The spices are fantastic and speak for themselves. My review is focused specifically on the cooking classes.
I have a growing addiction to date night cooking classes in DC. I was a bit reluctant to register for the “Dizzcovery” cooking class, mostly because I am used to a 100% “hands on” experience (I was afraid this would be the opposite- 100% lecture/observation). Not the case at all! You get out of it what you put into it, so you can sit up front, help out with food prep, watch every step, ask questions, or anywhere in between. There are plenty of distractions, i.e. beer, munchies, shopping inside, networking with fellow students, etc.
Chris (owner, instructor) is totally down to earth, changed careers to follow his passion, has tons of experience on the competitive cooking circuit, and of note as a cook- questions norms and traditional boundaries and provides max creativity to get that “amazing first bite”.
I had been cooking on the Big Green Egg for several years and thought I had things down pretty well, but the class was a reality check that maybe you’re doing everything wrong! (Or, could be doing it a lot better). BBQ takes time and can’t be covered real time in a 4 hour class, so Chris did a great job staggering the various stages of fire building, food prep, temperature control, finishing, etc. Never a dull moment, and each segment of the process was fully covered.
I especially appreciate the method of instruction- Chris and staff prepared (many) racks of ribs in 3 or 4 popular cooking styles (indirect, direct, foiled, not foiled) and let the students get a feel for each process, and more importantly a real-time taste test for each at the end. The hands-down best tasting ribs were the least intuitive and non-traditional method of cooking. In my experience, other cooking classes teach you how to prepare one meal really well. Chris’ class did that too, but really what it did was open up my way of thinking, got me to question the “why”, start thinking about what’s happening inside that cooker and ultimately will make a difference in the way I cook from here on out.
Most important thing = tons of food to eat!
Truly appreciate the course offering and look forward to next time!