What I like...
- The lessons are hands-on and individual basis, meaning you have to bake your own final product by yourself, not in pair or group, to bring home. You have your own set of equipment, including mixer, induction cooker, etc. Cooking lessons are somewhat slightly different as students cook a few dishes during a lesson, so the group will work together but everyone will contribute, like 1 person will cut carrot, another person marinates the meat. At the end of the cooking lesson, everyone gets a portion of each dish, trust me, the dishes are usually enough to be eaten as lunch or dinner, so you do get to eat a hearty meal.
- Students to instructor ratio is low; it's a maximum of 4 students to 1 instructor. If you're the only one who books a particular lesson, you have the instructor to yourself, meaning you have undivided attention from the instructor. Yes, they still proceed to teach you even if you're the only student for that lesson. The studio will not cancel your lesson. If your instructor is sick or unable to turn up for lesson for whatever reason, another instructor will be assigned for the lesson.
- When you book a lesson, you can see who is the assigned instructor for that particular recipe/lesson before you book it, so you can keep going back to your favourite instructor(s). They don't usually change the instructor unless due to unforeseen circumstance, such as he/she is sick. You would also prefer a healthy instructor to be teaching you, right?
- No washing needed, except to wash your hands, haha... You do not need to wash any of the mixing bowls, pots, cutleries, scrapers, spatulas, etc that you use during all lessons and when you having your meal there after the cooking lessons. They employed staff to do all the washing. You paid to learn how to bake or cook, isn't it? Who doesn't know how to wash the stuff, if you don't know, then perhaps you should learn to wash your own plate after a meal before you even start to learn baking or cooking. Hence, the money that you paid for attending lessons is really spent on learning instead of wasting part of the time to do washing, don't you think so?
- No need to weigh most of the ingredients, so you save some time too, which you can spend your time to really do the baking or cooking.
- If you're new, as in it's your first few lessons, the instructor will teach you the basic things, like even how to crack an egg correctly!!! This is where I really learn all my basic techniques, like J-fold, not to overmix cake mixtures, beating up the meringue successfully without using tartar or even lemon juice, etc, which were my major takeaways from all the baking sessions. With the knowledge that I've learnt at ABC, I was able to bake a chocolate flavour castella cake successfully at my first attempt just by watching youtube video, which a friend told me that the cake was really nice. You may laugh but we don't always succeed at our first attempt based on recipe from youtube video, right?
- The recipes given are printed in colours with illustrations showing the steps, which the illustrations help me to recall the steps or things to be done when I was back home after the lesson, looking through the recipe.
- You get to bring back a whole cake or x pieces of bread/wagashi depending on recipe for that bread/wagashi. The cake is comparable to a small whole cake that you buy from Prima Deli, not slices or mini ones. Ice packs are also provided for cakes that are temperature sensitive.
- You would complete all baking or cooking during the lesson, so you don't have to bring any remaining ingredients home to finish the baking or cooking. Hence, for some reasons, if say the cake didn't turn out as it should be, you probably can get to attend a make-up lesson for the same recipe. When I made mille crepe back then, I asked the instructor for ice packs but was told me ice packs not needed. By the time I reached home and opened the box, the crepe had collapsed and flowed to one side as the fresh cream melted while I made my way home. I called up the studio and told them about it, asked how to cut and eat it when the cream had melted, so they helped me to book another lesson to make up for it, which the crepe made during the next lesson, arrived home "safe and sound", ice packs were given, haha...
- Before you decide if you want to spend that money, you can attend a trial to try out if you like the environment, how lesson is being conducted, etc. The trial is relatively priced much cheaper than a regular lesson, so the recipe is usually simpler. The trial I did... I had done that recipe at home several times and friends who had tried it all gave good reviews! My hubby and children simply love that chocolate cake; it's so simple to reproduce at home.
- What makes it more exciting now is that they have introduced their very own ABC International Passport, just last year! This passport is given to new members and existing members who top up their lessons, except for kids course. With this passport, you can go to the studio in other countries to attend a regular lesson for FREE! The passport is valid for 2 years. I would not go into the details such as the rules, it's not my "job" to explain, you can just google and find out more information. Do I have one? The one in the photo shown here is mine and my son also has one. During our trip to Kuala Lumpur last December, my son and I attended a regular basic cake lesson each. My relatives who got to try the end products all said nice!
Do I sound like I'm working for them? Seriously I'm not... I just like to bake and by far, this is one studio that I like! The above points are what I've personally gone through that I can share with you and you would probably hear most of them from the instructor if you ever go for a trial, but a customer or a staff sounds more convincing? Hahaha...
If anyone is ever interested to attend a trial after reading this long posting, feel free to drop me an email at bunnybluey@yahoo(dot)com(dot)sg. You get to attend the trial at cheaper rate and I get to attend for free when I go with you, hahaha... but but this is not the intention of this post, I just want to focus on baking related stuff this year, at least for first half of 2018. I wrote about my renovation journey in 2016, mia for 2017, so now back in 2018 with a new focus. Perhaps later half of the year, I'll focus on the stress of a SAHM who teaches my own children as my son is P5 this year, eeeeeeeee.................. English, Maths, Science, Chinese, Higher Chinese... I think talk about my passion in baking is more fun, lol!
What's next? Think think think... don't know... see you soon... if I'm not bogged down by CNY baking, hee... bye for now!
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