Cee Dub on teaching chefs

The other day I asked Cee Dub "Butch" Welch to give his input on the teaching a Dutch oven class. I'm introducing Dutch oven cooking to a group of chefs at the Christian Chefs International conference in March.

Since Cee Dub leads camp cooking clinics near his home in the Texas Hill Country, I figured that he could give me a few pointers. What I didn't count on was that Cee Dub would respond with his own chef story! Thoght intimidated for a minute, Cee Dub continued on with the class. Read on and find out how Cee Dub handled this situation.

Here's the question I asked on Cee Dub on his Facebook page:

I'm teaching a Dutch oven class to a group of chefs at a convention next March in Oregon. I have 75 minutes in the first workshop after lunch. I do get a chance to follow up as I'm hosting the dinner that evening.

Any pointers? I plan to keep it simple and am basing my presentation on the assumption that the chefs do not cook in Dutch ovens currently. My goal is to give them enough information to cook their first meal.

Here's Cee Dub's response:

Steve, Sounds like fun!

Your post got me thinking about a clinic I held a couple of years ago. One, Jaques Duhr, a native of France and a retired French chef from here in the Texas Hill Country, was the first guy to sign up for the clinic! I was intimidated for about a minute. Talk about a prince of a man! A buddy of his with a big ranch out in West Texas flew him to the ranch each year for a big shindig and he wanted to expand his horizons.

Like every clinic I learned something from my students and especially so in this case. We had a blast! But ... like others who've taken my clinics who were damned good cooks in their own right, I started them all with beginning type recipes. You won't have to teach them how to cook or prepare a recipe.

But what they'll have to learn is there is no dial to select temperature. The tough part I've found is teaching them to plan the lag time for charcoal to light and old iron pots to heat up to cooking temp. Also teach them to keep the lid on especially when they're baking. Instead of using their vision to tell when things are done they'll need to use their nose.

I hope this helps,

Cee Dub

Cee Dub is the proprietor of CeeDubs.com and author of Cee Dub's Dutch Oven & Other Camp Cookin', plus a number of other cookbooks. Cee Dub teaches outdoor cooking at Camp Lonehollow in Vanderpool, Texas each summer.