I’ve mentioned before how much I love The Grocery Basket. They do a fantastic job at supporting local farmers and businesses in Kingston and have a great selection of local produce, delicious baked goods and vegan-friendly products.

Recently, they posted about upcoming cooking classes they would be hosting with their chefs. Tacos, Salad and Eggs Benny would be their first themed workshops and I couldn’t wait to try one of them! I love a good week night adventure. My husbands go-to meal to cook is tacos so I thought that would be the most appropriate class to try for a fun date night!

We arrive at The Grocery Basket and make our way downstairs to the kitchen in the basement to find the tables neatly set up with aprons, stacked bowls and utensils. The class is a good size — five other people as well as my husband and myself.

Chefs Niic and Rory have prepped our ingredients in plastic containers — making it easy to follow along — no need to measure anything out! As they prompt us to add ingredients to our liking (always encouraging us to taste) they share helpful tips for future meals. For example, replace cilantro and lime in pico de gallo with basil and olive oil and you’ll have bruschetta. Or, add your pico de gallo to your guac for a little extra flavour.

We season our chicken, put together our pico de gallo and guacamole and watch as Niic and Rory sauté our chicken and veg — sharing more helpful tips as they go. Start with onions in the pan and end with peppers to cook out the onion flavour and keep the pepper crunch! Mushrooms land somewhere in the middle.

At the end of class if it wasn’t pouring outside, we would take our tacos to the rooftop patio (when is it not raining this summer, amiright?). Tonight, we ate at our stations and the tacos are so good. The chicken is seasoned with The Grocery Basket’s YGKai spice that they sell in store.

The class is fun and accessible. It’s really simple and more for people who are looking for a fun week night activity but it’s not super challenging for anyone looking to increase their culinary skills.

During the class they share details for future classes that I will definitely be back for – pizza class? kombucha making class? Yes please!

For more details on future classes:

Keep up with The Grocery Basket on Twitter
Keep up with The Grocery Basket on Facebook
Keep up with The Grocery Basket on Instagram