Course Review: 00 to Hero by Sorted Food

Course: 00 to Hero

Course by Sorted Food (with Kush and Mike)

Course objectives

As the name implies this is a baking course aimed at novices and to take them to a level where they can soar around in a somewhat bread formed cape, granted it also implies Mike might do something other than eat the results.

If you're uninitiated with the Sorted Food YouTube Channel providing the course, Kush is one of the regular chefs who has begun to be featured regularly, and Mike is what is referred to as a 'normal', otherwise known as a home cook. 

If going from no baking experience to a fledged baker in weeks sounds daunting for a novice, it won't be, you'll be learning about needing, proving, and a handful of techniques to get you going. The course isn't trying to turn you Cordon Blu, but give you confidence to start baking and give you some great recipes to get you going with.

Content 

This is a four week course, in reality the content is available for six months, so if it feels a rush for your personal timeframe, don’t worry. This isn’t a live course so there’s no pressure to be present at any particular moment, this approach has pros and cons, feedback on questions isn’t going to be immediate, but the course format makes it easier for a global audience and multiple batches of students; I’d hope that each iteration would include improvements from the previous classes, but I was in the first batch so I’ll just take it on faith with that one.

With the assumption that the content is largely unchanged you bake four different projects, Burger Buns, Focaccia, Cinnamon Buns, and Pizza, each with step by step video instructions. Personally I already have go to Burger Bun and Pizza dough recipes that I use regularly (psst, they’re on this site too) but I was curious to see any differences and to pick up some knowledge regardless. For each recipe there is both video and written recipes in case either medium is preferable to you, although it’s still worth watching the videos. I'd never made Cinnamon buns before, I've eaten my share of them, and they were spot on, I'm tempted to try mixing things up with some cardamom flavouring instead to see how things go. The Focaccia is standout and becomes a visual demonstration of proving and how yeast works, and tastes amazing.

Instructors

Although the title of the course says with Kush and Mike, it’s Kush, I assumed this would be the case for the teaching, although I thought Mike would be there as an example student, in the end he just ate the food. This did seem a missed opportunity to have someone effectively standing in for the remote student, and maybe be able to ask some questions that a trained chef isn't going to come up with, or mistakes to remediate.

Kush, who will be familiar to viewers of Sorted Food on YouTube, is clearly knowledgeable as expected, and is very clear with instructions. 

Learning Experience 

There format of the training, which I assume is more related to the platform, is bursts of short videos that you watch in sequence, this does give the you the option to follow Kush’s techniques and explanations, repeating the step as you need. I found I kept replaying the same little bit of video to make sure I was getting it correct, which was a clear advantage of a longer format video where I'd have to keep finding my place again, a few times I did apologise to the video of Kush for rewinding a few times. 

The approach taken is very down to earth and novice friendly language, I imagine anyone new to baking will be able to follow along, whilst those more experienced won’t feel patronised.

The course is designed to be practical, its not a steadfast requirement, but it is created to let you go at your own pace but in short steps to cater for the learner practising along side instructor.

Instruction Quality

Everything needed to get to the end goal is in both the video and writing materials, there were a few questions from individuals in the class at the beginning, which was perhaps to be expected from a new course provided by a team new to the field, but quick remediation was taken was taken where needed. One thing that isn't so obvious purely by instructions is the sizes of dish you need when appropriate, even with a touch more experience than the course is intended for I found myself having to decide carefully. Inevitably there will be things that come up that hadn't been anticipated, make sure you ask when in doubt, in my class there was a question about protein content in flour as the Germans as you'd guess a more efficient with their labelling than the British where it just says 'strong' on the packet, instead of range of numbers.

Support and Feedback

Being pre-recorded videos obviously feedback from queries isn't instantaneous, so you can find yourself having to use your judgement on occasions, but these situations largely arise from either not following the instructions fully or your environment having different circumstances. I will say that some questions did take longer to answer for myself or other students than I would expect, and I have raised this with the team behind the course, so hopefully there will be more fluid communication.  I did at times try to answer questions from others on the course myself, when some time had passed, and I had the answer; I did feel like I was stepping on the toes of the instructors, but on occasion quite some time had passed. I don't know if the third party platform being used informs when a question is asked, if it doesn't there is clearly an oversight in the software itself.

Materials and Tools

Particularly important for a baking course, all the ingredients and equipment are documented, it probably goes without saying but check you're got all of this ready in advance. Some of the ingredients you won't need until the next day, so watch through the course once first to see when you'll need things.

A few things did come up particularly form international students who were in need of conversions, or slightly more problematically are labelled differently in their country, particularly flour. 

The only time that I encountered unclear required equipment was during the making of the Focaccia, I wasn't sure what size tray to use, in the end it came out well though, this one got into the channel newsletter as a picture.

Production Quality

The videos are recorded with clear visuals and sound, in short bursts. There are definitely issues with the platform itself, this is on no part fault of the Sorted Food team, but the platform used isn't entirely user friendly, and a found that some videos got played in the wrong order on my tablet. There were times on the weeks with more steps that made the screen jump to below the video each time that I moved onto a new step, again this seemed tablet related as my phone was fine. This was frustrating, but not in a detriment to the content, just the website would get my wrath from time to time.

The printed documentation is very good and something to hold onto, the content is still available up to six months after your course, but make sure to download the recipes for future use within that time; the guys at Sorted are great and they probably help if you forgot, but obviously I can't guarantee this. 

Cost and Value 

The cost when I purchased the course was £50, this may change, please check when purchasing. Value for money will always be subjective, however from my perspective its not a lot for an entry to the world of baking. If you taking the cynical approach, yes you are paying a fair amount of cash to essentially follow some recipes with video instructions, but the difference is the instructor is a professional chef, the recipes are developed and tested, and there are intangibles that provide motivation that may not be present when teaching ones self, such as interaction with classmates, a set cadence of weekly content, and that you have paid for the course!

Personal Experience 

I came into the course as a fairly experienced home cook who's dabbled in baking but never really focussed specifically on it, my hopes for the course would be that i come away with a few new recipes, but more importantly learn more of the reasoning and science behind what I'm doing. I'll be honest I did find that I didn't really learn as much as I'd hoped with regards to the understanding of why the instructions were what they were, but as I went on the course did feel geared towards the less experienced. However, what I did enjoy was having a weekly project, and something a bit different to do. Typically the videos were released on a Friday, I would watch it through and see if I needed any ingredients, buy them, and be ready for a Saturday baking session. A really good idea is to watch the videos shortly after they're available as some recipes require and overnight step, which will be useful to know if you plan on cracking on with it each week.

I'll be the first not admit I'm quite introverted, but one of the things I found that I enjoyed the most was the experience of talking to classmates and seeing the photos posted, it was cool when you got a complement from a fellow student or the Sorted guys, this did help to boost your confidence. 

I've changed a few of the ways that I do things in my baking since, I'm doing more baking generally too, I even started this blog as a result! The most enjoyable week, both from the making and eating was Focaccia week, from start to end it went well and it was interesting seeing the development as the time went by. I've cooked the Focaccia multiple times since, mixing up the herbs, my best experiment was with rosemary and tarragon, definitely try this.

Pros:

• Clear teaching and instructions
• Easy entry for novices
• New recipes for those with some knowledge
• Interaction with classmates
• Ability to ask questions
• Weekly content so you don't feel rushed

Cons:

• The external website hosting the course can be buggy
• Only one image can be uploaded at a time
• Lack of background to the purpose of some stages in the process
• Responses to questions can be slow

Final Recommendation

If you're after dipping your toe into a new, or maybe existing hobby of baking, this is going to be perfect for you. Although not a hugely long course, with only four weeks, the recipes are varied and cover a decent amount of fundamentals. It's going to be a good idea if you're not sure if baking is for you to get on this course because its fairly inexpensive as courses go and will give you an idea of if its for you. If you're more on the experienced end you aren't going to get as much as the typical home cook, but I can vouch for the results, and it forces you intro practising you skills and a bit of social interaction. 

I've provided most of my feedback in person on the course, both good and less so, although there's very little wrong with it, and knowing the Sorted Food team I'm sure this will only improve and be iterated on over time. 

The class is started in batches, so go and get yourself on the newsletter to find out when new classes start!

There is another thing to mention, I won the course!!! I had no idea that the course was at all competitive, this shouldn't put you off, if anything it felt more collaborative than anything. After a long week, it was a pleasant boost to log in and see I'd won though.

As always, check out the content I'm reviewing, Sorted Food on YouTube is a great home for foodies to unwind!

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SortedFood

Website: https://sortedfood.com/