The Hindu Business Line : A cooking school for men

Some Australian women think of an appropriate gift for their men — cooking classes at He Cooks. And what does the man behind these classes, Ben Dalton, have to say about his classes and students?

One day, while chatting with some male friends, he "realised that most men I knew couldn't cook except for two or three standard dishes."

Having made this great discovery, Ben Dalton looked around in Australia, at what was on offer as far as cooking lessons for men were concerned. To his amazement, he found "nothing that really appealed to me. So somebody told me, `why don't you start your own cooking school' and so I did."

As simple as that and he called it `Mama's Boys: Home Cooking School.' But he didn't hit the pot of gold with this novel idea of his. "We did some trial classes and then basically I rang up a man looking for some casual work to pay the bills, while I started my company and established it."

But the man at the other end of the line said he didn't have any casual work for Dalton. "But he said I own a wine company and would you like to manage it for me? So I said okay."

So he worked as a manager in the wine company, marketing wines for about 10 years. Next, he registered for an MBA course at the Mcquire University in the June of 2001. "And in each subject we used this fictitious cooking company as a case study, and with each subject where we used this fictitious company as an example, it became a little more real. I did a marketing plan, a business plan, a legal plan and all sorts of expansion plans."

Ultimately, what was being used as a case study became real and Dalton left the large Australian multinational that he was working for and started up his own company, last June. "We opened up for business in January, 2003 and have got rave reviews in the media," he says.

Within four months, he had about 100 students and the " feedback from the students of the cooking school has been very positive. One thing they are all saying they get out of this course is confidence. And that is exactly what I wanted them to get."

On the kind of people who registered for cooking lessons, he says that their background is as varied as their age. From 17 to 70 in age, the men who come for cooking classes are as different as Indian and Australian, Burmese and the English travellers. The module of the cooking classes offered by his company - He Cooks - is flexible and a student can choose to do six classes in a course or specific lessons of his choice. A carrot dangled to the students is the promise to "teach you many of the short cuts that professional chefs use to produce great results quickly — a bonus for guys on the run."

The only course that is compulsory is the introductory lesson "and the reason we insist why you must do that class is because we teach in this class knife skills and knife safety, nutrition and hygiene and how to use and care for kitchen appliances. Basically we give them an introduction to the `he cooks' philosophy that is contained in that lesson," says Dalton.

Women students are a strict no-no at Dalton's school. The fee is charged according to the classes chosen by the students, with the regular course costing A$140 per lesson. "And that includes all the food, the tuition from chefs of 20-30 years of experience, beer and wine, soft drinks... everything. We also teach them how to match up the beer and wine with the meal they have created. For example, let's say they have created Atlantic Salmon with Avacado salad. We say to them this is why this wine goes with that meal."

On what he would call a "thorough course", Dalton says this would comprise six classes and that would be a thorough introduction to cooking. Depending on the convenience of the students the classes can be taken once a week.

With enough of a background in marketing, Dalton does quite a bit of marketing of his cooking classes to women, and he has hit the nail on the head. "Quite a few wives are happy to gift these lessons to their husbands. We didn't even bother marketing it to men because all men think and say: Oh, I can cook. Or they are not interested in cooking. And it is working exactly as I thought it would. Women are giving it to men as a gift. The men come to the first lesson and they are so excited about what they have done, that they sign up for the rest of the course!"

Interestingly, Dalton's company is a virtual company, even though the classes are held in New South Wales. "I haven't yet met my secretary and deal with her only though phone calls and e-mail. In fact I'm going to meet her for the first time today after this interview. She is the best secretary I've ever had," he says. The chefs, who are all experts in their area of cooking and technically sound, also work part time.

While he has a few more weeks to go before completing his MBA course, Dalton does believe that he can make this a profitable venture and generate enough money to make a decent living. "I am planning to go national and we'd like to have classes in each capital city. We're also looking at classes in regional and rural Australia and they will specifically target health issues in men like diabetes, heart disease and obesity which are chronic in these areas."

When asked whether his was the first cooking class of its type, Dalton says, "We did Internet searches and found there is nothing targeted specifically at men in the US, England and the rest of Europe. I didn't find anything like this."

On his future plans, he says, "We have just announced a series of specialist classes for the more advanced students. They are held on Saturdays and we teach at these classes classic French cooking, North-Eastern Thai cooking, desserts."

So what about Indian food?

"Of course, we'd love to do an Indian class as well. And maybe show people that Indian food is much more than just curry... which is not even really Indian from what I understand."

For this he is on the lookout for a good Indian chef as he has elaborate plans in this area of culinary delight. "In the future, I would like to do a series of Indian lessons that go around India by region and cuisine. We could start from the south and then move up. That's what we're doing with our Italian classes; we do Italy by region, cuisine and season."

So what is the feedback from the women who have gifted these classes to their men?

"It is very good. I got a phone call one midnight, some time after a class had finished and this woman rang up and said how did you do it?

And I said, `what?' and she said: How did you get my husband eating avocado? He hasn't eaten avocado for six years since I've married him and now you've got him eating avocado. Yes, they are very, very pleased. They say their men have changed."

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