An October Letter from the Editor: Let’s Go to Cooking School Together

A few months ago, my older daughter, who is 4 (nearly 5), became obsessed with Dutch babies. There’s really nothing as good to cook with a kid as a Dutch baby. The recipe is simple, and the bake time is short, with a dramatic payoff of a glorious golden puff seen through the spattered oven window. But maybe the best thing is how easy it is for her to participate in her favorite activity: cracking eggs. I taught her how to rap the egg on the countertop, then hold it over the bowl and deliberately jam her thumbs into the center. “Then pull your wrists apart,” I coach. The shell cracks cleanly; the egg slithers and plops into the bowl. Her face lights up. It’s a tiny moment of achievement, that egg. I only have the patience for one or two; she has the attention span for this and then she wants to know where the powdered sugar is and if there’s whipped cream for the pancake. Good enough. The learning moment is brief and sweet.

I could use a few more brief, satisfying learning moments myself, six or seven months into a year spent mostly at home (I just don’t leave my house much; do you?). I’m a bit stuck in a cooking rut, and anytime I learn something new it feels extra-sweet. If you too would like a fresh lesson in the kitchen, encouragement to polish up your skills — or, even better, a validation that, yes, the one good thing to come out of this quarantine year is that you really, truly, have become a better cook, thanks to eating every meal in — then I’d love to invite you to join our Cooking School 2020.

Our Cooking School is a fun and breezy 20-lesson program to walk you through some of the elements of being a great cook. Cooking School is available anytime throughout the year (you can sign up here anytime you like and you’ll receive an email each weekday for 20 days with the lessons so you can walk through at your leisure).

But in October we go hard into it again together, showcasing our favorite parts of the lessons on Instagram, and celebrating our learning and cooking victories together. We’d love to have you following along and sharing your own learnings.

Starting, of course, with that egg. Have you mastered the art of the one-handed crack yet? I’m still working on it (I think my daughter will beat me to it).