I'm a mathematician who joined Masterclass to improve my cooking. I look forward to checking out the class by Terence Tao, as a diversion.

I held off joining for the longest time because I didn't want twenty hours of each person telling me "You can do this!" The cooks such as Thomas Keller simply aren't capable of staying in affirmation mode that long (think of their kitchens!) and they do get down to business. I learned a lot, even as an experienced cook.

(Math meets Keller: I still don't believe they use a 10% brine in the restaurant. I think he's confused as to what they do.)

I think of it like "listen to an expert in X talk about why they love X" instead of "learn the basics of X". It's sort of more like an interview than a lecture.

I wish people would avoid suffixing porn to give a negative connotation to anything they disagree with. As a non-native English speaker, I truly hate the way some Americans butcher the language.

True. They had this cooking classes from some Michelin 3-star restaurant chef. Apart from some slick flourishes these are not usually about learning some practical skills.