How to Teach Cooking Online

What do you need to teach cooking classes online? Read on to learn where to publish your content and how to structure your lessons.

Your cooking skills are enviable, but presently, you might be the only one benefiting from your palatable dishes. What if you could do what you love and monetize your kitchen magic? 

And no – becoming a professional chef isn’t what we have in mind (although the average $50K salary is pretty appealing). An even better option might be to teach cooking online.

This article will show you how to do just that.

What Are the Benefits of Teaching Cooking Classes Online?

There are many reasons online lessons are often superior to traditional classes:

• You can work from home. Traditional cooking classes require you to commute to your job or rent a physical space if you want to start your own teaching business. Choosing to teach cooking classes online is far more convenient and comfortable.

• There are no costs of owning or renting a studio. As incredible as having your own cooking studio sounds, this option comes with significant financial implications. The studio itself, the furniture, and the cooking equipment are just a few of them. With online cooking classes, you already have everything you need in your own home. You’ll only need to invest in decent filming equipment and an online teaching platform. Go with BlurBay for the latter, and you’ll even eliminate monthly costs for using the platform.
• It lets you upload content on the fly. When teaching cooking in person, you only get one shot to demonstrate a recipe or a technique. With online classes, on the other hand, opportunities for demonstration are boundless. Film one long cooking tutorial, divide it into sections, reshoot sections, and upload bits and pieces on various platforms whenever you feel like it. Best of all? You can do it all on the go.
• You can create more streamlined and enticing content through video editing. No matter how experienced, skilled, or knowledgeable you are about cooking, in-person demonstrations can go wrong. You might miss a crucial step, fail to explain something properly, or even get a recipe wrong. With online teaching (and the magic of editing!), you don’t have to worry about any of these challenges. Even better, you can use video editing (e.g., trimming, transitions, video effects) to make an even more engaging class that will keep your students glued to their screens.

What Does It Take to Teach Cooking Online?

Modern technology has made it easier for many professionals to rake in big bucks. Online cooking instructors are no different.

Here’s how you can leverage different opportunities to start and monetize your Internet culinary classes.

Avoid the Hassle of Creating a Website – Opt for Something Better

When someone mentions “online cooking classes,” the first thing that comes to mind is a website. Many budding culinary trainers take this route but fail. Why? Because they overlook the cost of setting up and maintaining a functional website.

In some cases, professional web design services can set you back upwards of $5,000. The more features you incorporate, the higher the price.

An alternative path for those eager to teach cooking online is to create a website yourself, but this is ill-advised too. You wouldn’t have enough time for your students or to craft new recipes.

You need something that helps you save time, and money and is just as effective as a website at attracting learners.

That’s where BlurBay comes into play. The premise is simple:

• You create your content and set up a BlurBay account.
• You provide BlurBay with your cooking lessons, and we store the content on our website.
• Whenever someone wants to access your instructions, they have to pay a price you set.
• BlurBay takes 5% from the sales as a commission.

That’s all there is to it. You don’t need to undergo all the hassle of creating and running a professional website. It’s just you, compelling lessons, and BlurBay.

Now, you might be wondering, why would anyone visit content on BlurBay and not elsewhere. The answer lies in cliffhangers. Thanks to the platform, you can cut off your cookery guides whenever you want, leaving your audience wanting more. Alternatively, you can create interconnected videos and snippets of other videos that the viewer can check out on the platform. This leads to higher conversions and a larger number of learners.

All that for a fraction of the cost of having a dedicated cooking website.

Invest in High-Quality Equipment

You can’t teach a cooking lesson unless you have appropriate equipment. Otherwise, your subscribers may consider you one of those “do as I say, not as I do” culinarian. After all, you need a high-quality kitchen to execute your recipes. 

Another reason equipment is essential is that it makes you look more professional. A cutting-edge six-foot fridge coupled with a premium stove tells your learners you’re serious about your craft.

We’ve already hinted at a few cooking appliances you should have, but here’s a more detailed overview:

• Stove with a stovetop and broiler (Gas devices are faster and relatively cheaper than electricity models, but they come with a learning curve. Electrical appliances are user-friendly, but frequent outages may require you to overhaul your concept).
• Large fridge with a built-in freezer and multiple storage compartments
• Range hood to remove moisture, smoke, and grease
• Dishwasher
• Garbage disposal
• Cutting board
• Knives, forks, spoons, ladles, and other utensils
• Pans (preferably non-stick or cast iron) and saucepans
• Attractive plates that showcase your dishes in the best light

While you’re there, don’t forget that you’ll have a massive audience. Apart from the cooking equipment, you’ll need to ensure your video gear is up to par.

You’ll need a space that’s big enough to fit all the appliances and filming equipment. Your learners should be able to see you and your work surface from different angles, making the instructions more immersive.

Additionally, make sure the camera is at a proper distance. It should be close enough for your learners to see your chopping or stirring techniques. However, the viewers should be able to follow you as you take various ingredients from the fridge or adjust your oven.

To maximize the visual effect, hire a cameraperson. Schedule professional filming if you can afford it. If not, a family member or friend should be more than capable of producing great shots.

Another alternative is to purchase a laptop with a high-resolution camera (4K, preferably). For even higher quality, buy a separate camera and mount it on your computer or elsewhere. All that matters is that your audience can keep up with you.

A top-rated microphone that captures clear audio is crucial too. Even if you have a lower-quality camera, you can make up for it with crisp verbal instructions. But only if you have a cutting-edge microphone. Look for a model with noise cancellation to keep the focus on your cooking and mute out unwanted sounds.

Finally, if you’re short on space, don’t throw in the towel just yet. Strategic zoom-ins and panning out can save the day. Also, you don’t even need to film some parts of your cooking classes. For instance, putting food in a preheated oven or dunking dirty dishes into the dishwasher is of minimal value for your learners.

Structure Your Lessons Correctly

Next up is the structure of your culinary lessons. The structure refers to the outline of your tutorials. In other words, it reveals what you do at different stages of your instructions.

Some may advise you to experiment with different structures from class to class. While the element of surprise can play to your advantage, most learners prefer familiarity. If they’ve grown accustomed to a particular format, they know what to expect and are more likely to come back.

Here’s an example of an online cooking lesson format:

• Stating objectives – After greeting your students, you can start each lesson by specifying the objective. For example, if you’re an expert in Spanish cuisine, your first lesson might be how to make a delicious sandwich using iconic Iberian ham.
• Skills overview – The next step is to list the most important skills your learners will need to execute the dish. From finely chopping garlic and slicing celery to reducing a sauce and checking the temperature of the protein, you may need to outline several skills before you start cooking. To avoid overwhelming your students, keep it to two to three skills per class.
• Cover safety requirements – Cooking is all about creating mouthwatering dishes and experimenting with fresh ingredients. However, you also want to foster good hygiene to help your students avoid severe contamination. Emphasizing things like not double dipping spoons and washing your hands go a long way in keeping mess at bay.
• Start cooking – The cooking is your bread and butter. Be sure to keep the focus on the food rather than your hair, clothes, and other accessories. This is where you let your culinary and teaching skills shine in their full glory. Just be sure to stay cheerful throughout the cooking to keep your students enthusiastic.
• Summarize the lesson – The final part of your class can be a summary. Many creators reiterate the ingredients and equipment they used for the recipe. You can supplement this with closing credits that show a picture of the ingredients and tools.
• Edit the video – Last but not least, you want to embellish your content to give your students more value. Several solutions are available, such as subtitles, transitions between cooking stages, and music during the credits.

How to Teach Cooking Online: A Step-by-Step Guide

Now that you know what it takes to teach cooking online, let’s move on to actionable steps that can help you launch your online cooking business.

Step 1 – Choose Your Niche

When it comes to your online culinary content, it all starts with your niche.

Many cookery teachers fall into the trap of trying to master an array of cuisines. Not only is this difficult, but it also makes it harder to market your services.

By contrast, zeroing in on certain aspects of cooking or regional cuisine ensures your learners associate you with something more specific. The moment they hear your name, they’ll know that they’ll be able to reach mastery through your instructions.

As with any marketing effort, the right niche depends on your target audience. If you don’t have an established audience (yet), look at niches that aren’t oversaturated and how you can put your spin on it.

Other than your audience, consider your skills. If you’re good at making pizzas, spaghetti dishes, frittatas, and other Italian food, set up an Italian cuisine-based module. Alternatively, if sushi is in your wheelhouse, tutorials on Japanese cuisine might be your best option.

Step 2 – Settle on an Online Cooking Course Idea

The decisions don’t end with choosing your cooking niche. No matter how specific that niche is, there’s still room to narrow down your focus and create a unique online cooking course. To do so, you’ll need to add another element to your decision-making process – the market demand.

Sure, the intersection of your audience’s needs and culinary skills is a great place to start. But if your chosen course topic doesn’t align with current market demands, your success will be limited. What does this mean?

Well, there are two paths your course can take if you don’t factor in market demand.

No. 1 – You choose an in-demand topic but one that has already been extensively covered online. This will force you to work extra hard if you want your online course to stand out.

No. 2 – You choose a micro-niche topic to stand out but soon realize there’s virtually no demand for it.

As you can see, the success of your online cooking course lies in the perfect balance between popular and unique.

To strike this delicate balance, you come up with several course topics based on your research and then gauge interest in them using social media poles or similar market research methods.

Step 3 – Create a Curriculum

This guide has already covered the importance of structuring your cooking lessons adequately. But why stop at individual cooking lessons?

Your goal should be to create a comprehensive cooking course that takes learners on a whole culinary journey. So, while your individual lesson can focus on making pasta from scratch, the entire course can cover making an Italian feast from menu selection to plating and presentation.

But to pull off such a course, you’ll need to create a detailed curriculum beforehand.

This way, you’ll ensure each lesson has its purpose and builds upon the previous one. This is also an excellent way to keep your students engaged, as you can “tease” them with the content that’s yet to come.

If you start filming without an overall plan, with a lesson-to-lesson approach, you risk creating a disjointed course and losing applicants along the way.

Step 4 – Record Your Cooking Course

Step 4 usually begins with choosing a reliable video hosting platform for your course. But since this guide has already explained why BlurBay is the way to go, you can skip right to recording your course.

If you’re using the high-quality equipment we’ve previously recommended, this step should be a breeze.

But remember – the technical and cooking aspects of your course aren’t the only ones to consider. You should also pay attention to the teaching aspect of your lesson. After all, cooking courses, whether online or offline, aren’t just about cooking delicious food. They are about teaching others how to do it.

Though online classes are superior to traditional in-person gatherings in almost all aspects, they have one major disadvantage – your students aren’t in the same room as you. This means you can’t gauge their progress, answer questions, or provide additional instructions.

In other words, the instructions you do provide must be extremely clear, concise, and easy to follow. This is the only way to teach cooking online with the same effectiveness as in-person classes.

Step 5 – Price Your Cooking Course

Sure, you can price your course(s) at any point when devising your online cooking business. However, doing so after preparing the entire course allows you to properly assess its value and set a competitive yet fair price.

The factors that can help you set the final price include the following:

• Your reputation in the cooking industry
• Your skills and qualifications
• The course’s duration, quality, complexity, and overall value
• The course’s unique selling proposition (e.g., exclusive recipes)

Step 6 – Promote Your Cooking Course

In an ideal world, the beautiful recipes you create would speak for themselves. However, in the digital world overflowing with online cooking classes and delicious recipes, you’ll need to give them a hand. Of course, by hand, we mean the mighty hand of marketing.

After finding a perfect publishing platform such as BlurBay, you shouldn’t stop there. Expand your online presence by joining the most popular social media platforms, such as Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. Then, work on your online visibility and course promotion by doing the following:

• Posting snippets of your lessons on social media
• Investing in search engine optimization (SEO)
• Paying social media influencers to promote your lessons
• Offering discounts
• Encouraging your students to leave reviews

Of course, you don’t have to stick solely to digital promotion. You can also leverage word-of-mouth marketing by asking your friends and family to tell others about your classes. But whichever route you take, remember one thing – consistency is key.

Your brand message and identity should be consistent across all marketing channels, whether digital or traditional. This is the only way to create a recognizable brand and succeed in the long run.

Step 7 – Create Additional Resources

One of the biggest advantages of online classes is the number of revenue streams they create. While your course should be your primary focus, consider creating additional resources to maximize your earning potential and, of course, enhance your students’ learning experience.

The resources in question can include the following:

• Cooking guides. These guides can either follow your lesson content or supplement it. This means these guides can serve as convenient notes or additional learning resources for those interested in a deeper understanding of a specific culinary technique or cuisine. You can even create cooking guides unrelated to your courses and use them to gauge interest among your audience.
• Recipe e-books. These e-books allow your audience to recreate your recipes at their own pace. Like with cooking guides, there are several routes you can take with recipe e-books. You can group them by cuisines, meals, and techniques or simply create a “Best of” e-book.
• Webinars and workshops. Though pre-recorded lessons and courses should provide a stable income stream, it doesn’t hurt to shake things up once in a while. So, consider hosting periodic webinars or workshops on specific topics, such as viral social media foods. Make these live and consider bringing in guest chefs on board to make these events more exclusive and sought-after.

If your cooking business truly takes off, you can even branch out beyond the digital world. Launching cooking-related merchandise is an excellent way to do this. You have two options. One, launch cooking-related items like utensils or cooking tools branded with your logo, name, or brand colors. Or two, launch cooking apparel like aprons or toque chef hats with inside jokes or your catchphrase that your audience knows well. Of course, the second option requires you to build a recognizable name for yourself, as well as a loyal group of supporters.

Conquer the Online Cooking Industry

The steep price and inflexibility of running traditional cooking lessons may have discouraged you from teaching others, but learning to teach cooking online can put you back on track. If you can find the right niche, internet classes will pay dividends. Just stay away from unnecessary costs (e.g., creating a website) and set up immersive lessons. Your audience will keep coming back, and you’ll get a remunerative online business.

FAQs

Should you teach cooking classes online?

Yes. There are many perks of teaching cooking classes online. For instance, you can film from your home, eliminating the need to rent a studio. Plus, this format allows you to publish lessons from any device, making it more flexible than standard guides.

How do you teach a cooking class on Zoom?

You can teach a cooking class on Zoom by gathering a smaller group, positioning your camera properly, and teaching a simpler recipe. However, the pre-recorded course option is significantly more flexible, convenient, and lucrative.  

Do famous chefs teach cooking classes online?

Yes. Many famous chefs teach cooking classes on the internet. For example, Gordon Ramsay has his MasterClass lesson, whereas Jamie Oliver offers his Cookery School through Zoom meetings.

Do you need a website to teach cooking classes online?

No. You don’t need a website to teach online cooking classes. By uploading your content to BlurBay, all you need to focus on is filming great content.

How long should an online cooking class be?

Most online cooking classes are 60-90 minutes long. However, your lessons can be longer if you have a smaller number of sessions or shorter if your course consists of dozens of tutorials.

What makes an online cooking class good?

A good online cooking class is engaging, carefully structured, well-edited, and full of tasty recipes.