WASHINGTON -- LivingSocial has got what you need.
The company, most recently in the news for its massive layoffs, is now offering what might be the oddest, most intriguing deal yet: Rapper and DJ Biz Markie, best known for the song "Just A Friend," will be teaching a two-hour class on healthy cooking at LivingSocial's downtown event space on F Street NW.
While you may think meat and potatoes got what you need, in the end they're just comestible friends. Fall in love with cuisine that's more your type (ie, healthy without sacrificing flavor) with the help of hip hop laureate Biz Markie. With today's offer from LivingSocial's 918 F Street, pay $79 for admission to a hands-on cooking class with the inimitable lyricist and lean food enthusiast. Biz Markie -- who competed on the first season of Celebrity Fit Club -- will instruct the class on how to prepare three of his favorite dishes: chicken satay in peanut sauce, shrimp and vegetable stir fry, and sugar-free cupcakes. For a VIP experience, guests who pay $99 can join Biz Markie at the Chef's Corner and score an autographed T-shirt. Oh snap (peas)!
Who wouldn't want to learn to cook chicken satay and sugar-free cupcakes with Biz Markie? That question we can't answer. We can say that as of Wednesday afternoon, LivingSocial's website indicated that 62 of the deals had been purchased.
And lest you think that Biz Markie is a carpetbagger in the healthy-cooking department, Amazon reviews from someone going by the name "Biz Markie" suggest otherwise.
He gave a sugar-free desserts cookbook one star, writing that it is a "HUGE WASTE OF MONEY! There were many errors and inconsistencies in the recipes, but most of all - NOTHING we made was worth the cost of the ingredients. And no, we're not kitchen or baking novices. We know what we're doing."
Biz Markie was more positive about another purchase, giving five stars for a professional KitchenAid stand mixer that he said in his review he uses "primarily for mixing yeast bread dough" two or three times per week.
He's got a local D.C. connection, too. Here he is on "Celebrity House Hunting," showing off his sneaker and Barbie collections, and looking at a D.C. house with a Huxtable-feel to it, that he could move to from his home in Laurel, Md. To bring it all full circle: Admiring the kitchen in one of the houses he's shown on that program, he says "I could see myself doing a cooking show."
The class will be held on Dec. 13 from 7-9 p.m. at 918 F St. NW. Buy tickets here.