Attending A Cooking Class At Tablespoon Cooking Co. Hosted By Midwestern Lesbian

That’s a pretty long title with a lot of unfamiliar words in it, so let’s break down what the heck I’m talking about before we get into it!

There’s a group I found on Instagram a while back called Midwestern Lesbian, an LGBTQ+ organization that focuses on putting on and promoting queer friendly events in Cincinnati. They host all sorts of events at local Cincinnati businesses, like bar crawls, pottery nights, and even include plenty of free events like their Sapphic Stroll.

I have wanted to attend one of their events for so long, but I seem to literally always be busy on the weekends when they’re having events, and they’re all the way down in Cincy, which is not super close for me.

Finally, I saw they were having an event on a Thursday evening. I could actually make that work. Better yet, it was a cooking class! The cooking class was held at a place in Cincinnati called Tablespoon Cooking Co., a business right across from the Findlay Market that serves to teach people of all skills how to make a yummy dish, step-by-step, while supplying great cocktails and good jokes.

When I first walked in, I immediately loved how chic the space was. While the back portion was more of the industrial, stainless-steel kitchen type of deal, the front portion was so cute with dark green velvet for the backing of the booths, 3D lemons and leaves all over the wall, hanging lights from the high ceilings, even the bathroom (which was pink!) was cute. You can even take a virtual tour of their space on their website if you want to see for yourself.

Our cooking stations were already set up and good to go for us:

For this class, the menu was a whipped ricotta crostini dish with an espresso martini. So girl dinner, am I right? All the ingredients and equipment were provided, with the instructor going through everything and providing plenty of tips and tricks.

I came alone, and anyone who came solo got partnered with someone else who was solo. I was a little nervous about that, but I ended up getting along really well with my co-chef and she was a delight to talk to and cook with! Honestly everyone I talked to was seriously awesome, and it was just amazing in general to be surrounded by so many cool, like-minded people. I felt so comfortable and everyone was so friendly.

Plus, all the staff at Tablespoon were quite friendly. They were all very welcoming and did such a great job with everything. I definitely would love to plan my own private cooking class there for like my birthday or something like that.

The martini was made closer to the end of the cooking portion, so there were drinks available for purchase beforehand that you could sip on during the welcome portion and throughout the cooking part, as well. I ended up ordering their Spring Spritz, which was strawberry cardamom syrup, Lillet Blanc, lemon juice, Cava, and soda. It was so light and refreshing, and perfectly sweet. A very balanced cocktail that was also quite pretty.

After putting in blood, sweat, and tears (or maybe just olive oil, thyme, and salt), here’s how our dish turned out:

I thought it was so cute! My co-chef didn’t particularly care for Bailey’s in her espresso martini, so I put all of the portioned out Bailey’s into my drink, hence why mine is a little different (or maybe a lot different) in color.

Everything turned out so tasty, and we all sat around and ate our completed dishes while chatting. It was so exciting getting to learn more about everyone! I seriously had such a good time at this event.

When I had originally bought the ticket, which was $60, Tablespoon asked me if I wanted to add some fresh baked cookies onto my order. I was like, obviously, and ordered a dozen of their triple chocolate chunk brown butter cookies, which was $23 dollars. They packaged them up so nicely for me!

Of course, treats are always tastier when you share, so I offered a cookie to everyone else in the class. Little did I know that Tablespoon actually gives everyone a cookie at the end of the class to take home with them! These cookies were absolutely bomb. They were thin and crispy but still like soft on the inside, the brown butter adds such a depth of flavor, and the salt was the perfect finisher on these bad boys.

Also, everyone was offered 10% a purchase from their little shop. The shop had things like jams and pistachio spread, a jar of brown butter bits, Diamond Crystal kosher salt, some random kitchen tools like a baking sheet and thermometer, just some odds and ends like that.

So, yeah, I’m super glad I attended this awesome cooking class! I was very tempted not to go because I really didn’t feel like driving a full two hours there, but I knew if I went I’d have fun, and I did.

Don’t forget to follow Midwestern Lesbian and Tablespoon Cooking Co. on Instagram if you’re interested in future events from either of them!

Do you like espresso martinis? Have you ever done a cooking class before? What did you make? Let me know in the comments, and have a great day.

-AMS