Cook Up A Lost Feast With Our Science-y Online Cooking Class!

This story is a part of our spring Book Club conversation about ‘Lost Feast: Culinary Extinction and the Future of Food.’ Want to participate? Join our new online community space or record a voice message on the Science Friday VoxPop app.

Lost Feast Online Cooking Class with Science Friday and The League of Kitchens

• When: Sunday, May 16, 2021 from 4:00-6:30 p.m. ET
• Where: Science Friday’s Zoom Meeting
• Tickets: $75 per device

Buy Tickets Online

Want to make a lost feast with other SciFri Book Clubbers, celebrating some of the flavors featured in this season’s pick? We’ve teamed up with The League of Kitchens, a culinary dream-team of women from around the world who create in-person and online cooking classes with instructors who teach you their family recipes and inspire you with their personal stories.

These online classes are designed to be special, meaningful opportunities to share cooking, culture, and connection. We want you to cook along, and we promise there will be plenty of time for questions, conversation, and stories. It will all end with a virtual dinner party where you’ll get to share in the fruits of your labor, apart, but together!

In this 2.5 hour interactive online experience, Uzbek instructor Damira will guide you through making two of her family recipes: sambusas (baked pastry with a savory filling) and a small salad featuring pears and bell peppers.

Plus, we’ll be joined by Rachel Meyer, research director in conservation genomics at the University of California, coauthor of Botany at the Bar: The Art and Science of Making Bitters, and ancient food and medicines obsessive. Rachel will do a food science deep dive while our sambusas are baking! It will be a food-tastic, science-filled evening!

How It Works:

• After registration you’ll receive an email with the Zoom link, shopping list, equipment list, and recipe packet.
• At the scheduled time of your class, click on the Zoom link and join your class live! Afterwards, you will receive a link to a video recording of your class that you can revisit at your leisure.
• Attendees who purchased their ticket on or before May 11, 2021 will receive a special ingredient to use as part of your recipe. Keep a lookout and let us know if you don’t receive a package from us at least 1 week in advance. Please note: We are no longer able to send this special ingredient in advance of the class.

Shopping List for This Class:

• 2 large eggs  
• All purpose flour (at least 2 cups) 
• 1 butternut squash (raw, whole, and unpeeled) 
• 1 medium yellow onion 
• 3 bell peppers (any colors)
• 2 d’anjou pears
• 3-4 medium tomatoes
• Lemon juice 4 tablespoons
• 5 tablespoons olive oil
• 5 tablespoons sunflower oil (or any neutral oil)
• Ground coriander 1/8 teaspoon
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds 
• Cayenne pepper pinch
• Salt 
• Optional: sesame seeds

Equipment List:

• Knife
• Cutting board
• Rolling pin
• 2 Medium sized bowls
• 1 Large bowl
• 1 Small bowl
• Pastry brush (optional)
• Teaspoon
• Tablespoon
• Fork
• Baking sheet or tray with parchment paper on top

About The League of Kitchens: The League of Kitchens is a culinary dream-team of women from around the world who will welcome you into their homes, teach you their family recipes, and inspire you with their personal stories.

Each experience offers opportunities for meaningful connection and social interaction, cultural engagement and exchange, culinary learning and discovery, and exceptional eating and drinking. Through this experience, the League of Kitchens seeks to build cross-cultural connection and understanding, to increase access to traditional cooking knowledge, and to provide meaningful, well-paid employment and training for immigrants.