Cook Confidently

Yes! I designed Nourish around the in-person cooking lessons I used to teach to novice cooks. Our lessons start from the basics and build up over the course of the 6 lessons.

We cannot guarantee you’ll cook like a professional chef by the end the course, but you will transform into a much more confident cook and possess the skills for a lifetime of nourishment in the kitchen.

Click here for testimonials from Nourish alumni.

If you’re already a very proficient cook who doesn’t rely on recipes and feels very comfortable using a knife, then Nourish is probably not right for you.

However, if you’re someone that feels comfortable following recipes but aspires to think more like a chef, then Nourish has the tools to help you get there.

We focus much more on skill development versus recipe-following to help you confidently navigate the kitchen through knowledge and intuition.

If you’ve been using our meal plan service for some time and watching the videos included with the service, chances are you’re probably fairly comfortable following recipes and prepping a wide variety of ingredients.

The additional knowledge that Nourish will provide is helping you understand some basic ‘cooking formulas.’ We’ll focus more on the underlying cooking techniques so that you can go beyond recipes and learn the fundamentals behind those recipes. About 50% of Nourish’s students are also meal plan service members.

Vegetarians can definitely still get a lot out of Nourish, but of course, not all lessons will be relevant (like how to cook a juicy, tender chicken breast). However, we will try to offer vegetarian substitutes where it makes sense.

Even though not all the videos will be as relevant for vegetarian cooks, we will be highlighting vegetable prep and cooking techniques in every meal.

Yes! We welcome Nourish members from all over the world. We have international alumni in Singapore, India, Germany and several other countries.

If you have access to a grocery store that carries basic American / Western ingredients, you should be able to find everything needed for the lessons.

All recipe downloads will also be translated into the metric system.

As for payment, we will be accepting PayPal to make it easier for you to pay from abroad.

We’ve received wonderful feedback from our alumni. Here are some testimonies from the Nourish community.

For Nourish 2017’s Spring Self-Guided session, all lessons will be made available starting Friday, March 10th, 2017.

For Nourish 2017’s Summer Self-Guided session, all lessons will be made available starting Friday, June 9th, 2017.

You can download the Lesson Plan here or it’s also below.

For Nourish 2017’s Spring Self-Guided session, all lessons will be made available starting Friday, 3/10/17. Access will last through Monday, 7/10/17.

For Nourish 2017’s Summer Self-Guided session, all lessons will be made available starting Friday, 6/9/17. Access will last through Monday, 10/9/17.

• Lesson #1: How to Chop Like a Pro + Make Your Own Vinaigrette
• Lesson #2: How to Get Your Stir-Fry On
• Lesson #3: How to Prepare Tender Juicy Chicken
• Lesson #4: How to Create Fluffy Scrambled Eggs + Roast Veggies
• Lesson #5: How to En Papillote Fish + Saute Veggies
• Lesson #6: How to Cook Pasta Like an Italian

Every lesson consists of a meal, grocery list and steps to complete that meal, and most importantly, the how and what behind these steps. Each lesson is also paired with a mini extra-credit recipe to help you deepen your practice and lock in your skills. Plus, we’ll have some fun stuff too – like music playlists – to make your time in the kitchen feel like a true party!

We don’t want you to just follow a recipe blindly. Our goal is to take you beyond recipes and actually teach you how to cook.

To do that, each lesson is supplemented with many easy-to-follow videos and downloadable resources that break down the underlying skills you’ll be acquiring when creating your meal.

You can then take these skills and apply them to your cooking adventures well beyond Nourish.

Absolutely not. Because this is a self-guided course, you can go through the materials at your own self-guided pace (hence the name).  You will have access to the materials for 4 full months from the start of class – from March 10, 2017 to July 10, 2017 (Spring Self-Guided Session) or from June 9, 2017 to October 9, 2017 (Summer Self-Guided Session).

You’ll need:

• a device that has access to the internet (this can be a mobile phone)
• a kitchen to cook in
• a grocery store or grocery delivery service to purchase ingredients for your meals. Ingredients are listed on page 8 in this PDF.
• some basic cooking tools, listed here

We also recommend getting a 1” / 2.5cm binder with some plastic sheet protectors if you want to print out the recipes and resources.

Each lesson has a grocery list for 2 servings of each meal, and we do invite you to go through each lesson with a friend! Cooking is much more fun with others.

Depending on how well-stocked your pantry already is and also where you’re located, the cost of groceries per week can range from $15 to $35 (still less than a meal out for two!).

We have designed Nourish to help you start building a functional pantry of items that you will continue to use in the future.

In addition, we don’t use any hard-to-find ingredients. You should be able to find everything at any basic grocery store. The list of the ingredients can be found on page 8 of this PDF file.

We recommend you allocate about an hour to an hour and a half for each lesson. This should give you plenty of time to read through the recipe, watch the videos, and then prep and cook the meal.

If you enjoy cooking and learning socially, we highly recommend partnering up with a friend for the lessons and making it a social activity.

We recommend doing 1 lesson per week, alternating between the lesson and the extra credit recipe.

You definitely will need some basic cooking tools to complete Nourish. The list is here and we’ve made sure that these are all tools that will help you build a functional kitchen.

If you’re not ready to make the investment in your kitchen, consider signing up for Nourish when we offer the course again in the future. We hope to offer another Self-Guided course starting June 2017. The next Nourish Live course will take place in January of 2018.

Another idea is to ask a friend with a well-equipped kitchen if you can take the lessons from their place. You can treat by purchasing groceries, and it’ll be a much more fun experience to work through the meal together!

Be part of Nourish’s Self-Guided course with a one-time investment of $129 or 4 monthly payments of $36.

Nourish is much less than the cost of most group cooking lessons where you might get to participate in one small component of the meal. With Nourish, you’ll build a foundation of practical cooking skills to last you a lifetime in the kitchen.

If the investment in Nourish is not within your current budget, we encourage you to save up for the next time we offer Nourish (Nourish Live tentatively scheduled for January of 2018).

Absolutely. Nourish makes a great gift to anyone that wants to build a basic cooking foundation. It also makes a great wedding or graduation gift. You can purchase gifts at anytime here. Gift recipients can redeem the gift at any time and we will notify them when the next class starts.

We are more than happy to offer refunds if the course truly is not right for you, which you can determine after going through one or two lessons.

Therefore, refunds can be requested within the first 21 days of the course (March 31, 2017 for the Spring Session or June 29, 2017 for the Summer Session). To request a refund, just email Jess at nourish [at] cooksmarts [dot] com with photos of meals cooked from at least one lesson.

So long as you try at least one lesson before March 31st (Spring Self-Guided) or June 29th (Summer Self-Guided), we are more than happy to provide a full refund if you find that the course doesn’t meet your needs.

So far, we’ve only had 1 student request a refund, which I think speaks to the quality of the course.

Unfortunately, we won’t be offering refunds for this reason. Once you sign up for Nourish, you’ll have access to these six lessons for 4 full months, which will give you plenty of time to complete them!

We really encourage you to sign up for Nourish at a time in your life when you feel ready to make cooking a consistent part of your life. Nourish Live is scheduled to be offered again January of 2018.

Yes! If your company is interested in reducing their healthcare costs and wants to purchase Nourish for its employees, please email hello [at] cooksmarts [dot] com for more information.