Chef Lisa McKay of Lisa Kaye Catering on the west side stands in her white jacket and black cap, stirring the roux for a cheese sauce that's destined for white lasagna and explaining each step to the food lovers taking part in the cooking class.
Her students are picking up tips: No need to season the sauce as cheese already is salty; be sure to stir until the sauce is smooth.
They're watching her from their homes, on Facebook Live or on the video that's archived on the Near West Side Partners Facebook page. They were able to buy a half pan of white lasagna from her before the class, to eat at home.
Welcome to cooking classes in the age of the coronavirus and stay-at-home orders.
Food and drink classes have only grown in popularity over the years. They're a way for people to learn a new recipe or learn more about wine, beer and spirits, pick up tips from the pros and interact with them, and to have a good meal or drinks with friends or partners.
They're also a way for restaurants and bars to boost their revenue and build relationships with customers.
But with dining rooms and bars closed during this phase of the pandemic, restaurant and bar owners — and a nonprofit organization that supports the businesses in it — have created virtual classes. Here's a look at a few of them:
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Near West Side Partners
The nonprofit organization, a Milwaukee business improvement district to the west of downtown, has started a series of four cooking classes featuring new and longtime restaurants called Made in the Near West Side. At least three more classes are on the way.
"We wanted to be sure during COVID they would be stable and set up for success in the future," said Kelsey Otero, co-chairwoman of the Near West Side Partners commercial corridor working team.
The first class, on April 29, featured Lisa Kaye Catering and take-and-bake white lasagna. At 5 p.m. May 6, Five O'Clock Steakhouse, 2416 W. State St., will be demonstrating how it makes its steaks; it was selling raw steaks to cook at home, besides prepared items from its full menu and a new "party on your porch" takeout menu.
Daddy's Soul Food & Grille, 754 N. 27th St., is scheduled for 4 p.m. May 13, with the topic to be determined, and Triciclo Peru, 3801 W. Vliet St., at 4 p.m. May 20, demonstrating empanadas and selling its take-and-bake frozen empanadas.
The response by customers so far has been good, and a help to the business' bottom line, said Keith Stanley, executive director of the Near West Side Partners. The group is taking other steps to help businesses in its area during the pandemic, including coordinating small grants to help some with rent and payroll and helping them to prepare for reopening eventually.
Otero said, "We hope that people will remember them after this is over and come check them out in person."
Braise
Noted for its hyperlocal and seasonal dishes, Braise restaurant, at 1101 S. Second St., has a second-floor cooking school outfitted for hands-on classes, a relative rarity — most area classes are demonstration only. It's fallen silent since the state's stay-at-home order in mid-March.
But with takeout still allowed, chef-owner David Swanson soon began assembling meal kits that were more like take-home cooking classes: a grocery bag of ingredients, including vegetables to chop and already-measured items like broth and rice for risotto, with the recipe included. At the restaurant's website, cooks could find photos for a tutorial, showing the dish's steps from beginning to end.
"We thought it would be a fun thing to do," Swanson said, a way to "kill the boredom" of having to stay at home. He also saw it as an activity for young families, in addition to supplying a good home-cooked meal.
The meal kits were projects, dishes to make from scratch and not simply heat and eat, like massaman vegetable curry, chicken with mole verde from scratch and gnocchi with bolognese.
Customer Rebecca Fitzgerald, who had taken Braise's Pasta II class last fall with a friend, saw the DIY meal kit for gnocchi and bolognese on Facebook, the dish they had learned to make together. "I thought it would be fun for us to do virtually, along with our husbands, and also a good way to support a local restaurant," she said by email. "So we each ordered a meal kit, called each other via FaceTime, and made them again together from the comfort of our own kitchens."
"It was a blast," she said. "My husband doesn't cook at all, so it was super fun watching him try to figure out the 'instructions.' "
Even though Fitzgerald and her friend had taken the class, the meal kit gave them new challenges — the in-person class, for example, had gnocchi dough already made at participants' stations. At home, they made it from scratch.
"It was a great way to pass an evening with friends in the midst of stay-at-home measures," Fitzgerald said. "We had a lot of laughs as we figured things out, and the jokes were flying back and forth over the phone." And, she said, the kit made enough for her to leave some on friends' doorsteps and freeze for a meal later.
This month on its website, Braise was switching from the meal kits with photo tutorials to a series of video classes that customers can watch at their leisure, after buying memberships.
Bittercube Bar and Bazaar
Bittercube, the maker of bitters and liqueurs and consultant to bars, at 4828 W. Lisbon Ave., had already been thinking about putting online the cocktail classes it was holding at its west side bar. That way, anyone around the world could take part (the bitters are distributed internationally).
"The ball was kind of already rolling in that direction" when the pandemic hit, said Brandon Reyes, Bittercube's research and development manager. "And this was a big kick in that direction."
The first classes began the week that the stay-at-home order was put in place, and the company has been refining its process since then.
Cocktail kits assembled for those following along at home initially were packed with full-size bottles of liquor. That became overwhelming for the home bars of regulars, so Bittercube began packaging spirits in smaller bottles, enough to make at least two of each cocktail being demonstrated.
The kits might include some limited-edition bitters; the labor-intensive syrups for the cocktails are made at the bar. Anyone in the Milwaukee area who signs up for a class can order the kits and pick them up at Bittercube; people also can sign up to watch the class for $10 per device, without buying a kit.
Besides cocktail instruction, Bittercube has spirits tastings, and special guests might take part in the sessions. On May 9, company founders Nick Kosevich and Ira Koplowitz are tasting high-end Fortaleza tequilas with the owner, Guillermo Erickson Sauza.
Past guests include Kirk Estopinal, one of the founders of the James Beard Award-winning bar Cure in New Orleans, head bartender Toby Maloney of the Violet Hour in Chicago, Haus Alpenz importer Eric Seed, and authors Philip Greene ("To Have and Have Another: A Hemingway Cocktail Companion") and Brad Thomas Parsons ("Amaro").
Customers can ask questions during the online sessions, which are archived at Crowdcast.
Bittercube has also started a spinoff from its online classes and tastings, a variety show called "Drinky Time with Nick and Ira'" that includes live music. It can be found at 7 p.m. Thursdays on Bittercube's Facebook page.
Bittercube announces classes and other items for sale on its Instagram account. The schedule of classes, and the online shop for spirits, bitters, ready-made cocktails and other items, are on its bittercubebazaar.square.site website. Customers now buy admission and cocktail kits for the classes on Tock, although Bittercube is working on migrating class signup to the Square site, as well.
Thief Wine
It seems demand for wine tastings has been as pent up as people during a quarantine. An average of 110 wine lovers have been taking part in the Thief Wine shop and bar's wine tastings on the Zoom app since the April 11 launch, "which is pretty awesome and way more than we can fit at our bar," Thief Wine co-founder Phil Bilodeau said.
For that first class, "I was not expecting the response at all," he said; he had to call his distributor for extra cases of wine.
People can sign up to watch the tastings for free through eventbrite.com; anyone who registers will be able to watch the Zoom tasting and discussion live. It's optional to buy the wines; they can reserve and buy one, two or the set of three at a discount from Thief Wine. Wines can be picked up starting Wednesday for the Saturday tastings.
The shop has curbside service at the Milwaukee Public Market, 400 N. Water St., and in Shorewood through the end of May, 4512 N. Oakland Ave. (and free delivery to customers near the stores).
It's charging only the retail prices for the wines. "It’s really more about keeping the customer interaction going and the relationship," Bilodeau said.
Leading tastings online has been a learning experience, Bilodeau said. He now has his manager Chris Siudzinski moderate the questions from participants to keep the session going smoothly.
And Bilodeau is trying to walk the fine line of expectations — some customers want the tastings to be more like a seminar, and enjoy the maps he posts of the regions where the wines are from; others just want to kick back and enjoy the wine.
Still, he said, "We all seem to be having fun with it." He finds himself looking forward to opening the Zoom session and seeing the faces of the participants, a number of them regular customers at Thief.
And when his cat jumped on his lap during one tasting, his impulse was to shoo it, but participants rolled with it, asking about the cat's name and holding up their cats and dogs for him and others to see.
One advantage of online tastings is that it's possible to have winemakers join the sessions without the trouble of their having to travel for them. On May 16, for instance, Thief is having a tasting with Peter Stolpman of Stolpman Vineyards from Ballard Canyon in California.
Of course, drinking at home means not having to worry about having a designated driver or taking a rideshare service.
Although he wants to continue the online visits from winemakers even after the pandemic is past, Bilodeau doesn't imagine the online tastings will replace those at the shop. Online has its limitations.
He noted that usually six or seven wines are poured by the half-glass at a tasting, but people aren't going to open that many bottles at home, where one or two people typically join in.
And it's easier to interact in person, where typically 10 to 15 people are seated at a table. "It’s a lot easier to have that back and forth in person," he said.
"It’s not just a commodity," Bilodeau said of wine. "You want to learn about it and get someone’s opinion."
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Contact dining critic Carol Deptolla at carol.deptolla@jrn.com or (414) 224-2841, or through the Journal Sentinel Food & Home page on Facebook. Follow her on Twitter at @mkediner or Instagram at @mke_diner.
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