To me, cooking is so visual and interactive, questions and answers.

I can't seem to relate to taking lessons on-line.

That's just me. There are people who feel otherwise.

dcarch

It seems without the instructor there to smell and taste, and for you to sample his/her demonstration product, it's really more guided self study. Have you tried following some demos on YouTube? You can often ask questions of the maker for free. :) Similarly, you've only lost a little time with a free class if you don't like it.

I think it might be worth paying for the one with the chef you like, if you've already cooked through a good number of the relevant recipes in the book, so you come into it armed with questions you want answered and primed to get the most out of the wisdom he wishes to impart.

I've taken quite a few paid online classes, but they were academic, most related to fundraising, development and publicity. Also, basic web design from an online school. The very worst class I ever took was a web design class from university extension. I learned some stuff from the book, but the problem sets had nothing pedagogical motivating them, and the instructor was downright lazy. That's the problem with online in general. If the instructor is engaged, you can have a better learning experience than live because you get more personal interaction, but when the instructor is just going through the motions, you can't shoot spitwads (metaphorically) at him.

I've looked at YouTube cooking demos when I was trying to learn something that didn't make sense from reading, like the classic way to truss a roast. They were great. But it's self learning. The thing that makes a paid class worthwhile is when the instructor breaks down the material into a learning path and then guides you along the way. I think a lot of the time, nowadays, 'net classes are thought up by content-vores and thrown together by people whose motives are PR, 'net presence, vitae bullet points, etc., rather than people who want to, and know how to teach.

How all of this applies to cooking, I can't say for certain. I'd just be really careful about researching exactly what you're getting if you're going to pay for it. If it's free, just dive in and see if it's worth your time.

I've really enjoyed the classes that I've taken on Craftsy.com. I've taken some craft classes, both paid and free and for cooking I've watched Colette Christian's Croissants, Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads and James Peterson's Mother Sauces. The platform is actually pretty interactive. If you have a question, you can stop the video and ask it at that point and usually the instructor will answer it within a day or so. You can also see other questions that are posed and answer them. Once you've paid for the course, you can watch it as many times as you like.

Typically, the cooking classes are around $40, but I've never paid that as Craftsy often runs sales, sometimes 1/2 off or more. They also have free classes, like the knife skills class as mentioned (which is very good).

Dcarch and Pilllog,

Thank you for your responses.

I agree with the interactive and sensory comments. I am hoping that having an IPad or a laptop on a router so it can be positioned anywhere will open a whole new world of "hands on" instruction.

I found that when I watched the freeby knife skills course, I only retained the techniques the second time through when I stood at the counter, knives and chopping block at hand, and actually practiced the motions described. Lots of use of the pause button while I played with angles and motions.

The first time I just watched and the information didn't "stick." The second time I actually learned some new skills--maybe!! (I know I rejected some!)

I think the same will be true of the cooking courses. I may well take the Mother Sauces course, partly because I really like James Peterson. If I do, I like the idea of actually making what he is demonstrating. Easy to do with modern technology--pause and rewind and fast forward.

FWIW, the Craftsy (what a dreadful name!) offers permanent access to all materials--no time limits for how long you can return to review. I like that idea.

Pilllog--
I have not searched Youtube for demos. Sort of at a loss with how to use Youtube. I have mainly accessed only when it was linked to whatever I was reading. Maybe I should check that out more often.

CathyChex--

I didn't know Craftsy offered special prices. Nice to know! I really like that there is no time limit on access to their lessons.

Glad to hear you found Mother Sauces useful. That is the one I am considering. Can you comment on it?
I noticed that it had won an award--not sure how significant an award, though.

I agree the free KnifeSkills was good. A really clever way for Craftsy to entice people into their programs by offering such a good freeby.

Have you tried to "cook along" with any of the classes? I am really intrigued by the possibility that with modern technology we might have a virtual chef to cook alongside us in our kitchen, just rewinding him/her if we get confused and fast forwarding when we don't need him/her :-) Truly, this seems to open a whole new vista of possibilities.

It all will depend, of course, upon the content of the "class" and the ability of the instructor. I will welcome James Peterson into my kitchen!

We shall see.

I would love to hear if anyone has tried cooking along with any of these "classes." Or has any other input or suggestions into online demonstrations and instruction.

This post was edited by Bellsmom on Thu, May 8, 14 at 11:43

Bellsmom, all you need to find stuff on YouTube is a Google search. You can search within YouTube, but I like the preview text on YouTube. Your Craftsy knife skills came up on top (possibly paid--my set up rips away some of the clues).

Here's a totally basic basic cut an onion video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1NR0uNNs5Y

Jamie Oliver:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGQltxIipFg

You can do the same with mother sauces, trussing a roast, deboning a chicken, making meatballs, etc. There's probably a video for every technique question you have. More important than knife skills, I think (though the first one I mentioned talks about stuff in handling a knife that's so simple I think I learned it by osmosis watching my parents when I was very small), is knife sharpening.

Here's a simple one (albeit with an annoying main title that wastes 12 seconds of your time) for sauce bechamel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfTR7juCgUg

Hint, searching on each of the mother sauces is more likely to get you a demonstration, rather than someone talking about what a mother sauce is.