Chef Brit is now offering cooking classes, both group and private. Please join our e-newsletter to stay in the loop for upcoming classes! If you are interested in a private lesson and/or a specific skill not listed, please inquire. Monthly, group classes are held in Nacogdoches, TX. We look forward to hearing from you!
Let's go on a culinary adventure to hone your skills in the kitchen, learn the importance of traditional cooking, world cuisines, and homestead kitchen skills. From bone broth to lacto-fermentation, to cooking all kinds of meats, organ meats, and scrumptious preparation of vegetables and grains, the idea is to get you savvy and efficient in the kitchen so you can create nourishing, satisfying meals bursting with flavor! We focus on using fresh ingredients to create balanced meals which pave the way to health and vitality.
All classes run about 2 to 2 & a half hours and include a printed packet of information and recipes learned in class.
Knife Skills & Keeping Sharp Kitchen Knives
A well cared for, sharp knife is a staple to your kitchen. Dull knives are actually more dangerous, but keeping them sharp doesn’t have to be complicated or time consuming. Likewise, basic knife technique will keep your digits safe and spare you frustration. This class will cover different metal compositions and types of knives for all tasks, sharpening, and knife skills including safety and storage. Learn why investing in a quality knife (and how to discern one) can turn into a family heirloom passed down the generations. By the end of class, you’ll be cutting onions like the pros, hopefully without too many tears!
Sourdough Bread Baking for Beginners
If you are interested in learning the basics of sourdough bread making at home without fancy equipment, and are wondering about the health benefits of this amazing bread, this class is for you! Come learn how to confidently bake beautiful and nutritious sourdough bread with just three ingredients: flour, water and salt. During class we will explore how to make a starter from scratch, how to feed and maintain a starter, what to do with sourdough discard, utilize proofing and baking vessels you may already own, how different flours impact the process, and how to bake gorgeous bread you will be proud of. Learn how to avoid glyphosate, neutralize anti-nutrients, use stone-milled flours, and how fermentation leads to nutrient density. Option to bring home some starter from class.
Bone Broths and Stocks
Learn how to make gelatinous, powerfully nutritious, and delicious stock popularly known as bone broth! This class will explore choosing the right bones for a given animal, technique & water-to-bones ratios, aromatics and flavoring, storage, the best water and equipment to use, health benefits and more! Stock can be used to make sauces & gravy, soups, or simply to sip on as a snack or with a meal. Stock is a wonderful thing to batch cook if you have storage space. It may seem like a lot of work, but this class will teach you how to make the process very smooth while nourishing your family and honing your skills in the kitchen.
Cooking Organ Meats
Due to the popularity of meat-based diets like keto and carnivore as well as the local & nose-to-tail movement, there has been an uptick in the popularity of eating organ meats, especially liver. Organ meats are a superfood and offer a different nutritional profile than muscle meats, so it’s important to include them in the diet a few times a month. If you did not grow up eating organs or cooking them seems intimidating, this class is perfect for you! In this class you will learn simple and delicious ways to prepare them. We will work with liver, heart, tongue, and bone marrow. Learn about sourcing these economical cuts and the importance of making connections with local ranchers to keep them organs flowin’ and your health growin’!
Farmer's Market Shop to Date Night!
Learn how to prepare an elegant dinner for two with your loved one OR for your loved one! In this class you will learn how to creatively use fresh produce and meats from the farmer's market to create a special 3-course meal. Let's create a scrumptious dinner seasoned and plated to perfection, and ending with a decadent dessert. The menu will change with seasonal availability with a rotating protein of either beef, lamb or seafood.
Fermented Vegetables
Curious about how to safely and deliciously prepare your own lacto-fermented vegetables? In this class, we will work with a cornucopia of colorful veggies to make sauerkraut and kimchi, beet kvass, fermented carrots, and ketchup. During class we will explore: various vegetable ferments, required equipment, flavor pairings and the best salts, recipe troubleshooting, health benefits, and more. Snack on ferment samples during class and leave with your very own jar of ferment to delight in at home. If making your own ferments sounds a little intimidating or you just want to expand your knowledge, this class is for you.
Rendering Fats
This immersive class will explore everything rendering animal fats! If you are interested in making your own tallow, lard, and butter at home, this class is for you! Rendering fats is a resourceful skill to add to your homestead routine. Learn how to make it in batches to save you time and money. We’ll also cover why saturated fats are essential for health. Come learn how to incorporate these delicious fats into your meals, while sampling some yummy nutrient-dense foods such as tallow-fried potato chips, pate, and butter boards! We'll also discuss healthy plant-based fats that are used traditionally, and how modern day seed oils are not a good option.
Cooking Grass-Fed Meats
Have you been apprehensive about buying grass-fed meats due to the taste difference? Are you unsure about how to cook the different cuts of grass-fed meat, particularly beef and lamb? Do you wish you knew better when to sear, broil, slow cook, or stew different cuts? Learn the differences between grass-fed, grass-finished, and grain-finished meats. We’ll explore anatomy, fat content, cooking techniques for each cut, and how to create delicious marinades and rubs. Students will try their hand at cooking meats with various equipment. Learn why supermarket labeling doesn’t mean much and why you should embark on a relationship with your local rancher for transparency and food security.
Exotic Flavors & The Fascinating World of Spices
Did you know that the spice trade in the 1500s was a huge motivating factor for world exploration? Explorers treacherously traveled across both land and sea for culinary and medicinal spices. As cuisine developed, spices from far away lands were woven into the local food dishes. This class will demystify the seemingly magical tastes and aromas of various spices, to help you understand their compounds and how to pair them well. Chef Brit will show you an array of different whole spices, how to grind them fresh to make your own spice blends, and various ways to cook them in order to bring out their inherent qualities. Come globe trot as and snack on flavorful foods!
Nutrient-Dense Snacks
Have you struggled with keeping yourself fueled and satisfied during a busy day? Have you wondered what “healthy” food actually is? Low-fat? Low-carb? No grains? No dairy? Where does the confusion end?
This class will explore simple nutrition concepts through the lens of balancing macros and ancestral foods. Many of us rely on snacks or portable meals in today’s busy and on-the-move world. Together in class we will create and sample delicious delights such as pate, tinned fish snacks, bone broth tonics, raw milk tonics, homemade crackers and more!
Home-Raised Chicken Cookery
Are you looking to opt out of supermarket poultry but aren’t sure how? Maybe you're a homesteader planning on raising a batch of broilers, but fear you will run out of ideas on how to cook them all? Learn how to cook flavorful, tender, mouth-watering chicken using marinades, rubs, and other methods. Learn the questionable practices of factory farmed chicken, but gain the confidence to opt out and in turn make more delicious, nourishing meals for you and your loved ones.
The Wonderful World of Kefir
Have you ever tried kefir or noticed it in the store and wondered what exactly is this yogurt-like drink? Kefir is one of the most approachable and simple types of dairy ferments! Learn the benefits of using raw milk to create this wonderful elixir that brings vibrant health and wellness. In class, we will learn how to care for kefir grains, make delicious kefir cheese and yummy smoothies, how different world cuisines use kefir, and troubleshooting. Take home your own kefir grains to get you started on making it at home.
Proper Preparation of Grains, Legumes, and Nuts
There’s lots of confusion about grains these days, and a lot of hate! However, the little known fact is grains need proper preparation in order to be used correctly by the body. This includes anything that is essentially a seed, including nuts, seeds, grains, and legumes. Improper preparation can cause gastrointestinal upset, nutritional deficiencies, etc. Our ancestors knew the methods of preparing them properly to maximize health benefits and flavor, such as sprouting, soaking and fermenting. From sourdough bread, to nixtamalized corn, there are many age-old traditions that aren’t always employed in today’s busy world. This class will mainly be informational with a few demos on how to properly prepare these foods, and how to work this into your schedule with just a little planning.