To celebrate September’s National Dog Week this year, human-grade pet food manufacturer The Honest Kitchen teamed up with online culinary platform Cozymeal to bring a complimentary virtual cooking class to life. Though Cozymeal typically only offers classes on preparing human dishes, this special edition Zoom class walked its participants through the preparation of a full-course meal for their dogs and featured some of The Honest Kitchen’s most popular dehydrated products in addition to some regular ingredients from the grocery store.
The dishes created during the class were a Doggy Hot Toddy appetizer, a main course of meatloaf and mashed potatoes, and a decadent dessert of Blueberry Celebration Cake. All three meals were, of course, human-grade and nutritious, in keeping with the spirit of National Dog Week, which is to encourage people to find new ways of enhancing their dogs’ lives and well-being. Through use of The Honest Kitchen’s exceptional products and Cozymeal’s top-tier chef educator, Stacy D., this class not only provided a fun experience learning to cook for our dogs in a healthy way, but also brought to the table a beneficial way to bond with our pets.
About The Honest Kitchen
The Honest Kitchen was born in the home of Lucy Postins in 2002. Armed with an educational background in animal nutrition, Postins’ goal was to improve the convenience of prepping a nutritionally balanced raw meal for her own dog, Mosi. With her success came the idea that she could put other pets on the path to good health through a healthy diet. The Honest Kitchen went on to become the first dog food brand in history to obtain FDA approval to list their products as “human grade” on the packaging, and they add no fillers or GMO ingredients. They carry a wide range of supplements, wet food, kibble, dehydrated meals, and toppers with carefully sourced ingredients prepared in facilities that meet the highest human food standards.
About Cozymeal
Cozymeal is an online platform with a mission to provide users with easy access to top-tier culinary experiences. After 10 years in the marketplace, this website has become the premier destination for both foodies and kitchen newbies to find local cooking classes, food tours, and private chefs, as well as virtual cooking lessons. Most of the options are for humans, but Cozymeal also has options that revolve around home-cooked dog food or treats, which was my introduction to this revolutionary company. Cozymeal’s broad range of available bookings with varied price points makes this website a great platform to find fun and rewarding cooking experiences, no matter your skill level, budget, or goals. Through Cozymeal, you can hire a private chef for a dinner party, take your friends on a food tour, or practice team building with your coworkers…or, like I did, learn how to cook at home without anyone watching!
Our Experience with The Honest Kitchen & Cozymeal’s Online Cooking Class
To be honest, I have never been a good cook. My go-to is usually spaghetti, a dish that is pretty hard to mess up. A box of pasta, marinara in a jar, some garlic toast, and TA-DAAA – dinner is served! Well, several months ago, I decided to start cooking fresh meals for my dogs. I was hearing more and more about how a lifetime of processed food is detrimental to the health of our canine companions, and I wanted to do better for them. But where do I start as a lackluster chef? How do I make sure what I’m cooking is healthy for them? How can I create something tasty my dogs will actually eat?
I was recently invited to attend a virtual cooking class, a collaboration between Cozymeal and The Honest Kitchen, a human-grade pet food manufacturer. The class theme was “Tasty Recipes To Celebrate National Dog Week,” and as someone who already likes to prepare fresh food for my three dogs – Turtle, Rooney, and Candy – I was all in!
I was familiar with The Honest Kitchen, but Cozymeal was new to me. Many of the required ingredients were things I already had in my kitchen, and those I had to purchase were nothing expensive – in total, I spent less than $40 shopping for the class.
Since I had my ingredients prepped ahead of time, the pace of the class ended up being just right, and there were even a few 5-minute breaks during which I was able to do a little kitchen cleanup. The instructor was very kind and personable, and showed us her little doggie that she was cooking for at home. Class participants even sent photos of their own dogs to the Zoom chat, so we enjoyed some cute photos while we learned.
Chef Stacy walked us through making a 3-course meal for our dogs, which included a Doggy Hot Toddy, Meatloaf and Mashed Potatoes, and Blueberry Celebration Cake. Each dish was made using a combination of human ingredients and some products from The Honest Kitchen. Everything was easy to prepare and came out looking and smelling amazing. The dogs all enjoyed this new culinary experience and there was no food left in anyone’s bowl, but it’s safe to say the meatloaf – made with lean ground beef and The Honest Kitchen’s dehydrated beef formula – was the crowd favorite! The portions were also generous, and I was able to feed the dogs for multiple meals using the blueberry cake and meatloaf. Now that I’ve had this awesome Cozymeal experience with my dogs, I want to sign up for the human version!
Conclusion
Food is a basic human need but can also be transformative, physically and emotionally. Experiences around food can shape how we feel about the world, which is also true for our canine companions. Preparing a special meal for your dog is a wonderful way to bond, and intimate dining experiences can have the same effect for humans. Both Cozymeal and The Honest Kitchen know the value of crafting culinary experiences around love, and their platform helps everyone discover a love of food.