Like learning to juggle, learning to cook requires patience, a distraction-free environment, and the ability to handle multiple eggplants at once. Become the ringmaster of your kitchen with today's Groupon to Simple & Fresh Cooking School in New Smyrna Beach. Classes will be November 5 and 12. Choose between the following options:
- For $79, you get a hands-on antipasti-making class (a $169 value).
- For $99, you get a hands-on antipasti-making class and a wine-tasting class (a $248 value).
Simple & Fresh Cooking School's instructors Ed and Nora Pankonin ladle Old World Italian cooking techniques from Florence, Bologna, and Sicily into voracious brains. Students can gain greater mastery of the kitchen by chopping and arranging fresh ingredients in the hands-on class, preparing both hot and cold antipasti dishes. Like early Roman cities, antipasto platters consist of stacks of cured meats, olives, peppers, and cheeses surrounded by pools of olive oil. The wine-tasting class add-on introduces novice oenophiles to the subtle flavors and delicate scents of imported Italian wine. Students sip fine wines from tall glasses, transforming their tongues into deft judges of fermented hints of raspberries, oak casks, and international copyright law.
Simple & Fresh
After publishing his first cookbook, Edward Pankonin decided he wanted to take a more hands-on approach to teaching others about food. He wanted to expand on what he'd written about his Italian family, dating back to their American emigration in the late 1800s—and share their beloved recipes with even more people. And so, he and his wife Nora opened a cooking school and named it for his book: Simple & Fresh.
This school doesn't just teach recipes, though. Modeled after the cooking schools of Italy, Simple & Fresh relies on fresh ingredients and sources flavors the Pankonins found throughout their travels, including that one time they raided an olive baron's pantry. During regular and specialty classes, students delve into seasonal dishes, learn Italian bread-baking or stuffed pasta-making, and prepare regional dishes from across Italy. Every session is completely hands-on and allows participants to experiment with the techniques they learn. To help students replicate these recipes at home, the school's grocery offers imported and housemade goods such as rustic pasta sauces, extra-virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and baked desserts.