be rad. the food you prepared looked excellent 🙂
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