SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Judy White is hoping to remove the stigma and perception that cooking is difficult for two dozen Yellowknife residents whom she will be teaching the basics of cooking.

Judy White, owner of Yummy, begins offering cooking classes next week at her shop. People will get the chance to learn to use spices, as well as what flavours work well with one another and some recipes to try at home. - Andrew Livingstone/NNSL photo

White, owner of the soup and sandwich shop Yummy, is offering her first round of cooking classes next week in her shop on the corner of 49 Street and 51 Avenue. She said the idea grew out of enquiries from people in their twenties and thirties who frequent her store.

"They just don't know the basics and they'd taste my soup and they'd ask how I made it," she said. "It's just the basics, it's teaching them how to make spaghetti sauce and banana bread and then how to be creative with the basics."

When in her twenties, White said she was just like some of the people who inquired about classes - limited in knowledge but extremely curious about the wonders of the kitchen.

"I learned to cook from my mom, she was a great cook and a baker," she said. "I started having mini dinner parties in university and I just kind of got hooked."

She hopes the courses will allow students to learn basics and go out on a limb to creative in the kitchen. White said she plans to teach people how to mix and match spices and hopefully make cooking and baking fun for people who might view it as more of a chore.

"A lot of people don't like to cook," she said. "It's not a chore to cook, I want people not to think that way."

Plans are to set up stations where White will demonstrate how to make three different recipes and then students will get a chance to make two of the three delicious treats.

"They'll get to go home with recipe books and the basics about what they need in their pantries," she said, adding people tend to shy away from certain things, like lasagna or pizza, because it seems too complicated and that food can be made from scratch just as easy.

"It's really easy to make pizza in the kitchen, it's not expensive. It's just the fear. Once you can see someone make it and how easy it is, people realize cooking can be fun and simple."

White said some would-be cooks have a limited knowledge of what spices work with what food and what flavours compliment each other well, something she said she plans to touch on during her classes.

"People don't quite think about putting flavours together and I think people don't know what they need to pair up with meats and cheeses and sauces," she said.

With three classes booked for the next two weeks, White hopes to continue offering them through the winter months.

"I would like to offer (classes) regularly," she said. "It would've been good at the start of winter, but I'm happy to get it going now."