"CookingClasses" news and stories

A few of the best stories spied elsewhere on the Web this week:

Learn some new holiday cooking and baking skills with this roundup of Thanksgiving cooking classes across the nation.

Not surprisingly, an Aloha, Ore., man was fined $300 for calling 911 to complain about his botched McDonald's drive-through order.

Design icon Isaac Mizrahi will sell tartan-topped cheesecakes from Junior's on QVC in early December.

Los Angeles' popular Kogi Korean Taco Truck gets a tricked out Toyota Scion Kogi xD Mobile Kitchen that's fully loaded with a grill, a sink and an Alpine Sound System.

Restaurant consulting firm Baum + Whiteman released its 2010 food and dining trend forecast, which claims "fried chicken is the new pork belly."

Former New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni sold the TV rights to his memoir, "Born Round."

Meatball plate at Ikea. Photo: roboppy/flickr

Swedish meatballs may be the mainstay at the Ikea cafeteria, but the flat-pack furniture chain is branching out.

Next month, Ikea will hold five free cooking classes with well-known chefs as part of a marketing campaign with Family Circle, Mediaweek reports.

Food University Presented by Family Circle will stop at Ikeas in Seattle (Oct. 20, Caprial Pence), Costa Mesa, Calif. (Oct. 22, Katie Chin), Tempe, Ariz. (Oct. 28, Claudine Pepin), Sunrise, Fla. (Nov. 3, Oliver Saucy) and College Park, Md. (Nov. 5, Mary Ann Esposito) for two-hour seminars that promise an introduction to ingredients, tips on entertaining and spicing up a menu as well as healthy family recipes.

The seminars are free and open to the public.

[Via Mediaweek]

• Cooking classes are all the rage in the Philadelphia area, with sessions available for kids, novices, experts and beyond.
• The cafeteria at Jefferson Hospital is in its second year of a program in which they integrate more fresh, local veggies into their offerings. So far, it's been a resounding success.
• Check out the Market Basket for Pumpkin Pie ice cream, a mixing spoon pot clip and Sun-Ni Grab and Go snacks.
• Wine lessons abound.
• In Table Talk, Michael Klein dishes about Melograno's move to Sansom Street and the new spot, Mémé, that has opened in its old spot.
• The Rush Hour Gourmet is whipping up kabobs of shrimp and fresh veggies.

The New York Times Travel section has a list of twenty slightly offbeat, more interesting things to do for Spring Break, when most people pack up a bikini and sunscreen and head off to the beach. One of their suggestions is to learn a new cuisine by enrolling in a weekend cooking course that can go anywhere from spending the weekend in a bed and breakfast to the CIA. Their recommendations (all on the East Coast) are:

• Culinary Institute of America (CIA) offers day-long cooking classes every Saturday this spring in Hyde Park, NY
• New England Culinary Institute takes you to their Inn at Essex, VT, where you spend two hours helping to prepare your own meals
• You can learn to make your own maple syrup at The Manor on Golden Pond in Holderness, NH
• Also in Vermont, Deborah Krasner's Vermont Culinary Vacations offers weekend-long group cooking courses.

If it's Friday night and you're reading this, then there really is a need for Gourmet Gatherings more than I thought! Gourmet Gatherings is a Bay Area-based company that basically helps you throw cooking parties. I have heard of this before - the company will either come into your home and do demos and teach you and your guests how to cook your own dinner, or you and your friends go to a professional kitchen and do it all there.

One of Gourmet Gatherings' parties has a twist - it's a singles party. According to their website, guests are "greeted at the door with a nibble and nametag." A nibble? Hey, I don't do that on the first date. After an introductory cooking course,  everyone is divided into co-ed teams to cook a recipe from the evening's menu, "while sipping wine and listening to upbeat music." Well, thank God for the music otherwise there might be lots of dead silences amongst complete strangers awkwardly trying to hit on each other with stupid lines like "Mind if I grease your loaf pan?"

I don't know why I'm so bitter. I'm the one who's writing this on a Friday night, right? Okay, actaully, if anyone has gone to one of these, I'd love to know what it's really like, rather than reading the quotes of people who found the loves of their lives while whisking eggs.