NYC Cooking Blog & Newsletter

Launching the Kids Culinary Academy – Let’s do this!

For fifteen years, My Cooking Party has been a premier destination for corporate team-building events, bridal showers, bachelorette and birthday parties, and public cooking competitions. We have welcomed thousands of children and adults into our kitchens and emphasized the fun in the fundamentals of cooking.

We’re not ashamed to say it: our cooking classes are a chiffonade cut above the rest!

And now, we’re excited to launch a new initiative – our Kids Culinary Academy.

If your children can’t get enough of Chopped Junior, love helping out in the kitchen at home, and enjoy filet mignon as much as chicken nuggets, they will love our two-week academy. We offer two age-based course tracks – one for 8-to-11-year-olds, the other for teens ages 12 to 15. Both courses focus on the foundational skills of cooking. Under the supervision of a professionally trained chef, your children will learn essential knife skills and safety, as well as techniques like searing, sautéing, poaching, and grilling. They will also enjoy a sit-down meal at the end of every day of camp.

At Kids Culinary Academy, we won’t patronize your kids’ taste buds. Unlike some camps where the cooking is no more advanced than pizza and cookies, our menus include frittata caprese, chicken scaloppini, and poached peaches. We’ll show your kids that vegetables can be delicious – roasted, steamed, or grilled – and that they can create elegant meals from scratch.

For our younger chefs (8-11), our two-week course starts with Week 1 – Fundamentals of Cooking, where we teach them knife skills and cooking techniques. The second week is Practicing Your Craft. Practicing Your Craft is all about taking what they’ve learned in the first week to execute meals fit for an adult audience. We won’t be oversimplifying our dishes. Our little chefs will make entrees and sides like grilled pork loin with a coriander crust and roasted green beans with garlic and olive oil. (You’ll definitely want them to show you their skills when they get home!) At the end of each day, your young chef will sit down to a three-course meal of their own making and truly appreciate what they’re capable of.

For our older chefs (12-15), we also begin with Week 1 – Fundamentals of Cooking. Then in Week 2, we host The Food Fight, a daily competition where your teens get to live out their cooking show fantasies. Campers are divided into teams and presented each day with two ingredients that they must turn into two different dishes. Our instructors will help and guide the campers, but the competition will come down to your teen chef’s own culinary ingenuity. Participants will be judged on the creativity, plating, and flavor of their creations, as well as their use of a curveball ingredient introduced during the contest. After five days of fierce competition, the winning team receives a special prize. As with all our classes, participants will have a sit-down meal at the end of each day.

At My Cooking Party, we recognize that your young chefs are curious, smart, and talented and we’re excited to nurture and cultivate their kitchen skills. We aim to make our Kids Culinary Academy the Ivy League of cooking camps because it’s what your kid deserves.

How to Throw the Best Food Event in NYC

With 1.7 million people crammed into only 23 square miles, it’s no wonder Manhattan is known for its closet-sized apartments, overcrowded train cars, and irritated sidewalk stompers. When looking for a venue to host an event, especially one that may involve cooking, the problem of limited space becomes even more glaring. If you want to host more than three people at your event, where can you turn? Where in New York can you find a large space with stylish décor, great amenities, and excellent in-house coordinating support?

Answer: My Cooking Party.

Here at My Cooking Party, we pride ourselves on the setting and atmosphere we create for our clients’ most ambitious projects. With years of experience executing our own cooking parties and classes, we know exactly how to help you maximize the impact and effect of your product launch, food media event, film shoot, or brand experience.

My Cooking Party has two spacious lofts – one in Chelsea, the other in Flatiron. Each has been thoughtfully designed with a working front-of-house kitchen, a large dining area, and a bar. Best of all, our lofts are versatile enough to become, for example, an indoor marketplace for a fresh produce vendor (we did that!) or the site of a celeb cooking show (yep, we did that too!).

From grocery shopping services to catering to chef and/or waitstaff, we offer the resources and tools you need to succeed. We stress about it, so you don’t have to.

Click here for more information on how to get premium space and service for your next media event, product launch or TV/Film shoot!

Winter Cold Blues? We can fix that.

Winters can seem to last half the year in New York City with gray skies, freezing winds, and drifts of dirty snow on every corner. The ever-present puddles at the curb ice over and the avenues turn into wind tunnels whipping at your nose and tangling your hair. It’s enough to make anyone want to stay inside until June.

Here at My Cooking Party, we combat the steely cold outside with food that transports you. Our chefs turn dull, cold winter days into beach getaways or cozy nights by the fireplace. We weave a web of magic that makes you forget the freezing rain and snow-capped trash heaps.

If you’re looking for a tropical getaway, look no further than our massaman shrimp appetizer, a perfect bite of island bliss.

Our shrimp appetizer harkens to the lush Eden of Thailand with massaman curry and coconut milk. A dash of ginger – native to the hot tropics of India – will conjure palm fronds and shimmering heat waves. You’ll feel a balmy breeze on your cheeks and sand beneath your feet as you indulge in a taste of island paradise.

Looking to stay a little closer to home? Why not try our Thanksgiving Hen menu? Sure, Thanksgiving is in the rearview mirror, but the holiday season redeems the whole cold slog of winter, and we’d all like it back, please!

George Hughes, Dinner Party

So, let our chefs take you to the most wonderful time of year with Cornish hens, cranberry stuffing, celery root puree, green beans, and gravy. Every bite is full of rich, homey flavors that are as cozy and comfortable as a holiday sweater. In the wet cold of February and March, it can be difficult to remember anything good about this season, but we’ll remind you with a meal straight out of Grandma’s recipe book.

Maybe you’re not looking for island vacations or nostalgic holiday food. Maybe what you’re missing are the glorious days of summer with rooftop barbecues and Coney Island trips to ride the Cyclone. Sadly, our chefs can’t mimic the whips and dips of a ninety-year old coaster, but we can certainly deliver delicious summer eats and cold beer even in the dead of winter.

Our hors d’oeuvres selection will have you thinking of summer in no time, with mini burgers (topped with Maytag blue cheese, sautéed onions, and ketchup), mini corn dogs (with a honey-Dijon dip) and cauliflower florets (a perfect vegan dupe for buffalo wings). You might just forget that it’s gray outside with these delicious warm-weather eats being passed around. Pair your mini corn dog with a crisp, cold beer* and be transported to July weekends in the summer sun.

At My Cooking Party, we think your food should transport you! During the bitter cold months (and let’s face it, winter in New York isn’t over until mid-to-late April), book a party with us and we’ll give you a warm respite.

*At additional cost.

Finding a New You with Cooking

For many, cooking is a stressful and difficult activity. That’s why many people opt for fast food. There are ways, however, in which cooking can be beneficial. While shopping for ingredients and trying to follow a recipe can be challenging at times, cooking can help alleviate anxiety. Whether you need some quiet time or want to socialize with friends, cooking offers the perfect opportunity to do so.

Cooking Can Help You Destress

Instead of turning to alcohol or ice cream to destress from a divorce, try cooking. Many people find cooking to be therapeutic. If you haven’t been taking care of yourself since the divorce, cooking can help you take control of your lifestyle. Plus, if you choose a recipe that cooks slowly, the process of cooking can feel like meditation. You’ll feel more relaxed.

Cooking Can Help You Eat Healthier

Cooking can be used as a tool to help you eat healthier. You may not have felt like cooking much since the divorce, but fast food isn’t doing your body any favors. By preparing your own meals, you avoid the greasy, salty and fatty food found in restaurants. In addition, you can better exercise portion control. You can control how much you want to eat, whereas restaurants tend to serve oversized portions. This keeps you from feeling stuffed and lacking in energy.

Cooking Can Help You Make New Friends

While most people cook alone, you don’t necessarily have to. In fact, a cooking class can open your eyes to a new way of socializing. Cooking is a great way to create delicious food and enjoy good conversation with others. After a divorce with the help of an Albany divorce attorney, it can be refreshing to find new friends and be able to talk to them about adult stuff, especially if you’re a parent of young children. Making friends can be hard as we get older, but cooking helps because you already have a shared interest: food! You can broaden your horizons and explore food from other cultures. You and your friends can also get together several times a week to cook dinners for each other. This allows you to eat healthy, socialize and get your mind off the divorce.

How My Cooking Party Can Help

My Cooking Party literally turns something as mundane as cooking into a fun party. My Cooking Party offers classes for team building events and can also host birthday parties, holiday parties, bridal showers and bachelorette parties. The staff at My Cooking Party encourages customers to cook with passion and learn by doing. You won’t have to listen to boring lectures; after all, cooking is supposed to fun! Even if you hated cooking while you were married, you’ll love it now that you’re divorced.

Try Cooking after Divorce

A divorce can be very stressful on a person. Anger and blame are not beneficial. Instead, try a cooking class to get rid of anger, anxiety and depression, and to help move forward with your life.

Guest blog post from: Colwell Law Group

Why Cooking Classes Are The Best Way For NYC Visitors To Experience The New York City Food Scene

Perhaps you’re interested in culinary tourism, or maybe you are just looking for a fun activity while visiting the Big Apple. The whole search for the best of the best could be a bit daunting. After all, New York City is swimming with great restaurants, but more often than not, tourists are subjected to the sort of Walmart establishments that pay the highest prices for visibility, and fail to deliver on an authentic NYC foodie driven atmosphere, and they do even worse when it comes to the food itself!Watch Full Movie Online Streaming Online and Download

If you really want to connect with New Yorkers who are embedded in the NYC food scene, come to the What’s In Your Cupboards Cooking School for some straight talk! Here you will get your hands dirty, building a dish you never thought you were capable of executing, among passionate and well informed New Yorkers who could direct you to the real deal spots where New Yorkers eat, drink and be merry.