Hell-o,
My name is Juanita and I am recently retired but have been cooking for over 50 years. I love to cook and it is such good therapy. I love to cook for people and watch their reactions and hear the ows and ahas. (I am easy to please.) I watch all the cooking shows I can, but never thought of going to cooking school. I did entertain the Cordon Bleu or American Culinary School, but felt I was too old. This is a trial because of CCof A and the prelude to a cruise about cooking. I am just looking over the website today. I have not heard of your organization until the Club sent the invitation, looking forward to the trial membership...
Juanita

Hi Kirk,

At this time we do not offer a certificate of completion but this is coming in the next few months. We do capture the same curriculum as a professionally accredited cooking school - http://nwcav.com

In a few months will be offering special courses that will provide some additional assessment tasks. For these courses, students will definitely earn a certificate.

I'm doing the same two week trial as many of the rest of you. The first thing I'm going to do is look at the video about eggs and omelets, since I've never been able to make a good omelet, and my teenage son just taught himself how to make one and has been making them for his friends!

Hi-
I got a 2-week trial from CCofA also. I am a professional chef; I own a personal chef business on the central Oregon Coast. I graduated from FCI and so far, these videos have been great review. I have tested out of some of the topics, but have also learned, and/or remembered some techniques as well. Nice job.

what is this Cooking Club of America everyone is talking about. Is it part of Rouxbe, since they are giving trial memberships to Rouxbe. I never heard of it before, and was just wandering if this is part of the expansion.

I am embarking on a new chapter in my career, my personal life (met the man of my dreams!), and now I can get some much needed cooking skills. Thank you so much1

For a while now I've really been wanting to understand cooking basics. I pretty much nail a recipe each time but I want to understand the chemistry of food, in what context to use certain spices (then get creative from there), and then basic skills like sharpening my knives. I'm doing a trial membership right now and hope with two little ones at home (one being a newborn) I hope I have the time to really use the site so I can make a good decision later on whether or not to stay on.

Having some trouble with the site and my MSNTV system it wants to shut it self off . But I,ll keep trying. KJH

Hello, Joe and everyone!

I am a new student, recently selected for product testing through the Cooking Club of America. Imagine my surprise and pleasure when I was given the opportunity to test a cooking course! I love to cook and try new and different recipes and methods, so I am hoping to improve the "talents" I already. Looking to working with you for the next 14 days or so. Who knows, I may become a "lifer"

La Verne D.

I have always wanted to grow an herb garden and not been able to. They die out and I finally have given up and just buy them in the market. Is there a secret to it or should I just buy the ones that are already grown? I wanted to start from scratch, not happening, please, could someone give me some helpful tips?

Hi Juanita, I'm just a student here at Rouxbe, but if you'll allow my experience with herbs, they are easy, depending on the herb. I have a large herb garden, and morn the winter here in Pennsylvania, when I have to buy my herbs at the market. I grow Thyme, Basil, Rosemary, Sage, Italian Parsley, Cilantro, chives, sorrel, Tarragon, and Lavender. Basil and sorrel seem to be the touchiest, but I just picked the last of my parsley and rosemary (under cover) yesterday, and was able to use my sage for Thanksgiving dinner. I grow them in pots, and protect them in the spring and fall, but other than feeding and keeping them watered, they really grow well. As a matter of fact, I made Basil-cello this year for Christmas gifts...well, Basil-cello and Cranberry-cello.
Don't give up and buy the expensive stuff in the market, try again this year, I'm sure you'll have luck.

Sorry, I use both the plants (basil) and seeds...both work well.

Linda asks a great question (above); Who are all these fine folks from The Cooking Club of America?

A short while back we approached the Cooking Club of America's product test group to assist us in gathering feedback on the site and our service. We've collected a lot of feedback over the years from our current students (in over 200 countries), but we felt that feedback from a 3rd party group of qualified cooks might help us here at Rouxbe.

So, the Cooking Club of America and Rouxbe has offered a 14-day trial to thousands of members of the CCofA who are actively checking out the site and our content.

We'll be happy to share the results of their feedback at the close of this product testing period.

On a side note, we are actively building out some amazing new features and new learning tools (not to mention producing many more instructional cooking school lessons). The next several months will be pretty amazing here at Rouxbe. Will share more information soon.

In the interim, welcome everyone!
Joe

Hi ev1. i heard of this site through cooking club of america. i've been cooking for about 20 years for my husband and i. the second video on here while i was starting to look around was the water test for the frying pan. i'll have to try that out with my next dinner, because i've never heard of it till now. i can't wait to see what other tips i can learn here!

I am also hear from Cooking Club of America. Everything looks so great. I didn't know that I didn't know how to heat a pan for grilling. Learn something new everyday. I'm all ears when it comes to cooking. There is not a cooking show that I haven't heard of. Just love it. ...

I love it Joe, I love that the Rouxbe name is getting out there...I also love that there are people from all over the world who have found the best site on the internet!

My sister showed me this website a few months ago and I thought it was great. She gave me a membership to Rouxbe for Christmas (thanks sis!). I look forward to expanding my cooking repertoire and have a willing husband to be my guinea pig. Bon apetit!

Hello Everyone,
My name is Natasha, I am from NYC. I have been married for four years, and don't know how to cook! My patient husband is excited for me that I started taking these classes. I also have a baby, who just turned 1 on New Years Day! I was sooo frustrated in the kitchen cause I don't know the basics, so far, I am writing notes on everything, from how to use a knife to how to buy fish. So far, so good.

Thank you for offering this to CCofA members. Over the years I have read many cookbooks, magazines and watched many shows; however, the lessons that I have seen so far are more informal and will help in the future.

I am a father of 2 kids. I want to take my cooking skills to the next level. I can't wait to start school with all of you. Lets start learning and taking our skills to the next level.

I received a 14 day free trial from the Cooking Club of America. So far I have been using the site for 4 days. Still learning the ins and outs of moving around on the site. Have already tried the Quiche Lorraine. Will be trying the pizza crust recipe next. Any bread recipes out there on the site? I love to bake bread and am always looking for new recipes to try.

Welcome to the Cooking School! While we do have many delicious recipes on the site, most of them are supporting recipes for the lessons and techniques that we teach in the school. These recipes are intended for students to practice their newly-learned skills and knowledge with.

At Rouxbe, we believe that when students learn the skills and techniques behind cooking, they are then free to cook without recipes (or understand how to make their own tweaks to them). This gives students the confidence to take any recipe from any resource and look at it from a technical point of view. Once they understand the mechanics of the dish, cooking becomes much more fun and less stressful because they know the proper steps to prepare something.

Most recipes ultimately provide inspiration for flavor combinations - some are good, some are not - but that's all. It's just a different way of looking at things, which is what professional chefs and cooks do. This is why it is so important to learn skills and techniques first.

On the Cooking School overview page, you'll find lessons on bread basics. More baking and pastry-related lessons will be coming in the future. Hope this helps! Cheers!

I'm using my free trial from CCOA and am very excited. So many times I wanted to go to cooking school but it was difficult as a nurse. This is like a dream come true. I've already learned how to pan fry and so many things about it I did not know. I was happy with my 96%. That tells me I got it. I'm usually a baker so I'm looking forward to improving myself all around. thanks so much for the opportunity

This is John Mays' wife, I set up his profile and will be working through a lot of the lessons myself and then showing him how to do them at later date due to the fact that he works two different shifts and can't always get on the computer. I hope that this is ok and that everyone understands. Thank you

Like many others, I am enjoying a trial membership through CCofA - I am my younger son's (15) sous chef when he cooks, so am hoping to learn more to keep up with him! I've also thought of attending culinary school and/or change careers to become a dietitian/nutritionist, so am hoping this will also give me a taste of what I may face in an academic setting and/or learn more about food in general. Look forward to learning as much as I can - thank you, Teri