After a two-year hiatus, hands-on cooking classes with Lisa and Jeff Osais from DiFebo’s are available again. There are two dates available: Sunday, Feb. 24, and Sunday, March 30.
The cooking classes can hold about 15 to 20 people.
According to the couple, when students arrive, they will first be split into teams and get set up at stations, then choose their menus and, finally, each team will prepare four courses.
To get everyone acquainted and comfortable, they will sit down in the beginning and look at menus to figure out what they will be making. Then, they will go into kitchen and learn how to hold a knife and learn different cooking techniques.
“It was funny… One time, we had a doctor from Beebe, and I didn’t know he was a surgeon until later, and I was showing him how to hold his knife,” said Lisa Osais with a laugh. “It was a little embarrassing for me, but funny.”
The teams will arrive at the restaurant at noon and will learn their menus, experience different cooking techniques, and, then, at 5 p.m., they will all get to enjoy the fruits of their labor. The afternoon ends with everyone trying everything the other teams have made, so there will be many courses to share, and any leftovers are for the taking, promised Osais.
“We all sit down and eat. And each team has prepared four courses, so there’s literally 20 courses of food, and then people can take leftovers home,” she added.
The idea for the classes came from Lisa Osais’ love of learning about food.
“I go to classes myself and enjoy continually learning about food. And the people that go to those classes aren’t chefs — they are just regular people who want to learn more — and they are not all women. I was surprised how many men take classes, and they get really charged up about cooking.”
Both Lisa and Jeff Osais have backgrounds in cooking. They met at the Culinary Institute of America in New York some 15 years ago and have been together ever since. DiFebo’s restaurant is in its 19th year and Isabella’s, “the pizzeria for adults” across the street, has been around for five years.
“I come from a long line of family cooks — aunts, uncles, etc. who still embellish in ‘What are we having for dinner?’ And that conversation starts at breakfast!” shared Osais.
The feedback from past classes has been great, she said, and Osais expects this year to be the same.
“The cooking classes are really fun. People come with questions, and they really want to learn how to cook. And also we do wine pairing, so they learn which wines go with which entrees. They really love it.”
The cost of the class is $125 per person, or $150 per person with a wine-pairing. For more information or to sign up, call DiFebo’s at (302) 539-4550.