— Cecilia Litvak

So, um, you know, here, um, much like the, the topic we talked about earlier in today's program, you know, we're talking about starting a, a business, which, uh, entails a business plan, or if you want to do an abbreviated version of that, um, I'll leave that up to you, but at least take a look at the section of the, of business plan that's gonna get you out in looking at the competition. 'cause you wanna know what is already being done, uh, you know, and, and can be accessed by folks you know, that you are thinking about. So, in other words, you might have live, um, cooking classes that people from, you know, some radius like a, maybe a, uh, a 20 mile radius or a a 50 mile radius, you know, might travel to attend. But also in this day and age, we have a lot of online or, or virtual classes, which means that you could have an audience and therefore competition around the world. And so you want to take a look at both individuals as well as some of these online platforms that offer cooking classes and see what people are offering relative to the concept that you have in mind. Okay? Um, excuse me just a second here. So, you know, some of these classes are view only, whether it's virtual or in person, whereas a, as the student or the audience member, you know, I am just, I'm just watching you do the work and you're gonna talk about it. You're gonna interweave some stories, your experiences, ingredient substitutions, you know how to do it one way or the other, how to make alterations for, uh, maybe, uh, you know, one, uh, dietary restriction type or another. And I'm just listening, uh, another variation of this, even for a virtual class, is for me to go buy the ingredients in the, in the case of a virtual class, uh, and cook alongside you as you're talking me through an online. And, you know, you're gonna talk to me about aromas to pick up on at this cooking stage, or the next cooking stage, and what sort of textures to look for, what sounds to look for, um, you know, during sauteing or simmering, for example, if it's gonna be an in-person class, then, you know, I have a chance to step up to the prep table with you and get my hands dirty, so to speak, and, and, and, um, need some dough or do some slicing or whatever it is that, um, is gonna get me, um, kinesthetically involved, right? With the, uh, the, the class and the more I'm involved, right? The, the, the more I'm gonna learn, the more I'm gonna retain. Um, this gets into some of the, the, the pedagogy and, and andragogy of, of designing a, a cooking class. But understand that there are many types of learners, and if you can interweave different opportunities for learning. So there's, you know, the, the visual, there's the, the, the, uh, the audio type of learner, um, as well as the hands-on kinesthetic learner. And, um, you know, smells and things help us as well. So, um, if you can get people involved in these different ways, it can enhance the learning outcome for your students. Um, and then the, the next stage would be just full on, hands-on, right? Where maybe you do a quick demo, um, upfront, and then you let the students go to their cooking stations and then just do everything themselves. Maybe your demo only focuses on a critical technical step that's particularly difficult and, and benefits from some, um, you know, in, you know, like, like a 15 minute intensive before you let the student again go back to their cooking station to execute the, uh, the whole recipe or the menu, depending again, on what it is that you are offering. Um, so those are just some different things to think about, but you wanna, again, see what others are doing relative to these types of teaching, um, scenarios and what sort of price points are out there. Okay? And if you have a chance, and this is something that I do occasionally, go sign up for a class and see what people are actually doing for the price point at which that class is offered. And, uh, you know, again, sometimes these are gonna be, um, you know, at community colleges, sometimes they're online, sometimes they're done privately in some fashion or another. Okay? Uh, and then your goal, uh, would be to kick it up, uh, a notch to provide an even better value than what they're offering, uh, out there. Okay? And, um, then, you know, when it comes to, uh, the cost of food supplies, you need to cost out, we call it costing, recipe costing, but we gotta, we cost out the recipe, uh, and the menu and, you know, or the, the entire program, depending on what it is you're offering. And basically that means that, um, you're gonna write down all the ingredients and, um, h how you buy that ingredient, okay? So in the, the bottle size, the can size the bag size, or buy the pound. Um, and then you, you wanna break that cost down to, um, how much you actually use for that recipe. So, if you buy potatoes in a 25 pound bag, but you're only using three potatoes, you know, in the recipe, you have to break down that 25 pound purchase cost to a a $3, um, you know, recipe unit cost. The other step is that, um, we also have to take into consideration any trim loss when we trim produce, or other items that require cleaning and trimming, um, things that have shells or, you know, skins or, or, you know, things that need to be removed before we use them, um, at at least, um, let me think here. You know, in a, as I think about this, in a, in a cooking class setting, if you're gonna give those raw ingredients, um, to a, uh, you know, your student or your client to, to jump in and do some hands-on work with, then maybe we don't need to worry about trim loss, okay? But I will mention that if you're gonna do some retail work, uh, you know, like restaurant cafe catering sort of work, um, where you're preparing foods for people, then definitely you do want to do the calculation that takes into consideration trim loss. Okay? So in that case, I'll, I'll just do a quick explanation here. Um, uh, if you're preparing, um, uh, roasted potatoes, let's say mashed potatoes, right? Where you take the skins off and then you deal with the potatoes, maybe those skins account for 15%, uh, of the weight of the potatoes. And so you buy the potatoes in a 25 pound bag, you spend x number of dollars per pound, um, you know, you're using three pounds in the recipe. So you break down that cost from a 25 pound purchase cost to a three pound, you know, recipe cost. We call this the as purchased cost, the a p cost. Um, and then, uh, you wanna then, uh, um, make the calculation to, um, what we call the edible portion. We call it the EP cost and the edible portion cost. And this, uh, takes into consideration the trim loss after taking off the peels, right? In this case. And the way you do that is you take the AP cost, the as purchase cost per pound, and then you divide it by the what's left, uh, after trimming as a percentage. So in, in our example here, it would be 85% yield, because we're just, you know, for the sake sake of this conversation, we're estimating that the peels and all that would be 15% of the weight, right? So we have, um, a utilizable portion or a yield of 85%. So we would take that, um, um, that, that cost per pound divided by 85% or 0.85, that actually increases the price per pound, um, taking into consideration the 15% trim loss. And then it's at that, at that, um, higher price per pound that we, um, calculate the amount that's used in that dish for the mashed potatoes that you're making. Okay? So in a restaurant setting, uh, you always wanna pass on the, the cost of the peels and bones and shells and stuff to the customer, okay? And keep in mind, right, as a consumer, um, that's one reason why menu prices are approximately three times higher, uh, than what you would pay if you prepared that same dish at home. Um, not only are you paying for, um, you know, overhead expenses and labor costs, but also the food cost itself and the trim loss, uh, that's part of that food cost calculation, okay? But back to, okay, uh, your cooking classes here, um, you know, you wanna just take a look at the, the food cost that goes into, you know, each of the ingredients to make up the recipe, and then do that for all the recipes that go into the menu, right? That you're producing or that the student would be producing. Um, and then, you know, think about your time, and if you have, if you hire somebody, maybe an assistant to help in some capacity, you have to pay them, you know, on an hourly basis or on an event basis. And, um, and then go from there, right? In terms of calculating the, the, the, the retail price to the consumer, okay? But you always wanna position yourself fairly and reasonably in the marketplace. So you need to know what your competition is providing, okay? And so this is where I suggest that you actually go out and take a couple of classes, um, that are, you know, similar to the, uh, what you have in mind for your own concept.