vegan cooking classes?

[wyeja]

I am a new member. My son wants to be vegan, and I'm trying to help him out. Does anyone know of vegan cooking classes in the East Bay?

[LHLisavegan]

wyeja,

That's great.

Try www.compassionatecooks.com.

That's the web site of Colleen Patrick Goudreau, and she teaches vegan cooking classes and she lives/works in Oakland, in the East Bay.

I know there are other vegan cooking classes as well, lots of vegan cookbooks & free vegan recipes on the web.

Best wishes. Lisa

[wyeja]

Thanks again, Lisa.

I found Compassionate Cooks, but what I would like for my son is a series of classes more closely spaced, rather than one themed class a month--that is, meeting semi-regularly for a while, and teaching techniques of cooking various kinds of tofu, legumes, other grains, etc. It woud be very good for my son (and me). If you happen to know of anything like that, please let me know!

wendy

[LHLisavegan]

Wendy,

I'm sorry that I do not know of any. I wouldn't be surprised if there are classes though, so hopefully someone here will know. Keep checking back because some members don't come to this forum often, and feedback is often posted long after the original post.

You can also join, if you haven't already, and post a message asking about East Bay cooking classes to the Bay Area Vegetarians mailing list:

sfbaveg@yahoogroups.com

Many people read this list and there will be more potential people to give you helpful information.

Also, I don't know how old your son is or if you live together, but many web recipes and cookbooks are appropriate for novice cookers. They have good instructions that are easy to follow. And there are also many convenience foods out there. And some standards that just happen to be vegan such as pasta with marinara sauce & veggies, peanut butter & jelly sanwiches, oatmeal or cold cereal with non-dairy milk, etc.

You, and/or your son, could also attend a BAVeg vegan food party (see the calendar at this web site) to talk with other vegans and vegan friendly people and get recipes and cooking tips and possibly infomation about classes.

Best wishes. Hope you find what you need.

Lisa

[chris]

You might want to check our online guide. There's a number of local instructors that maybe offering classes through various organizations, parks and rec or local colleges not easily found - or they maybe up for creating a custom one on one tuition.

There's also a few classes listed on our calendar right now too from Meredith McCarty.

http://www.bayareaveg.org/events.htm#other

and as Lisa suggested joining the main discussion email list may result in some good suggestions. However, I'm sure you'll get a lot of comments for Compassionate Cooks, so maybe make it clear if you've already checked them out.

Chris

[tammy]

The Cancer Project, affiliated with Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine, offers a series of cooking classes nationwide geared towards educating the public that eating foods is a great way to prevent cancer.

There are regular classes in Oakland.

AND, they are free.

You can find more info at the Cancer Project website. It looks like currently Colleen from Compassionate Cooks is the instructor for these classes.

http://www.cancerproject.org/resources/classes/oakland.php

Aside from PCRM, Animal Place, and occasionally our own group, Bay Area Vegetarians, I don't know of any other nonprofits that offer cooking classes.

For businesses, there are numerous private chefs/cooks who do this full-time as their business (like Compassionate Cooks). If you contact them, perhaps they would provide private instruction.

Tammy