Ever tried to grill a cake to perfection?

Matthew Brewton, a chef instructor at the soon-to-be Viking Cooking School in the Hilton Capitol Center, once used a smoker to bake a cake. He wouldn’t recommend it, but the goal wasn’t to eat it – it was to see if it could be done.

The worlds of Brewton and Head Chef Instructor Jay Ducote have been consumed with discovering the talents of a BBQ pit for months…maybe even years. The two chefs, using their shiny cookware from the Viking grilling line, have been transforming the Hilton Hotel’s pool deck into the Viking Cooking School. And soon, the fruits of their labor will be available for those who sign up for poolside classes.

You may have heard of Ducote because of his Baton Rouge food blog, BiteAndBooze.com, where he talks all things chewable, sippable, and chuggable. But Ducote’s grilling history stretches back to his college days, when he was stuck with the spatula at an LSU football game. It is an all-too-familiar scenario that forces many men into grilling expertise.

“I learned to cook while tailgating, after getting thrown in front of the pit by my cousin when I was a Freshman,” he explained, “and he said, ‘You’re in charge.’”

Ducote went on to enter various grilling competitions, learning more and more about the unknown versatility of what most find to be a simple cooking method. Now, Ducote and Brewton aren’t just teaching people how to cook a hamburger.

“I want people to be creative with it,” Ducote said. “It’s not just, ‘This is how to grill.’ It’s anything that you could possibly cook in a restaurant or inside a home, and we’re bringing it to an outdoor kitchen.

“You want to poach an egg? We’ll teach you how to poach eggs on a grill. You can incorporate the smoke flavor into that water,” added Brewton, who has worked in some notable New Orleans kitchens, as well as at a Viking School in Nashville (which is where he smoked the cake).

Outside of uncommon grill foods, the range of classes at Viking covers everything from Thai to Japanese steakhouse methods, with a few special goodies sprinkled throughout, including cooking demos by Emeril Lagasse, John Folse, John Besh, and chefs from the community.

The school has a line of “Steakhouse” classes planned, where attendees can learn what makes a Chicago steak different from an Argentinean one, down to what part of the cow it comes from.

“All of those will use different cuts of beef,” Ducote explained. “We’ll tell people what part of the cow it’s from, why we’re using it, how we’re seasoning it and handling it differently based on the traditions of those countries.”

One of the most engaging concepts, however, is an idea called Farm to Table: a class with a field trip to the Red Stick Farmers Market on Saturday mornings. It may be safe to say that this class will have a waiting list soon.

“We’ll meet at the Hilton at 9 a.m. and go over to the farmer’s market, where everyone gets to shop for whatever they want, and we’ll come back here to cook it,” said Ducote.

Brewton is particularly excited about teaching classical French cooking methods using a BBQ pit. If he can bake a cake with one, surely he can create a grill-adapted soufflé. He’s also eager to divulge Cajun secrets.

“I want to teach ‘country Cajun,’” he explained, “because a lot of people here eat Creole food. They don’t know too much about the difference.”

The first class is scheduled for Thursday, September 29, and will be what Ducote calls “an Italian alfresco dinner party,” with prosciutto-wrapped asparagus, sea scallop and shrimp skewers, and panna cotta. And don’t worry – they won’t forget the wine.

“Pretty much every class is going to involve drinking some wine,” Ducote said.

Ducote enjoys booze – he even named it as his favorite under-appreciated ingredient.

“I incorporate booze into my recipes,” he said. “Whether it’s a nice wine sauce or using bourbon as a marinade or even cooking something down in beer like we did with that chutney yesterday.”

It was peach, jalapeno, and shallot chutney that was created to top a grilled pork chop.

Food is the centerpiece of a cooking class, but the utensils must be mastered in order to make a meal shine. Out of all the utensils, there’s one that many people don’t know how to use properly.

“We’ve got some knife skill classes for people who are uncomfortable with knives,” said Ducote. “One of the things on the knife skills menu is fajitas – a dish that’s designed with knives. It teaches you exactly how to cut fajita meat to make it taste good, or how to cut an onion or bell pepper for that purpose.”

Ducote made it very clear that the classes offered aren’t part of an accredited cooking school, and that no one should be intimidated by the “school” part.

“One hundred percent entertaining, slightly educational, cooking classes,” said Ducote. “It’s all leisure. We’re going to sit at a table out here, drink a few glasses of wine, and talk about what we’ll be cooking.”

Though some things, like cakes, shouldn’t be roasted on a pit, rest assured that neither Brewton nor Ducote would force a pit-smoked cake into anyone’s mouth…unless it’s savory, of course.

The Viking Cooking School classes are aimed at a casual audience with all ranges of cooking experience, but they have several options for different skill and age levels. On the first Sunday of every month, a BBQ Basics class is held for those who have no idea what they’re doing over a pit. For the foodies, there are advanced classes for knife work, grilling, and other essentials. They have a class for children ages seven to nine, and one for teenagers, ages 13 to 16.

View the weekly course schedule of the Viking Cooking School, starting September 29. Sign up for a course at www.VikingCookingSchool.com.