After a successful launch in October 2021, Canada’s first online cooking school, Cooking School with the London Chef, is thrilled to announce it has already grown to more than 1,000 international students in its first six months, thanks to a unique business model that’s based on a singular mission: To make cooking fun.
“I’m really keen to get people having fun in the kitchen. I love teaching people how to taste and understand food, not just how to follow a recipe, but how to actually cook and enjoy it! If cooking feels like a chore, you’re doing it wrong. I want cooking to be a part of the day you truly look forward to,” says Cooking School Founder, Chef Dan Hayes.
“People have been asking me to teach online for several years now, and I couldn’t be more thrilled with the initial response to Cooking School. Whether you’re cooking for yourself, for two, or for a whole family cooking is a life skill that is so important, and I guarantee we’ll have a bloody good time – every class is filled with great people and lots of laughs!”
With his background in high-end and Michelin-star European restaurants, Chef Dan Hayes, aka The London Chef, is a classically-trained chef, world-class educator, and co-host of the beloved series Moosemeat & Marmalade, which airs in three languages around the world.
Cooking School is a virtual offering that builds on Dan’s record of teaching more than 100,000 students to cook from his brick and mortar school in Victoria, BC. One of the platform’s most engaging features is its live cooking classes – which are offered six times per month and attract an average of 200 participants per class. The best part is that every class feels like a community gathering, where people are encouraged to relax, chat with each other, interrupt Dan with questions and comments, and generally have fun in the kitchen.
As the platform continues to expand throughout 2022, Hayes is taking Cooking School on the road, to teach cuisines from around the world, starting with Spain in July.
“My husband and I signed up for Cooking School in November of 2021, and it’s really inspired new levels of confidence in our kitchen. Every month, we join the live classes with Dan, and we also use the Library for weekly inspiration. While we both enjoy cooking, we’d become less adventurous in our meals. Now, we’re having fun again when we cook! We can’t wait for the Spain-themed classes this summer, to vicariously enjoy the country of Spain, through Spanish food,” says Cooking School student, Day Deans-Buchan.
Cooking School also meets an increased trend for at-home cooking during the pandemic: a 2021 Deloitte Food Consumer Survey found that up to 72 per cent of Canadian consumers were cooking more at home than during the previous year, and a total of 63 per cent were cooking from scratch four to six times per week.
