Culinary Certificate Programs
Basic Cooking Course (12 weeks)
Whether you’re an amateur or beginner in the kitchen looking to progress beyond boiling water or an advanced home cook wanting to take your cooking to the next level, the 12 Week Basics Series is just right for you. In this cooking program, we go beyond merely teaching you recipes to explore the cooking techniques that are the foundations for all recipes. Understanding what’s “under the hood” of a recipe (what makes it work) helps you pull it off to perfection every time. You’ll learn the basic science and proper cooking methods that will make all cooking a breeze, from quick weeknight family meals to entertaining for a crowd!
- PRICE: $1,450 USD (P/P)
- DAY: WEDNESDAY
- DATES: TBD (SPRING SESSION)
- TIME: 10:00 am – 1:00 pm
- STATUS:
Each class will begin with a lecture from the chef about the day’s theme and recipes. After this introduction, the group will break up into smaller teams, and start working on the recipes in the class menu. You will be eating the dishes you make at the end of class. You are welcome to eat as much as you’d like in class, though unfortunately, our zoning permit does not allow us to have students take food home (Bake Goods are Exceptional).
Knife Skills & Vegetable Preparation
We start your training with basic, essential skills in the kitchen and working with your most important tools – your knives. We’ll explore the physics of the knife and cutting techniques such as slice, julienne, mince, dice, and chopping. We demystify sharpening and honing, choosing the right equipment, and how to keep your fingers cut-free forever.
Searing, Sauté & Stir Fry
In this second class, we’ll cut ingredients for sautéing and stir frying, and break out the woks and sauté pans for a night of stove top fun! While cooking up some exciting international dishes, we’ll explore topics such as choosing the right pans and utensils, oils vs. butter, the inside scoop on non-stick, why to add oil only to a hot pan, and proper procedures for ensuring both proteins and veggies are done to perfection. We’ll even explore how to set your cooking on fire, the safe way, with flambé.
Stocks, Soups & Poaching
Day three in your training: omnipresent stocks and a natural next step to creating delicious soups. In stocks we’ll explore raw vs. roasted bone, mirepoix, how to get the best flavor and mouth feel, differences in simmers and boiling, sachets, and ingredients to make stocks from around the world (to name a few topics). Our soups will range from beautifully simple, seasonal vegetable purees to delicately balanced Asian favorites, hearty chowders and creamed soups, and everything in between.
Pan & Deep Frying
We continue our technique of cooking foods either fully or partially submerged in “liquid” with a twist – this time our “liquid” is oil. We’ll check out pan and tool options, discuss oil differences, knowing the right temperatures, proper breading procedures, seasoning methods, and even how to roll an egg roll. From classic fried chicken to tantalizing tortilla chips, it will be a frying frenzy. Learn some fantastic international dishes with a perfect crispy crunch!
Stewing And Braising
We take cooking with liquids even further this week by submerging tasty proteins and veggies in liquids and slowly cooking them! Learn how to properly brown meat, what pan to pick (and why), what are the best veggies and cuts of meats and fish to use for this style of cooking and how to cook everything to perfectly delicate tenderness. We’ll create delicious stews and braised dishes from around the globe in this flavor-packed class.
Art of Sauces
And speaking of flavor, get ready for French mother sauces and all their international friends. We’ll take our newfound stock expertise to make age-old culinary master sauces. With the base sauces we learn, you will be able to create the complex sauces we all know and love; and we’ll add some new ones to your favorites list! From velvety demi-glace to creamy cheese sauces, spicy BBQ and sweet chili sauces, coulis, pestos, chutneys, salsas, etc. Our palates will be coated with saucy goodness. Say goodbye to lumpy, soupy and tasteless sauces forever.
Roasting & Baking
In Week Seven we begin to utilize the oven as our heat source for cooking. This new medium means fun new challenges to explore. We’ll learn about searing, trussing, brining, convection, picking the right tools for the job, determining doneness, and choosing the right oven temperatures. From juicy roasted meats to perfectly broiled fish and deliciously tender vegetables, there will be a whole lot of cooking going on!
Grilling & Broiling
One of the greatest tools we have for cooking our favorite foods is the grill. Nothing imparts such a wonderful flavor and who can deny the beauty of perfect grill marks?! We’ll explore choosing proper tools, the right way to oil a grill, how to keep meats and fish from sticking, gas vs. charcoal, the difference between direct and indirect grilling, marinades and rubs, wood and herb smoking, and how to get those perfectly crossed grill marks. Get ready to grill everything from fish to fruit!
Yeast Breads & Doughs
No meal is complete without good, comforting bread. Whether it’s for a sandwich or soaking up the last bits of a delicious sauce, bread has a place as a well-loved staple in our diet. We’ll discover the real deal behind yeasts and bread flours, gluten development, relaxing, proofing, baking stones, kneading, flavor development, shaping doughs, mixers, steaming, convection, choosing the right tools, and how to get beautifully golden-brown crusts on the outside and perfect textures on the inside. Nothing says lovin’ like warm bread from the oven!
Quick Breads & Batters
In the second part of our bread extravaganza, we switch our leavening agent from yeast to good old sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) and its jazzed up cousin, baking powder. Quick doughs are an indispensable asset to anyone’s culinary repertoire. We’ll explore topics such as weight vs. volume measurements, the difference between baking soda and baking powder, forming doughs, maintaining moistness, adding flakiness, picking out the right tools and pans, oven management, determining doneness, and how to store baked goods. Round out your bread-baking skills in yet another evening of doughy deliciousness!
Pasta, Starches & Grains
No proper culinary training would be comprehensive without an exploration of pasta, starches and grains. We’ll go beyond pasta and rice to learn about ingredients such as couscous, spelt and quinoa. we’ll teach you about how grains affect our bodies and how to make the healthiest choice for you. We’ll learn about properly salting water, making and rolling pasta dough, draining pasta (and keeping it from sticking), dumplings, potato preparations, the difference in rice grain size, types of starches and how to release them, toasting grains and what “al dente” really means. We’ll create delicious recipes that make great sides but can also shine as entrees all their own.
The Art of Finger Foods
Hors d’oeuvre, which literally means “out of work” but translates to “outside the meal,” is a one-bite item that’s either stationary or passed and served separate from or prior to a meal. An hors d’oeuvre is typically finger food and might refer to, among other items. Appetizers, on the other hand, appear as the first courses when seated at the table. They’re often slightly larger and composed in a way that complements the entrée and dessert courses to follow.
WHAT’S INCLUDED
- Culinary Instruction, Recipe Binder, Chef Jacket & Hat
- 12 weeks to Complete | The program covers approximately 36 hours of learning | Each class is 3 hours in length
- Certificate of Completion upon completion
- Access to our online courses
- Focuses on the same foundational skills taught at culinary schools around the world
- Instructor support
- Refund: We require 1 month’ notice to receive a full refund
- Credit: We require 2 weeks’ notice to receive a class credit
If it is less than 2 weeks before your class and you find that you cannot attend, you can have someone attend in your place, however your option to receive a refund, to reschedule, or receive a class credit will be forfeited. If you purchase the class within the two-week window, the sale is final, and your reservation cannot be rescheduled or refunded. For all series classes, once the series has started, no refunds or class credits are available.
To cancel your class, please email info@wyntonsworld.com or call us at (919) 694-5188. We can issue a gift card for the purchase price of the class or process a refund back to your credit card or original form of payment, as applicable.
We cannot issue refunds for gift certificates or bookings made with gift certificates. If you cancel a class booked with a gift certificate, you will receive a class credit in the form of a new gift certificate so that you can book a future class.
We reserve the right to cancel or postpone any class or series. If a class gets cancelled, we will contact you via the email address that was provided when you registered for the class and give you the option available for refund or credit.
- Classes or series cancelled due to low enrollment will be eligible for a refund or credit. You have three options:
- move to the rescheduled time or date,
- have a gift certificate issued to you or
- to receive a refund to your original form of payment for the purchase price of the class.
Cancellations due to government mandated shutdown may result in rescheduled classes, credit for a future class, or delayed reimbursement. We will handle each situation as needed and contact you with further information when available.
Please note: You may always send someone in your place!
