Milk Street Intensive: Become a Kitchen Improv Expert with Rosemary Gill

The Art of Kitchen Improv Intensive is for students interested in learning why cooking works, not just how. Over six weeks and three livestream classes, the small group of 25 students will work together and independently with Milk Street’s Director of Education Rosemary Gill to learn the cooking theory, principles and techniques you need to make boldly flavored, simple and memorable meals. You’ll leave the Intensive course able to cook with ease, confidence and skill without relying on recipes.

The three classes are from 6-7:30 pm EST on Tuesday, January 14, Tuesday, January 28 and Tuesday, February 11, 2025. Students are expected to attend all three sessions. However, if you cannot attend a session, you can still sign up. We will share a recording of each session.

In the first session, we will dive into an advanced study of our Cooking Theory, a formula we use to create and evaluate dishes. We will also discuss Reverse Engineering, a practice of defining how your want your food to taste and then determining the techniques and ingredients you need to get there. Reverse Engineering and our Cooking Theory work together to guarantee cooking success. We’ll use two tacos to illustrate these lessons. We’ll make both Quick Refried Beans and Pork Carnitas and consider how these two very different starting points force us to make equally different choices about the remaining components of the meals (salsas, toppings, etc) so that each is full of contrasting textures and flavors.

Session Two considers our approach to substitutions, a unique and refreshing way to easily customize recipes to match what you have on hand and your preferences. Learning how to make smart substitutions reveals the flavor, chemical and textural relationships between ingredients in a recipe. Once you understand these interactions, you know how a recipe works, what you can change, what you can’t and how to do so. Whether or not you need to swap out ingredients or change cooking methods in a recipe, understanding these relationships is crucial know-how for confident cooking. In Session One we will choose together the recipes to use in this second session to practice our approach to substitutions.

Session Three builds on the first two and focuses on the more advanced practice of Layering Flavor, both a technique and a principle of Milk Street cooking. As simple as using lemon zest in a dish that also has lemon juice and as nuanced as selecting vegetables and herbs that come from the same plant family, layering flavor is the best way to create food that has bold and complex flavor without losing the clarity and simplicity we seek in great meals. Overly zealous cooks can take the idea too far and end up with “everything but the kitchen sink” dishes. We’ll use our time together to make sure you know how to layer flavor smartly and with the best results. We’ll make and experiment with two recipes together—Guatemalan Chirmol, a smoky fresh salsa and Egyptian Dukkah, a toasted seed, spice and nut blend, with roasted vegetables — to give context to our learning.

Each group session will build on pre- and post-class work assignments supplemented by optional one-to-one communication with Rosie. Assignments may include short cooking experiments, critical thinking exercises, and/or practice developing recipes. These small assignments between sessions will ensure that we can jump into more advanced learning together during the livestream classes.
Join us to become your best cook!
Note: Each session includes cooking, tasting, analysis and conversation. You will be sent recipes and ingredients at least one week prior to each session.
About Milk Street Intensives
Milk Street Intensives offer in-depth learning experiences in focused subject areas. Taught by Milk Street teachers and expert guest instructors, Intensives include multiple livestream sessions with the same small group of students. In addition to cooking at each class, students are encouraged to work on specific cooking experiments and assignments between classes. Plus, students in our Intensives have direct access to their teachers throughout the length of the course to address questions, and they can chat with fellow students about their progress. Intensives are limited to 25 students and are completely remote learning experiences.

Want to give this class as a gift? You can purchase gift cards here.

Immediately after registering, you will get a confirmation email that contains the Zoom meeting log-in information for all the sessions. At least one week prior to each session, you will receive instructions on how to prepare ingredients and equipment in order to cook along with us.

After each session, you will receive a recording of the event, as well as a packet with recipes and resources that we discuss during the event. If you have any questions about this intensive, please don't hesitate to get in touch via [email protected].

This intensive has limited spots, and you must register in advance via Eventbrite. One sign-up covers one device. Closed Captioning is available for this event.

Payments for Milk Street livestream intensives are non-refundable. If you find yourself unable to attend, you may transfer the ticket to someone else, but we are unable to refund fees and all payments are final.

Proceeds from livestream cooking classes, workshops and intensives support Milk Street's non-profit work with The Big Sisters Association of Great Boston, The Boys & Girls Club of Dorchester, FoodCorps and other partners.

Bonus: All attendees of this intensive will receive a one-time 15% off coupon to the after each session.

Host or Publisher Milk Street's Small Group Workshops