Team Building Activity - Holiday Home Cooking

So much fun cooking with Shelby!! Food was amazing and my husband and I, who love to cook, learned quite a few things!! I loved that she was able to come to our home. It was quite a treat. Thanks Shelby!!

Chef Shelby was the bomb.

Chef Shelby did such an INCREDIBLE job for my birthday dinner last night. Not only was she a lovely presence to have in our home, her food was so DIVINE! Filled with so much flavor, depth and soul, gorgeously presented and on time! My guests just loved it. Thank you Shelby and Cozymeal team. A huge success. (By the way, I never write reviews!)

Chef Shelby was awesome! Friendly, knowledgeable, and efficient. When she arrived with 2 small sacks, I was wondering how she would feed 8 people a 7-course meal! But, she did...there was plenty of food. Magic in that sack! This was a cooking class for my daughter's 30th, and 7 of her friends. They had a great time! Hands on learning, good food, and valuable info from Chef Selby. My first time with COZY MEAL...no referrals, so took a chance.....glad I did! Thank you!

Chef Shelby did a wonderful job! My wife and I learned a lot! We will definitely be keeping up with her and retaining her services in the future!

Chef Shelby is awesome. She showed us a variety of cooking techniques and different fun ways of cooking steak. She is extremely friendly and knowledgeable. We loved the experience and would definitely recommend it to others.

Shelby came through for us as we booked something last minute, and the southern / creole cuisine was unbelievably delicious, and her knowledge on this type of cuisine kept this group of experienced cooks engaged and impressed.

Chef Shelby was not only a wonderful chef, but her enthusiasm and charm was infectious. Everyone raved about the meal for days afterwards.

My husband and I had a wonderful evening and meal with Shelby. Very interesting and warm person, we loved learning from her cooking skills and how she experiences food for health and healing. We loved every single dish she prepared, the scallops and French fries were my personal favorites. It was our first time using CozyMeal and we don't regret any of it! Thanks again Shelby!

Chef Shelby is the bomb! She was our host for a private cooking class at our house with friends, and we had such a great time. She's knowledgeable, taught us how to cook some delicious AF food, and was super fun and funny. Highly recommend a cooking class with her. Thanks, Chef Shelby!

Gotta love Chef Shelby, she puts heart and soul into her amazing cooking.

Thank you

I used Chef Shelby's catering services at my home in San Francisco and couldn't have been happier. We had two menus, one of them being the Chic Comfort Brunch and everything was delicious and well-presented. The comfort of having a chef at your place who prepares a delicious meal for you, then cleans up and leaves is just amazing and Chef Shelby certainly did not disappoint. I can definitely recommend her to anyone who is looking for a great catering or private dining experience.

Chef Shelby was awesome!!! She was so informative and friendly and charismatic! Her helper was great too. Everything tasted delicious. She was great at answering everyone's questions about what they were supposed to do even while there were different things going on, on every burner and in every corner of the kitchen. It was great!

Chef Shelby is so great-- What a deliciously diverse and healthy meal she put together for us! We had a lot of fun learning from her about HOW to cook as well as WHAT we were cooking. Great energy and very supportive-- even when I burnt the quinoa! Thanks Chef Shelby!

Thanks to Chef Shelby, we had a wonderful time with our daughter's 11th birthday party! The food was imaginative, easy to make, and memorable. We have added these recipes to our regular favorite meals rotation!

Chef Shelby was a lot of fun and the dishes were delicious! All of our girls really enjoyed themselves - we took away great ideas and inspiration to do more in the kitchen.

I highly recommend Chef Shelby! We had a great time cooking with her and learned tons of healthy cooking/eating tips.

Chef Shelby was amazing! She exceeded out expectations. She was very informative and attentive, very knowledgable and extremely sociable. Everyone in our party was very engaged and at the same time having a good time. Food was amazing!!! Thank you!

We had a lovely time with Chef Shelby! The food we cooked was delicious and we all left confident that we are capable of recreating the dishes at home. One of my teammates had such a good time, he was contemplating using Cozymeal for personal events. Thank you!

We had a fantastic time with Chef Shelby and thoroughly enjoyed the full experience. The only bit of feedback is we thought the experience would be longer than 3 hours so we weren't ready to leave when it was over.

Chef Shelby is an excellent Chef and her cooking classes are the best! We booked her "In-House Steakhouse" cooking class in Oakland and had a blast. We learnt a lot, enjoyed her company and loved the food. Thank you Cozymeal for the great class!

Thank you for the great dining experience!

Chef Shelby designed her menus and classes in a way that was exceptionally fun. She gave me some great advice about cooking steak but as far as my favorite dishes, it was a really a toss-up between the meat and the chanterelles; both were so savory and flavorful!

We arranged for Chef Shelby with Cozymeal to come to our house for Spanish tapas with 10 adults. We had expectations regarding the tapas because half our family is Spanish; we have traveled extensively in Spain, and we wanted to learn how to make them. The menu consisted of : • Serrano Ham with Melon • Traditional Spanish Frittata • Roasted Red Pepper Salad with Smoked Chili Oil • Albondigas in Saffron Almond Sauce • Prawns with Garlic and Chili • Grilled Lamb Brochette • Spanish Flan We were a little hesitant with some of the items, especially those with chili oil and chilis, but figured the chef wanted to do some fusion. We were open to that as we thought we would learn something new. Our review: Positives: • Shelby and her assistant were friendly • Fresh ingredients from reputable stores • The comfort of our own home. No need to rush to get out of a cooking facility Negatives: • No Interactive Class - we had specifically requested the cooking class be interactive as we wanted to learn by doing things ourselves. However, Shelby would tell us what we were going to do but we never really had a chance to do it. For example, she would say to us that we were going to cut the lamb as she showed us how; but by the time she finished talking, the lamb was already cut, and therefore, we were just standing and watching. We counted that half of our group didn’t even participate once. This occurred several times with cutting melons, tomatoes, and other food. We thought she would bring the class together and make sure everyone participates. But at the end, It felt like a one-woman show. • Dialog – A problem many of us is that we didn’t understand her. She spoke too fast, and we had to ask her to repeat. • Utensils – We had called before the class and asked what we needed to provide so that everything was ready when she got here. But, during the event, we were continually getting more bowls, more serving platters, and baking sheets. There were about four of us rushing around getting all of these things. More precise instructions would have been helpful and would have made better use of our time. We did not enjoy this. • Food Preparation/Stations – Shelby said to create a few stations, so we set several areas with cutting boards. However, as previously stated, she and her assistant were doing all the work, and most of us were just standing around, some at one station and others at another. The session was highly unorganized and rushed. And because Shelby was doing several things at once, the meatballs and lamb were overcooked. Also, there were a lot of food items “thrown” on a plate – an antipasto platter that was just purchased from the store. More thought and detail could have been placed on the delivery of the presentation. Lastly, we weren’t even sous chefs - more like kitchen porters, e.g., drying off prawns from the store, getting additional ingredients, and cookware. • Tapas in General – Shelby told us that she worked off the menu but also wanted to get quality and fresh ingredients that were in season. We had no problem with this - but if you have traveled to Spain, you would know what tapas are. From our experience, the only thing that was tapas on the menu was the albondigas. In northern Spain, we had fantastic tapas that are put on bread and secured with toothpicks. We figured the menu would show us something cool and exciting that would involve typical Spanish tapas. Shelby told us about some of the spices she was using and how she incorporated into her dishes. While they were not Spanish; we were happy to learn about it. We also learned about a new melon, but we all knew how to put prosciutto around melon pieces. We recommend the chef ask the “students” about their cooking experience and adjust their teaching as needed. • Dessert –Tres Leches is not from Spain. Not even close. We did think it was interesting she took a sheet cake and put holes in it and added more cream and orange juice, but it was purchased and then altered. Conclusion: While the polite opinions of some of our guests varied, the overwhelming sentiment was that the service provided by Cozymeal was pretty disappointing, considering the overpriced cost of $110 per person. We did not receive a cooking class, but a very expensive catered dinner that we watched Chef Shelby and her assistant prepare as we scurried to get items and then later cleaned after the party. Shelby and her assistant were friendly, and I believe, meant well, they took the time to get fresh ingredients and shared with us a few spices and ingredient substitutions. This was at best an amateur cooking show – we learned something, but many of us cook exciting things. In fact, during this cooking session, we decided to add some true Spanish tapa cuisine and cooked our own pulpo a la gallega and padron peppers. We recommend to Cozymeal that their chefs set clear expectations. Know your audience, know your cuisine, slow down, show us and then hand the work to the party. We are sorry to say, but we will not be using the Cozymeal service again and would also not recommend it to others.

She never showed up. No call, no communication.