Get H3 Inspired: From Simple to Souffle in Three Days

From Ron Gerhart; Churcville, VA

A little over a year ago, I visited Hilton Head Health for two weeks. I spent more time on the health and fitness aspects of the program. While last year I attended some cooking classes, I felt my diet lacked variety and I lacked the skills to move up to the next level of cooking.  My second time around (in January of this year), I attended the H3 Cooking Healthy:Recipe for Success workshop. It was informative, fun and gave me the courage to elevate my cooking skills, as well as tackle some of the more challenging tasty recipes.

The new cooking school is brilliantly designed for both comfortably observing an instructor demonstrating cooking, and for cooking yourself at you own personal station. Your station has an individual Wolf gas stove-top and oven, refrigerator, sink and all the cooking utensils and small appliances you need. Believe me, there is a huge difference between watching someone make it and actually cooking it yourself.

The workshop was a comprehensive program. It covered a variety of topics including cooking supplies—I was surprised how few tools you really need. A cast iron skillet was among the very basics. I really appreciated the knife skills class—I went from chopping slowly and terribly to creating consistently sized vegetables quickly. (And no one got hurt :-) )

My goal for the class was to feel comfortable enough to cook tasty meals just a couple times throughout the week. I learned so many techniques that restaurants use for efficient food preparation to help me when I return home.  Seasoning was a key part to the program; what fresh herbs should be used, dry rubs and how to add some “heat” to your recipes to spice up your meals correctly without overpowering the dish.  

We had a great class on very tasty sauces. The class made a series of sauces and we all had the chance to sample them. After taking the class on vegetables, I no longer have excuses for not getting in my daily requirements. Then there was the class on desserts. We learned that cooking is an art and baking is a science.  Everyone in class made a different baked dessert and the tasting that day was really something special. This is where I made a chocolate soufflé.  I didn’t wear my heart rate monitor while working on this recipe but I’m sure my heart rate was up there. My soufflé came out excellent. What a surprise.

There was always plenty of assisstance to help you as much as you needed. If you made a mistake there was someone there to fix it—and, for me, there were tremendous lessons in my screw ups. The atmosphere of the class was great.

The class was also very well organized and we had sufficient time to complete our recipes. I especially enjoyed that the cooking classes were scheduled so we could also take advantage of exercise classes. The take home book we recieved upon completing the workshop will be essential for my future cooking—it contains details on herbs and spices, internal temperatures for doneness of proteins, measurement abbreviations (which I had no clue about), healthy ingredient substations, plus many great recipes. 

Today, I don’t know anyone who isn’t looking for better tasting, healthier foods. This workshop provided me with both the knowledge and confidence to make this happen-and I had lots of fun doing it. I like to say this cooking workshop took me from “simple to soufflé” in just three days.

-Ron Gerhart; Churcville, VA

For more information on our Cooking Healthy Workshop, check out our Event Calendar on the official Hilton Head Health website.