Flow State

Today I took a cooking class at a kitchen in my neighborhood. I’ve taken a few classes there over the years with mixed results. Maybe “results” isn’t the right word. Some classes have just been more useful or enjoyable than others.

For example, their Knife Skills class was excellent. My son and I once took a DIY Steakhouse class that was fine, but it was clearly designed as a date-night activity, and we were the only two people there not on dates. Slightly awkward. The same son and I also took a Bagel Brunch class that was really good. We made bagels, hot smoked salmon, cucumber salad, and herb cream cheese.

Those classes were all under two hours. Today’s class ran from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Long day. But after doing it, I have a much greater respect for bakeries. Churning out fresh bread and pastry every day is not easy work. It’s physical, messy, time-consuming, and requires a level of patience I probably don’t naturally possess.

In total,we made six different breads: homemade pizza with sourdough crust (which we ate for lunch), French baguettes, Dutch oven sourdough country boules, ciabattinis (individual ciabatta loaves), a seeded “Birdsонд” batard, and brioche with a cinnamon swirl. We also got to take home some sourdough starter.

I’ve made pizza dough and baguettes before, but I never really caught the sourdough bug during the pandemic. After today, I kind of get it. The ciabattini and batard were excellent, but my favorite was the brioche. Ridiculously good.

I was seated with two younger women. I’m not the most social person in the world, but we had a genuinely nice time just chatting while making bread and eating lunch. I really do enjoy hearing about how other people live their lives. One woman was originally from Colombia, had a 9-month-old baby, and worked for a lumber company doing what was essentially actuarial analysis for forests. I didn’t even know that was a job. The other was a legal assistant who is a dedicated sourdough maker.  It was interesting to hear about her job, and she was helpful when we had questions about the bread making.  She wasn’t from Chicago so it was interesting to hear about growing up in other places.

Even though I’m introverted and socially awkward, I actually like meeting people. In small doses.

The three chefs running the class were wonderful. The head chef was an excellent teacher – patient, clear, answered every question, demonstrated techniques, and constantly circulated to help people. The other two handled setup and cleanup and kept everything moving smoothly. You could tell the whole thing only worked because all three of them knew exactly what they were doing.

I also took home an absolutely absurd amount of bread. I honestly don’t know if we can eat it all before it goes bad, but fortunately, they taught us how to freeze it.

All in all, a very good day.