The kitchen is statistically the most dangerous room in a home because it contains the highest concentration of knives, open flames, and pots full of semi-living lobsters. Learn to navigate this danger zone with today’s Groupon at The Chef 4 U in Lutz. Choose between the following options:
- For $40, you get a three-course sushi-making class for one (an $80 value).
- For $70, you get a three-course sushi-making class for two (a $160 value).<p>
Classes are held 7 p.m.–9 p.m. on Thursdays, Fridays, and select Saturdays at Mrs. Tea’s Garden Tearoom on Flagship Drive. Participants must call ahead to check for availability.
The two-hour cooking classes at The Chef 4 U, structured around a full three-course meal, instruct greenhorns in the art of sushi shaping with hands-on experience and detailed explanations. After pupils loosen tastebuds or construct a temporary shelter with a surimi salad, practiced rollers begin dispersing grains of knowledge, demonstrating how to craft four popular sushi dishes such as the california roll or the shrimp-tempura roll. Hands-on exercises allow novices to further grasp techniques, such as learning how to season rice, and methods for rolling, cutting, and properly addressing bite-size packages. To finish on a sweet note, a final lesson covers the crafting of a tempura dessert, and complimentary drinks refresh pipes with swigs of Japanese beer, wine, or sake. Throughout the class, instructors provide information about fundamental ingredients and equipment needed to assemble rolls.
The Chef 4 U
Key West native Chef James helms The Chef 4 U, channeling 10 years of experience as a culinary teacher, personal chef, and caterer. During classes, the sounds that fill the kitchen grow gradually more confident as students learn to slice veggies, apply the proper bend of citric juices to ceviches, and squeeze salt from seawater for margaritas. The menus for classes and precooked meals alike are ripe with influences from Cuban, European, and Asian culinary traditions, which peep through in shredded pork, wine sauces, and miso glazes. While working in the kitchen to sate his own clients, Chef James flips through a rolodex of ingredients he went to school with in order to craft menus for vegetarian and gluten-free tastes.