Viking Cooking School in Greenwood, Mississippi
Recipe for a great weekend
Ingredients:
- Good friends
- Road trip
- Good food
- Laughter
- Wine
- Learning
- Viking Cooking School
- Take 4 good friends and send them on a road trip with plenty of snacks and stops.
- Have them arrive at the Viking Cooking School in Greenwood, Mississippi
- Select the Indulgent Dinner Party Class and teach them how to fry goat cheese as well as many other things.
- Ply them with wine.
- Add lots of laughter and joking…
Ok, Ok, I’ll stop. I’ve taken this recipe analogy way too far. But it is pretty darn accurate.
Our friends, Bo and Kathy, have June birthdays only one day apart. They invited us to go with them to the Viking Cooking School in Greenwood, Mississippi to celebrate. We immediately said yes and purchased our tickets!
Classes at the Viking Cooking School
We signed up for the Indulgent Dinner Party Class but there are many more to choose from! The New York Steak class, From Farm to Table, Date Night in the Big Easy…they all sound interesting. However, the class I really hope to return to the Viking cooking school to take is their Southern Specialties from the hit movie The Help. (The Help was filmed around the Greenwood, Mississippi area.) During this class you are taught to make fried chicken.
It’s sad, but true. I’m a southern woman who doesn’t know how to make fried chicken. I think this is a skill which is sorely lacking in my life! I mean, can I really consider myself a southern woman without a good fried chicken recipe in my repertoire?
Tip: I would suggest that you purchase your tickets well in advance of your trip to the Viking Cooking School as the classes fill up quickly.
We arrived at the bright and spotless training kitchen and after introductions all round from our chef, her two sous-chefs, and all the guests we were ready to cook. These classes are very hands on so be sure and wear comfortable shoes and be prepared to chop and stir and saute.
On the menu for our Indulgent Dinner Party class we had:
- Lobster cakes with champagne butter sauce
- salad with herbes de provence and goat cheese
- filet with bacon jam
- roasted red bliss and sweet potatoes
- chocolate creme brulee with fresh raspberries
Yes, it was as good as it sounds!
The chefs here were excellent and the organization of the evening was especially impressive. We had clear instructions and the various components of the courses were prepared so that all the parts were completed at just the right time.
There were 11 people in our class and we worked in two groups of four and one group of 3. We would gather around to listen to instructions and then go back to our stations to work.
The chef and her helpers would pass by to answer any questions and make sure that you were doing things properly. We had appetizers and a choice of red or white wine or beer so that we could nibble and sip as we cooked.
My husband and I and our friends are certainly not experts, but we do like to cook and we have some experience just from years of living and preparing food. However, you definitely do not have to be an experienced cook to enjoy the Viking Cooking School classes.
Everything is presented clearly and simply enough for a complete novice to follow. They say that 77,000 people attend their classes each year! Obviously this means that the employees and chefs have worked with cooks of all experience levels.
I appreciated that the chef and her helpers were warm and friendly and very good at handling the group. They kept everything moving along without being too serious. It was just a ton of fun. We laughed and joked as we chopped and fried. I hope that our rowdy group of four weren’t too much of a handful for them!
In case you are wondering if the class is just a way to sell more Viking products I will say that there was no push to purchase anything. It was great using the Viking appliances and utensils but this class was all about the cooking.
We didn’t create a perfect meal. For example, we had to put our goat cheese back in the pan because it was still cold in the middle and we accidentally made Kathy’s steak a bit too rare for her, but with a bit of tweaking everything ended up being delicious. It’s always exciting learning to make new and interesting foods. The bacon jam was my favorite and I will definitely try that again.
All around it was a great culinary, social, and just plain ol’ fun experience. It doesn’t hurt that our friends are such great people!
I highly recommend taking a class at the Viking Cooking School!
The Viking Cooking School was amazing and so was the town of Greenwood. Learn more about where to stay and what restaurants to try, as well as what to do in Greenwood, Mississippi!
Thanks so much for stopping by,
Karen