Chef Blake

We were honestly very disappointed in this class. Chef Blake was very nice and gave us good cooking tips, but this was a “demonstration only” class which was not at all advertised or stated in the description. Previous reviews made it seem like you could participate, but we were not able to get hands-on at any point which was incredibly disappointing, especially at the price point. There was a lot of sitting around and waiting while the meat/chili cooked in the instant pot. It would have been much better if he had us chop the vegetables or something at least. That way he could have gotten us involved in the “knife skills” portion of the class as advertised. Instead we watched as he did it all (albeit not too much is involved with chili) and described. He was kind to answer our cooking-related questions, but it was a bit of a bore to just sit and watch. As far as the chili goes, a leaner cut of meat would be much more preferable as there was quite a bit of gristle and large chunks of fat that made it less palatable. My opinion may be anomalous, but I’m not a fan of meat gum and I found myself needing to spit large chunks out into the napkin. It was tender enough to fall off the bone, but we all thought it would have been better to be more finely shredded as well. The broth was also more soupy than a chili consistency and the flavor only really became good only after we added in all of the toppings (everyone wanted more seasoning). Overall, while Chef Blake was personable and kind, advertising the class better to reflect the demonstration-only nature and a better cut of meat with more seasonings (prior to cooking) would go a long way.

Chef Blake provided a wonderful experience for my corporate team event! I received a call from him the day before to check-in with me and my group. When I asked for accommodations for vegetarians, he was able to come prepared with an alternative recipe (tofu instead of shrimp). He was knowledgeable and informative about buying good produce, knife skills, prepping food, and cooking. He let us prepare/cook as much or as little as we wanted, he would take over if we wanted to take a break and drink some beer. We had a child with us, and he was inclusive of all ages. I highly recommend this event with Chef Blake!