Homemade marshmallows for hot chocolate.

The students are in a class offered by City Chicks, founded last August by Schmidt, 37, who uses a shared industrial kitchen here. Experts like Barry help her teach everything from how to butcher a whole pig to how to style an easy, retro updo. Schmidt describes her curriculum as “21st century home ec.” “It’s about finding and learning the skills that your grandmother had and your mom had and applying them to your everyday life, your modern life,” she says.