know what bugs me? Being asked to go to school for cooking, getting there and then being asked by the instructor not to attend anything but the final to keep his bell curve from being broken.
and that the answer to most cooking questions are not the answer that the person is looking for anyway.
I probably won't ever attend a 200 buck bbq class.... I'm broke, and figure the journey is more important than the destination. find the basics someone and then play with it until you like it. It's the soul of BBQ tinkering, trying, making, eating, and then tinkering more. read, listen and try it for yourself.
Everyone loves showing off what we cook, at what temp, what we did it in, and what was tried, or wasn't tried. Glean what you can from that. go out and taste, see, smell and find that inspiration to read, learn and experiment. Share it here when something goes really wonky and someone here will ask a couple of questions and give you a pointer of what happened- not because of some class but because it has happened before ( to everyone) and the answer is there.
If you are a newbie and want to get started, do what my dad did, get a bullet smoker, put in some charcoal, some soaked chips, and fight with the bastard for five days cursing, drinking, burning yourself and making creosote flavored everything. Read some posts here about what has happened to other people, what people thought was the answer, put it to your failures and successes to get consistency. BUt remember, we're here to have fun, talk some fun and get together here and there to share something we all love to do-
make BBQ