Friday, October 19, 2012

City Chicks: Wicked Shahp Knife Skillz

Not too long ago I started noticing tweets and facebook posts about City Chicks; a self proclaimed "21st Century Home Ec" school. To say the least I was intrigued, and started to follow them on twitter.

City Chicks runs their classes out of Kitchen Inc, a community kitchen in Somerville that is also used by various other local culinary endeavors (such as Culinary Cruisers the folks behind the delicious gourmet fresh fruit popsicles Ocean Ave Pops). A look at their website and their social media says that their range of classes really does span what you might imagine a modern day home ec class should, with everything from cooking and baking, to at-home hair styling and makeup, to butchering, and knitting.

Now, I've wanted to take a knife skills class for years. For some reaon even with all of my talk about it, I just never quite seemed to make the commitment and sign up for one. (Do you see where I am doing with this? Remember, I've told you before, I am very lucky with odd things)

As I mentioned earlier, I follow City Chicks on twitter. They provide updates on upcoming classes, live tweets from their classes, information on their collaborations (like sausage making with Slumbrew beer sampling), and some really hand tips (like this one: Chick Tip: Made a mess in the oven? Sprinkle salt over the spill [while still hot], and wipe clean after oven cools. #nomess #chicktip).... and one day recently they held a contest. First two people to retweet information about their upcoming knife skills class would get to go to the class for free.

Brilliant! I was the first to retweet, and I won! Which is super exciting because not only had I been wanting to go to a knife skills class but I had also really wanted to check out City Chicks in action.



Heather, who runs City Chicks, was very welcoming; the whole evening felt like meeting up with old friends. She offered some apple cider and water while we waited for the class to start. She introduced me to Chef Brian who was leading the class. And gave me a run down of all of the great things that happen in Kitchen Inc, as well as some information on upcoming classes.

The class itself was great. Chef Brian did a great job at catering his teachings to his audience. We learned about knife safety, how to sharpen a knife (excited to put this skill to use in my kitchen), and then moved on to cutting various seasonally appropriate fruits & vegetables (carrots, potatoes, onions, butternut squash, apples, and herbs).

For me, the biggest A-HA moment of the night was the revelation that when you have a round or cylindrical vegetable, if you square it off first, it's much easier to cut (and make look pretty). I know this sounds pretty obvious, but for some reason this hadn't really occured to me before. From now on... perfect carrot sticks!

Just about half way through class Heather brought out a small plate of snacks; cheese, crackers, grapes, hummus, and a homemade apple chutney. Which was a really nice touch, again making the class feel like you were with friends.

I cannot wait to attend another City Chicks class, and to introduce my domestically inclined Boston area friends them.

Thanks City Chicks.


A small disclaimer: I did not pay for the City Chicks Wicked Shahp Knife Skillz class I attended. However, the thoughts and opinions I have expressed in this blog are my own.