Wanna Learn Recipes & Techniques from Top Chefs for Less Than 10 Bucks a Month? Salted May Be For You!

The sun sets on traditional culinary education and half-baked recipe sites.

The sun set on another perfect Southern California day (that is, if you don't consider the severe drought), and about 3 dozen foodie tastemakers gathered in the Red Bull suite of the Hotel Erwin located in Venice Beach. This summer has been dry and sweltering, however there was a slight reprieve with some welcome cloud cover from now whimpering Tropical Storm Norbert.


Can't cook a s'more? Salted is definitely for you!

On the balcony facing the Pacific Ocean and Muscle Beach, all the accoutrement for s'mores were laid out for our end of summer snacking. More than a couple of people were actually struggling with toasting their marshmallows and then fumbling with sandwiching the childhood campfire classic sweets.

I thought this was perfect since the purpose of the event was the pre-launch of a new type of online culinary education called Salted. Founded by Jeff Appelbaum, Salted offers hi-def, on-demand instructional cooking videos that feature some of America's most celebrated chefs.


Chefs step up to educate the masses.

Some of those chefs were on hand for the night of the pre-launch, they included Eric Greenspan (Greenspan's Grilled Cheese), Jason Travi (Superba), Bryon Freeze (former Tar & Roses), and Adam Steudle (Hotel Erwin). All of the chefs present seemed to have a disdain for the traditional culinary school route for entry into the professional kitchen. Even Greenspan, who himself attended and worked at a culinary school, recommended that anyone wondering if becoming a professional chef is right for him or her should just head to the best restaurant in town and offer to work for free. "You'll know pretty fast if you're right for it," he concludes.

The biggest criticism for attending culinary school was a wake up call for anybody seriously considering the cooking profession. You'll be paying law school prices for culinary school resulting in a minimum wage job. Depressing is an understatement for this observation.


Back to basics sans food tv hype.

Nobody likes a complainer who doesn't offer a constructive solution. Enter Salted. For $9.99 per month (plus free intro month for early birds), subscribers will have access to 200 exclusive video tutorials, 8 classes, and 50 master chefs like Roy Choi, Neal Fraser, Ricardo Zarate, Daniel Holzman, and many others. The tutorials will range in degree of difficulty from basics like "How to Cut an Onion" to more advance (and Deep End!) like "Beef Heart Tartare."


Laughing all the way!

With my mind buzzing with Salted info., I decided to mellow out with a bottle of pre-mixed margarita called Laughing Glass. I normally run from pre-mixed anything since my early college years. However, this Laughing Glass stuff was good. It's available at Whole Foods for around $18 a bottle. My favorite thing about this margarita is the even balanced flavors, and it wasn't too strong with the tequila. Oh, and it's all-natural. Not sure exactly what that means, but it's nice.

Anyway, hurry and head over to Salted now, before they pull the FREE 30 DAY TRIAL SUBSCRIPTION OFFER. It'll be worth your while. Maybe you'll even learn how to make s'mores without scorching them, unlike my colleagues.

NEW OFFER! ENTER PROMO CODE: deepend. This code will provide YOU with 3 free months of Salted membership (when applied to Salted's monthly plan). Remember this is an exclusive Deep End Dining offer for 3 months of free membership versus the 1 free month at Salted's site. This applies to the monthly plan only!