WELCOME TO
INTUITIVE COOKING 101
AN 8-WEEK ONLINE COOKING course
TO BUILD CONFIDENCE, INSPIRE JOY, AND simplify THINGS IN THE KITCHEN
LAUNCHES january 16, 2020
TELL ME MORE about this course!
“I have those people in my life who I think: “SHE is a really good cook; I’m not one of those people.” As I was taking this course I realized - “Wait, I AM a good cook! I CAN do this! I just need to keep practicing, and now it’s WAY more fun!”
WHY: To teach you how to make a CRAVEABLE meal any time from what you already have in your fridge or pantry.
WHO: In the words of a student who tested the course…
“There are three main types of people I’d recommend this to:
If you need a cooking foundation: Anyone who thinks: I can’t cook. I’m not one of those people. If you’re intimidated in the kitchen, struggle with and/or just don’t like following recipes, this course will help you build a strong foundation.
If you lack confidence in cooking. Maybe you cook often from recipes but don’t think of yourself as a great cook. You probably don’t realize what you already know, and this course will show you! (that’s what I found out in taking it!). Jess’s framework for intuitive cooking that she teaches in the course is INCREDIBLE. Learning and applying the framework will give you a huge confidence boost and make cooking WAY more enjoyable and FUN!
If you want to eat more “veggie-centric” but don’t know how. Anyone who thinks ‘vegetables don’t taste good’ or ‘I hate vegetables’ or anyone who thinks meals have to follow a certain structure of protein/carb/boring veggie: get ready to have your mind blown! What I love about Jess’s message is that it’s positive: ‘Vegetables are AWESOME!’ Jess knows how to make them taste AMAZING and she’s gonna teach you and you’re gonna love it and your life is going to be changed!”
— Kara C. (she took the course-preview in October 2019 and also happens to be a Registered Dietician Nutritionist!)
WHEN: JANUARY 16 - MARCH 18, 2020
WHERE: It’s happening online! You can live anywhere and do this!
BY THE END OF THIS COURSE: You’ll have mastered the basics to intuitive cooking, AND you’ll have your own built-in, backpocket cooking plan so that you can shop, cook, and eat well easily, effortlessly, and because you actually WANT TO DO THIS (even when you’re super busy) because it’s fun, and totally worth it.
RESULTS
By the end of this course, you will have mastered the basics to intuitive cooking AND you’ll have your own BACKPOCKET COOKING PLAN! This means:
You’ll be able to open the fridge and make something delicious
You’ll have simple, tasty recipes/dishes you know you can rely on and will WANT to make repeatedly
You’ll know how to stock the fridge/pantry so you can always cook this way without much waste
You’ll know what to keep practicing and how to look for new recipes to add to your backpocket plan to continue making it exciting and increasingly intuitive the more you cook
How will we get there?! Because I’ll be sharing:
My BEST, SIMPLEST recipes and techniques - these are the least complicated, most fail-proof, flexible, incredibly SCRUMPTIOUS foods that I make when I have little time - they require minimal prep and create minimal dirty dishes! I’ve curated these very specifically after 10+ years of intense cooking in a wide variety of contexts. Be prepared to say, “Really?! That’s all you do?! And it’s THIS good?! OMG”
I’ll teach you the bigger picture of what’s happening in each dish - the techniques + the principles *behind* the recipes so that you learn how to adapt the dish to your liking, substitute what you have, AND you’ll learn how to get creative to keep simple dishes infinitely interesting + delicious. (This is INTUITIVE COOKING!)
Accountability, community, and support! - you will be assigned a cooking buddy (if you don’t sign up with one) and you’ll have ME to guide you throughout the program and CHALLENGE + SUPPORT YOU on our coaching calls each week!
Finally - THIS IS GONNA BE SO FUN! If cooking normally feels like a drag to you, get ready to ACTUALLY LOOK FORWARD TO COOKING! I’ve been told that my passion for food is contagious, so get to get ready to catch it :)
THE FOOD
Some of the dishes we will be making:
WHAT’S INCLUDED
Every week you’ll get...
Weekly video lessons plus supporting PDF guides
Weekly cooking assignments (usually a batch of 4 recipes/week that go together) that include:
Quick video overview of recipes for the week, focused on key concepts behind each
Grocery list + Meal Planning Guide ( to help you quickly adapt quantities)
PDF recipes with notes and photos
A weekly video call with mini lesson/demo + Q&A
2 call time options per week, and calls will be recorded if you can’t attend live
TIME COMMITMENT = 3.5 hours per week (1.5 hours learning + 2 hours cooking)
WEEKLY BREAKDOWN:
about 30 mins or less* to watch video lessons
15 mins planning to adjust grocery lists, download recipes, etc
45 minute live call per week (optional but highly recommended!)
2 hours batch cooking + 20 mins to clean up/pack up food
meals will then take 10-15 minutes to warm up before eating the rest of the week
*exception = Week 1 Foundations. The first week includes a long series of short videos (about 2.5 hours total) going over all the foundational information to get started. This week is also a reference guide to come back to in future weeks. Students who tested the course reported: “I really really loved the content from the foundation week videos. I ended up binge-watching most of them. Your approach feels really practical and human.”
SYLLABUS
COURSE OUTLINE:
Week 1: FOUNDATIONS - Equipment/Pantry/Setup
Week 2: Sunday Cooking Plan #1
Week 3: Sunday Cooking Plan #2
Week 4: Integration Week #1 (catch up/make-it-your-own/break)
Week 5: Sauté Bowls
Week 6: Sunday Cooking Plan #3
Week 7: Sunday Cooking Plan #4
Week 8: Integration Week #2 (catch up/make-it-your-own/final wrap up)
WEEKLY DETAILS:
Week 1: FOUNDATIONS - Equipment/Pantry/Setup
Videos to talk you through:
the (very basic!) cooking equipment you’ll need, my favs, and when to use what
the pantry items you’ll need for this course and general pantry strategy
super quick ways to set up your kitchen to make it an environment you LOVE!
Equipment list + links
Pantry grocery list + links
GPJ Guide to optimal kitchen setup
Foundational skills: knife skills, chopping theory, balancing flavor, etc
Sunday Cooking Plan Weeks:
Videos describing the important techniques + principles behind each dish
Grocery lists + Meal Planning Guides
4 original recipes each week:
1 stew or curry
1 oven full of roasted veggies (with GPJ surprises and favorites)
1 marinated salad (a hearty, multi-use, lettuce-free “salad” that lasts days in the fridge)
1 dressing/sauce
Week 5: Sauté Bowls
Videos: I’ll teach you the formula for the go-to 10-minute meal that I make every single day with infinite, simple variations.
2 original recipes with my two favorite versions of this bowl
Integration Weeks
Integration weeks will be the chance to catch up on cooking in case you are traveling or fall behind on a given week. If you’re all caught up, this will be your chance to APPLY what you’re learning, practice favorite dishes again, mix and match according to the techniques and flavors we’re learning about
WEEKLY SCHEDULE
This course is designed to be flexible and fit into your life, AND it does require a commitment! The time commitment for this course will average about 3.5 hours weekly, two of which are for cooking, which you may be doing already. Here’s the weekly schedule:
Thursday AM - weekly video lessons + supporting materials released (watch these before you cook/over the weekend!)
over the weekend - shop for groceries/get groceries delivered
Sunday or Monday/Tuesday - cooking homework! (roughly 2 hours cooking time + 30 mins clean up, can be divided into multiple days OR done in one session)
Wednesday - 30-45 minute video coaching calls every Wednesday with a live demo/mini-lesson plus time for questions and community discussion
there will be two call times each week to accommodate schedules as much as possible
LIVE VIDEO CALLS - SCHEDULE UPDATE:
our Launch Day Kick-off Video Call will be Thurs. Jan 16 at 5:30pm PST / 7:30pm CST / 8:30pm EST
our second video call will be Thurs. Jan 23 at 5:30pm PST / 7:30pm CST / 8:30pm EST
starting Wednesday, Jan 29, video calls will be on Wednesdays at 5:30pm PST / 7:30pm CST / 8:30pm EST, plus a TBD second call time that will be decided depending on student votes
All calls will be recorded and posted for anyone who can’t attend.
PRICING
$397/person OR
$365/person if you sign up with a buddy
To get the buddy discount - email me with the subject line “BUDDIES SIGNING UP!” and CC your buddy and I’ll confirm and then share the discount code.
Why does it cost this much?!
Ever hired a personal trainer to kickstart your workout plan? I’m the personal trainer who’s gonna kickstart your cooking to the next level, and guess what - this is gonna be WAY MORE FUN than a personal trainer! This is a one-time health + joy investment, and I want to teach people who are SERIOUS about making an INVESTMENT in this area of their lives. Free recipes and food content are a dime a dozen, longer-form content in which you *SERIOUSLY* learn to cook simple, craveable food the way I want to teach it doesn’t exist, so I created it!
We value what we pay for. In order for me to deliver on the promises above, I have to get you to actually. do. the. class. I know that sounds obvious, but this is the hardest part of online education! Sure - there are a GAZILLION free recipes and tons of cooking videos, but where do you start and what’s actually relevant?!?! I’ve thoughtfully and intentionally created this course to be the starting place for intuitive cooking (of veggie-entric, craveable, everyday food) that fits into a busy life. If you decide to pay for this - maybe more money than you might have expected to - you will value it AND you will *actually* do the work it takes to get the results.
Let’s put this price in perspective compared to other cooking education - Relative to the cost of in-person cooking classes, this course is *very* affordable and WAY BETTER VALUE! Why?! A) You get the FULL experience of cooking, versus just making one or two dishes or half of 4 dishes with a group of tipsy locals and a teacher that’s buzzing around trying to make sure no one gets burned. You also get to eat ALL the food, be in the comfort of your own home, and use your *own* equipment which means you’ll be WAY more likely to keep cooking these foods in the future. Here are some real prices of cooking classes:
$100/person - “Cook the Market” cooking class at Kitchen in the Market in Minneapolis, MN (had to get a non-SF example - still $100!)
$180/person - 4 hour “Sauce Fundamentals” class in SF
$250 - two or three (?) fancy dinners out?! depends where you live but…!!!
$920/person - 6 class Cooking Fundamentals series at SF Cooking School
THE BUDDY SYSTEM
Cooking is all about connection and community so I am incentivizing you to sign up with a buddy! However - buddies should NOT live in the same house, because your buddy is not for you to cook with directly, but rather to hold each other accountable to the cooking assignments and be able to compare experiences. If you live with a partner, you can share access at the $397/person price, OR better yet, encourage friends who don’t live with you to sign up too and then you can all get the discount!
The reason I don’t want partners/roommates to be cooking buddies is because I believe that to be an intuitive cook, you have to start cooking for *yourself* first, getting in touch with your OWN individual tastes and preferences. If you want to feed your partner with the food you’re making - that’s great - I can recommend quantity adjustments. Cooking and eating is a very personal thing, and so I want you to start practicing it with yourself in mind as the person in charge of the outcome.
If you don’t live with your partner and want to sign up as buddies - that works. You should each make the homework on your own and compare notes. If you’re doing it with a partner you live with, you’ll also have an outside buddy as well to keep you accountable and compare experiences. I believe there’s a reason that every great kitchen is run by one “head chef” - when cooking, one person should be in charge of each dish. A sous chef is always handy and helpful, but if you’re cooking with a partner, I’d encourage you to divide and conquer, trading off dishes that you should each “own” separately. More on this inside the course.
To get the buddy discount - email me with the subject line “BUDDIES SIGNING UP!” and CC your buddy and I’ll confirm and then share the discount code.
FAQ
“I’m not sure I have the time for this”
I hear ya! However - this is DESIGNED to fit into your busy life. AND yes, it requires a small time investment if you want to see results. The cooking time is time you’re already spending either cooking or ordering or acquiring food - so this isn’t added time to your schedule, this is just redirecting how you’re spending your current time. You’re likely already going to the grocery store. The main add-ons of timing will be watching the video lessons and the calls.
“I’m gluten free / dairy free / paleo / vegetarian / vegan … can I do this course?!”
Hello hello! I’m not a huge fan of labels - I think of my food as VEGGIE-CENTRIC and I like that because I made it up :). The recipes in this course are based around learning to make vegetables taste amazing. Vegetables are also easier, faster, and less intimidating to cook than meat, so we are starting off mainly vegetarian in this course. In Sunday cooking plan #3 you’ll have the option to add meat to your stew/curry if you like. A great majority of the recipes are actually … vegan (!) (Exceptions: the two stews/curries where we learn about adding meat as an option, I recommend adding eggs/protein to saute bowls, there is one recipe with feta, and a few suggestions to use butter, but you can certainly leave these ingredients out and I will always include subs.) This was actually unintentional, but since I cook *mainly* dairy free and gluten free at home, it just kinda happened. Don’t worry - if you eat dairy and gluten, I’m happy to tell you how to add those things in! If you’re Paleo and eating a ton of meat - there won’t be meat in this course, but I think you’ll enjoy learning how to make CRAVEABLE veggies as a nice compliment to your proteins! If you have specific allergies beyond this, or just want more details related to your personal diet, shoot me a note and I can answer specific questions.
What if I’m a picky eater… ?!
Hello picky eater! Hmmm…. I gotta tell you that I’m an “I eat/love everything!” type of gal so if you’re super picky, we may not jive. If you’re open to expanding your mind and tastebuds and having your likes and dislikes challenged with SUPER FLAVORFUL FOOD, please join us!! When people tell me “I don’t like XXXX” I like to ask them - “Have you ever had REALLY GOOD QUALITY XXXXXX?” However, if you are super picky and not looking to change your tastes, you’re probably not a fit for this course. Feel free to email me with specific questions to see if you’re a fit.
What if I’m cooking for 2 people or a family?!
Great! Recipes are easily flexible for different quantities and servings. Although I designed the course around cooking for one, everything scales up (and down) easily. Many of my students who tested the course were cooking for small families and they reported loving it!
Other questions? Email me!