26. Bake Bread
There is nothing like making your own bread - even if just for the wonderful smell in the house! This is a must-do at least once in every food lovers kitchen.
27. Build an Epic Cheese Plate
Aside from being Entertaining 101, it's the easiest answer to making an elegant lazy night dinner. Know how to select your cheeses, what to add to the plate as perfect accompaniments like apricots drizzled with honey, or foie gras... and finally, know how to make this plate look like one delivered from the Gods.
28. Celebrate a Food Tradition That Isn't Yours
One of our missions is to preserve authentic dishes around the world along with cultural traditions. This year we're tackling a traditional New Orleans King Cake to celebrate Mardi Gras. This simple cake is baked with a baby (plastic baby, that is) inside. The person who gets the slice with the hidden treat is said to have a lucky year. What a cool tradition to bring home. There are many wonderful food traditions across the world associated deeply with holidays or important moments in a culture. Go all out and celebrate a food tradition that isn't yours.
29. Pick Your Own Fruit
Bring the kids and pick your own berries, apples, strawberries, oranges, grapes, or whatever is grown nearby. It's a day long adventure with tasty rewards.
30. Dine Alone
Overcome that fear. Eating alone allows you to appreciate your surroundings, focus on the food, and your inner thoughts. It's a fantastic experience and one everyone should have. So book the best table at a nice restaurant and plan to have a multi course meal alone (put away the phone please).
31. Find Your Soup
If you venture to take a Japanese Cooking Class Miso Soup will become your new home staple. Maybe lentil, french onion, or mushroom soup is more your style. Every cook needs to have their home soup recipe. Experiment with your favourites and perfect your go-to's. Make a lot and freeze for a quick and cozy meal. Done, and done.
32. Bone a Fish
The ability to debone and fillet a whole fish is a great skill to have. If you end up on a deserted island, you’ll be happy you did this one.
Book a private 1:1 online cooking class with a top chef in Turkey, teaching you how to make Salt Baked Fish.
33. Order Dessert First
Why not a dessert for an appetizer? While indulgence is a trend we only get behind in moderation, we do believe in living life to its fullest. Skip the dessert with a milkshake topped with cake, with a slice of pie, attached to a donut... but do order a little pecan pie before your trout almandine. Life is short!
34. Learn How to Cook a Whole Chicken
The meal that keeps on giving. Depending on how many people you’re cooking for this could be dinner and next day’s lunch, not to mention you can also make an awesome stock. It's our go to dinner party meal when cooking for four.
35. Make Your Own Salad Dressings
Please. Stop buying store bought dressing. Homemade dressing is SO EASY! From fresh herbs to good olive oils, you control what is going into your dressings. Once you start doing this, you’ll never buy dressings off the shelf again.
36. Go on a Wine Tour
If you’re travelling, make sure to check out a vineyard in that region and if you’re not, explore local wineries! They usually have daily tours and sometimes hourly. Make sure to ask questions and learn a little something.
37. Try a New Vegetable - Every Week
There is no need to keep going back to the same carrots and potatoes. Add new varieties to the mix and grab that weird looking vegetable you always see at the grocery store and experiment. And while you might think trying a new vegetable every week is challenging, you might think different... Rutabaga, Parsnip, Celeriac, Cabbage, Romanesco, Kohlrabi, Salsify, and Fennel, your time has arrived.
38. Make it Extra Spicy
Spicy food is fantastic for your metabolism. So why not be a bit while and make it extra hot this time.
39. Have a Picnic
Theres nothing quite as lovely as a summer day and eating watermelon outside. So grab a blanket, head to the park and don’t forget the frisbee.
40. Eat 20 Varieties of Rice
It's said there's over 40,000 of cultivated rice that exists. So, 20 is nothing. Rice is one of the most important staples in every part of the world. With every region having different specialities native to the local soil. From its an aromatic basmati, Jasmine from Thailand or a chewy black rice, you’d be surprised how different they are.
41. Make Ice Cream
It's easier than you think! Get creative with flavours and ingredients like pretzels, graham crackers and coffee. Have you already made Ice Cream? Awesome - next, make gelato!
42. Eat Latkes during Hanukkah
Not Jewish? All good! Enjoy the celebration of other cultures. These potato pancakes have been prepared as part of the Hanukkah festival since the mid-1800s. Shredded potatoes mixed with flour and traditionally fried in schmaltz which is rendered fat from chickens, geese, or beef, latkes are still a staple during the holiday season but now more commonly fried in olive oil.
43. Up Your Knife Skills
How good is your claw? Good knife skills not only prevent accidents but also increase efficiency in the kitchen. One thing is for sure, having a good knife makes a world of a difference.
44. Go to Aperitivo
Make this Italian tradition one of your own. In Italy this pre-dinner snack is a wonderful way to relax after a long day of work. Can’t make it to Italy? Take one of The Chef & The Dish Italian Cooking Classes to bring Italy to you.
45. Explore Ethnic Food Markets/Stores in Your Area
Get lost in a store where you can’t read the label. Its a blast to explore world markets when you don’t know what you’re looking at. So throw caution to the wine, close your eyes, grab something off the shelf, take it home and see what you can do with it.
46. Cook a full meal on the BBQ (dessert too!)
Make the whole meal outside, side dishes and all.
47. Eat Tapas for Dinner
Though there are traditional tapas like Spanish Tortilla, tapas are just small, more snackable sizes of dishes. So rather then have a big plate of one dish, fill your plate with all kinds of flavours. Tapa is all about your company, so indulge in a variety of small snacks and have a blast. Learn more about tapas and Spanish culture - have a tapas party, Sangria and all!
Master tapas at home. Book a private 1:1 virtual cooking class with master chefs, live in Spain.
48. Go Mushroom Foraging
This popular activity is a great way to find edible varieties near you.
49. Try a New Cheese
We love cheddar but experimenting with interesting new cheeses from different parts of the world is a great way to open your palette. And while camels milk cheese, popular in Ethiopia and UAE, may not be on your next cheese plate, broaden your cheesy horizons.
50. Have an Adult Pizza Party
At what age did we stop having pizza parties?! Lets bring them back but instead of soda and slab pizza, think more wine and handmade gourmet personal pizzas. Let everyone deck their own pizza and everyone get to try each other’s creations. Have fun with toppings like fig jam, sun dried tomatoes, prosciutto and fresh herbs.
RELATED
Re-invent your night in. Video call a chef who lives in Italy, Mexico, Thailand or other countries into your kitchen for a private 1:1 online cooking. Master the world's most amazing dishes, have fun, make awesome food. BUY NOW >
