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Tag Archives | cooking school

Williams-Sonoma Cooking School – San Francisco and Chicago

Posted on October 22, 2013 in On-Location Cooking Schools, San Francisco, San Francisco Tours, Search by Location, Uncategorized

The newly created Williams-Sonoma Cooking School in San Francisco offers a variety of classes focused on range of topics from the basics of learning to cook to mastering specific techniques or exploring a new cuisine. Classes for up to 12 people are customized to suit all experience levels, from beginner to advanced cook. In each class, small groups of students prepare and cook meals at state-of-the art mobile cooking stations in a fully outfitted professional kitchen with hands-on instruction from Williams-Sonoma resident professional chefs as well as local guest chefs.

The school also offers 5-day courses called “Learn To Cook in a Week” so students can master the essential cooking methods to become an accomplished cook, such as braising and poaching or steaming and baking. Additionally, customized private classes for up to 10 students are a wonderful way to celebrate a birthday, anniversary or holiday with friends and family. You choose the menu and at the end of the hands-on class the group enjoys a 3-course meal together.

Two, three, and four-hour classes are priced from $75 – $155, 5-day cooking courses are $500, Children’s Classes are $65 and Customized Classes are $1,500.

More info and reservations

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Turkish Flavours: Urla Cooking Class and Farmer’s Market Visit – Urla, Turkey

Posted on August 28, 2013 in International, International Tours, On-Location Cooking Schools, Search by Location, Turkey

We will pick you up from Izmir/Çeşme/Alaçatı or environs and accompany you to the quaint seaside town of Urla where an old fashioned slow and relaxed lifestyle still exists.

Taking a stroll through the town we will stop at a local bakery where everything is still made by hand with the best quality ingredients. Here we will get to know each other while tasting local delicacies such as homemade pastries, cookies and walnut baklava accompanied by Turkish coffee.

With a short and leisurely walking tour through the Arts Street featuring ceramic, mosaic, woodworking and painting studios, we will enjoy the artwork along with 150 year old stone buildings and the narrow streets of central Urla.

We will then arrive at the fruit and vegetable market where all produce is freshly picked in the early morning.

Here we will choose our seasonal produce and fresh cheeses and arrive at the cooking workshop. We will learn how to prepare Aegean style foods featuring the strong influence of the regional culinary heritage using the freshest ingredients and dishes cooked in local extra virgin olive oil.

After cooking a delicious meal together, we will sit down and enjoy a family style late lunch with the food we prepared, accompanied by a selection of award winning local wines while enjoying the wonderful views of the region.

Sample seasonal menu: Aegean style wild green and fresh cheese appetizers, lamb slow cooked with herbs and lemon peel, handmade savory pastry, rice with pine nuts and currants, slow cooked artichokes in olive oil, semolina cake with lavender ice cream, Turkish coffee and chocolates.

We will drive you back After the Urla culinary experience.

Urla is 35 km from İzmir in the Aegean Coast near Ephesus.

A farmers market tour and Aegean Turkish cooking class -6,5 hours

On Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays

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Turkish Flavours: In the Kitchen with Selin

Posted on August 28, 2013 in International, International Tours, On-Location Cooking Schools, Search by Location

Home cooking in a real Turkish home by a native home chef!

We say “Make yourselves at home” and we mean it! Today Turkey’s culinary legacy is a tapestry of tastes and pleasure, seasoned with Ottoman indulgence and refreshed by Anatolian inspiration. Learn the secrets of a cuisine relished within all corners of Turkey but rarely experienced by outsiders. Join Selin to teach you how to make a traditional home-cooked Turkish meal.

After we meet we will walk through the reknown Spice Market for tastings and stop for a private turkish spices tasting session in a shop that has been there since five generations. Then we will take a short scenic ferry ride over the Bosphorus to the Asian side of Istanbul. We will join Selin in her new home on the Asian side of Istanbul and cook a traditional home-cooked Turkish meal together.

For lunch, you will savor what you have cooked! A six course menu you have prepared, accompanied with boutique Turkish wines.

Recipes vary according to the season, utilizing only the freshest ingredients available and providing you with a deeply individual Turkish experience . As a member of Slow Food, Selin’s focus is on healthy locally sourced, fresh, artisan, and sustainable food. Dishes are approachable and easy to replicate in your home country.

Vegetarian and gluten free Turkish food is not a challenging option for us – it’s easy being green and creating exciting Turkish vegetarian and gluten free recipes at Turkish Flavours.

Upon request Turkish – Sephardic dishes can also be included to the menu from Selin’s family recipes.

The best part is the conclusion: Tasting your creations!

Classes are organized in Selin’s Home Kitchen. Instruction is in English or French. Recipes are geared to the home cook. Detailed recipe booklets are offered to take away and try recipes once back at home. Selin shops daily for her groceries so the ingredients are seasonal and fresh.

A sample menu might include:

  • Crispy cheese and herb filled pastry rolls or flaky Turkish borek with feta and herb filling or zucchini flan with feta cheese and herbs
  • Bulgur wheat salad- Kısır or Carrots with a garlic infused in yogurt and tahini dressing or Cacik
  • Leeks, green beans or artichokes in olive oil
  • Purslane salad with mint and yoghurt or Green Olive Salad with sumac and pomegranate molasses
  • Spicy bulgur pilaf or Tomato rice pilaf or pilaf with Orzo
  • Split Belly Eggplant stuffed with meat – Karniyarik or Aromatic Rice Stuffed Bell Peppers with Olive Oil or Zucchini stuffed with meat, rice and herbs in a tomato sauce or Baked Sea Bass with shrimp and vegetables or Eggplant in Earthenware casserole with lamb or Swiss Chard rolls
  • Apricots stuffed with Kaymak (clotted cream) or Roasted Figs infused in honey with bay leaves or Revani – Turkish Semolina sponge cake

COST : USD 125.- per person

Please do not have a big breakfast prior your cooking class!

9:30 am -15:30 pm- Spice tasting session, ferry ride to the Asian side of Istanbul, cooking class with a 6 to 7 course lunch & Turkish wine in a private home.

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Le Foodist: Sweet Pairings – Paris, France

Posted on April 15, 2013 in France, International, International Tours, On-Location Cooking Schools

Learn the secrets of perfect pastry and magic macaroons, while enjoying Le Foodist’s own surprising stories about sweet sensations through the ages. At the end, you can savour the fruits of your labour with a selection of refreshing tea-time beverages.

In every Sweet Stories session, you will experience:

Hands on and Hands In

Maybe we should say: hands in … the dough.  There is no avoiding getting dirty when you cook pâtisserie.  But at the end it is mostly sugar and butter we are talking about.  So it’s not so bad, is it?

Precision

Everybody says it is the most critical in pâtisserie.  We will explore the limits together, to see how far you really need to go …

Tasting and learning stories

When the time comes to taste the fruit of your efforts, we will share tea or coffee – and the stories of how these exotic beverages have helped shape the face of the earth, and more modestly, Paris.

Choose from these classes:

Macarons and Meringues: Not only the opportunity to learn how to make a French, a Swiss or an Italian Meringue; but also to see how to get amazing colors and flavours!  And a bit of the history of the conspicuous but notoriously challenging little cake – and our best addressees in Paris (not all as famous as you might think …)

The secret to Croissants and Napoleon: At the basis of many a French sweet delicacy there is a special dough: pâte feuilletée. Learning the secret to build literally thousands of layers of dough is fun! And the result has many applications, as we will see. But there is no Napoleon without crême pâtissière, so we do that too.

Choux Pastry: The basis for St Honoré or Profiteroles, but also for savoury Gougères, this is definitely one you will use again and again after you master it. So many applications; paired with cream bases, mmm

Timing: 2:30 – 5 pm (see calendar)

Price: €65

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Le Foodist: Travel and Chef – Paris, France

Posted on April 15, 2013 in France, International, International Tours, On-Location Cooking Schools

We offer comprehensive culinary classes where you learn to select produce at the market,  plan your preparation, and learn the culinary techniques involved while producing the menu yourself. Our approach is fun and informal, but also a learning experience, and as always we shall be sharing our surprising stories of what the contents of your plate can tell you about French culture.

After the hard work, sit down with classmates to savour the fruits of your labour: a three-course meal with matching wines.

In every Travel & Chef session, you will experience what we detail below.

Learn by doing

It is said we learn by doing; OK.  But it is also said we learn by our mistakes.  Using that insight (based on experience unfortunately …) we have developped an original technique for accelerating the learning of how to cook – where you might fail first, but you will definitely succeed in the end.  And this works wonders to make the lesson memorable.

Technical mastery

Simple techniques are the foundation of any great French meal; this is the basis for French professional cooking certification.  So we ensure that you cover 5 to 7 of these fundamental techniques in each of our classes (for a total of 192). And then we explain a bit of the theory, because we all learn differently.

Storytelling

In France, the pleasure of a meal derives both from the food and the fact that we share our meals.  And what do we share?  Usually conversations about food.  So we will make sure you hear our stories about the ingredients and recipes along the way, and take the opportunity to discover a bit more about the French culture along the way.

Planning the meal

This might be the topic about cooking which is the least covered in classes or books.  Yet we think the most critical – and at the heart of professional cooking.  So why not learn something about it with us?  We will be happy to share.

Sharing the meal

At the end of our class, we always sit down to enjoy the meal together – and to hear some stories about the wine we pair with the food.

Timing: 8 or 10 am – 1 pm (see calendar)

Price: From €95, including tax and wine pairings

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Access Trips: Wine Country Culinary Tour – Sonoma, California

Posted on January 22, 2013 in Multi-Day Culinary Tours, On-Location Cooking Schools, Search by Location, Sonoma, Sonoma, Sonoma Tours

Join us on a culinary journey to Sonoma, in the heart of California’s Wine Country, with handcrafted wines and delectable meals sourced from small local farms. Nestled in a lush valley with trellised vineyards climbing the surrounding hills, and bound by a central plaza and a historic Spanish mission, Sonoma is arguably one of the most beautiful towns in California.

Step far off the tourist path for an intimate cooking and wine adventure with Sonoma’s finest local chefs and vintners, as you learn to cook with locally-sourced seasonal ingredients. Our Sonoma culinary tour includes cooking classes taught by expert chefs, dinners at the best restaurants in town, wine tasting at one of the oldest family wineries in California, and a hike with spectacular views of the valley. During your free time you’ll relax at Sonoma’s premier boutique inn and spa.

Thanks to an abundance of organic and fresh local produce, our chefs are able create scrumptious menus that change seasonally to reflect the best of what Sonoma has to offer. On our Sonoma culinary tour you’ll learn how to create delicious meals that showcase the best of California cuisine. Our chefs will not only show you how to prepare a meal that compliments the season, but will also give you tips on how to get creative with the recipe at home. Once the cooking classes are over, we’ll all sit down and enjoy the fruits of our labor, along with a delicious glass of local wine.

DAY 1: Arrive & Relax
Pick up from Bay Area airport and transfer to our luxurious hotel & spa in downtown Sonoma. Dinner at Harvest Moon Café.

DAY 2: Tour Sonoma & Taste Its Delicacies
Morning walking tour of historic Sonoma. Afternoon wine tour and cheese tastings. Stay at luxurious hotel & spa.

DAY 3: Cooking Class & Hike
Morning cooking class and lunch. Afternoon hike followed by a visit to the local Farmer’s Market in season. Stay at luxurious hotel & spa.

DAY4: Cooking Class & Farm Tour
Late morning cooking class and tour of organic gardens, olive groves, and vineyards. Afternoon hike and chocolate tasting. Farewell dinner. Stay at luxurious hotel & spa.

DAY 5: Departure
After breakfast transfer to airport for flight home.

Dates: April-October

Prices: From $2590

Skill level: Beg – Int

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Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes – Paris, France

Posted on December 4, 2012 in France, International, International Tours, On-Location Cooking Schools, Search by Location

Come take a delicious insider culinary journey of Paris with Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes. Richard Nahem, a former New York and professional chef and caterer Charlotte Puckette, author of the bestseller The Ethnic Paris Cookbook, will teach students how to make classic French food with an ethnic twist. Classes will start at 9:00AM with a tour of a fresh food market, where we will shop for some of the seasonal and sometimes exotic ingredients. After, we will go to Charlotte’s private townhouse minutes from the Eiffel Tower. We will discuss the menu over coffee and prepare a three-course feast for the next few hours. We will finish with our delicious lunch we just prepared along with a selection of ripe cheeses and French wine from a local shop specially selected for the cuisine. Classes will end approximately 2PM.

Cost: 185 euros per person (about $240). Minimum of 2 students, maximum 6 students.

Time: 9:00AM- 2PM (approximately 4 1/2 hours)

Class days: Tuesday to Sunday

Location: We will meet by a metro station close to the market

More info and reservations

 

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A Taste of Spain: Cooking Classes

Posted on September 26, 2012 in International, International Tours, On-Location Cooking Schools, Search by Location, Spain

Enjoy our private hands-on cooking classes in English, specially designed and programmed, just for you and your friends, according to your preferences. Some of our half-day cooking classes include a guided visit to a local food market for seasonal products, and all of them will pamper you with the undivided attention of our expert cooking teachers. No hurries, feel free to ask questions and chat; you mark the pace in a wonderful, laidback atmosphere.

Prepare a complete menu based on traditional, avant garde or vegan Spanish dishes, and when your work is done, sit down to a full lunch, accompanied by selected Spanish wines…

Check out our selection of private cooking classes all over Spain:

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Delicious Israel: Cooking workshop

Posted on August 28, 2012 in International, International Tours, Israel, On-Location Cooking Schools, Search by Location

Delicious Israel offers foodies and culture-seekers a unique and adventurous way to vacation and connect with Israel – through their passion.

This experience will be enjoyed with an accomplished Israeli chef who will teach a fun, hands-on lesson in his open professional kitchen studio. Depending on the time of day, this option may include a visit to the outdoor market to see what’s in season, then moving to the chef’s studio to cook a menu that includes modern Israeli cuisine (flexible).

Sample Menu:
● Fresh hummus
● Handmade, steaming hot pita
● Open fire grilled eggplant with green tehini
● Israeli garden vegetable salad with mint
● Grilled chicken/lamb kabobs with cumin and sumac
● Spicy Moroccan fish
● Freekeh with peas and pistachios
● Baklava
● Mint lemonade and black coffee with cardamom

Time: 3-5 hours (depending on group)

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The International Kitchen: Moroccan Flavors Tour – Morocco

Posted on July 26, 2012 in International, International, International Tours, Morocco, Morocco, Multi-Day Culinary Tours, On-Location Cooking Schools, Search by Location

About the location: Many food experts say that Morocco has the best cuisine in Africa, perhaps even in the top five of the world. From the narrow streets in the ancient medinas to the Berber villages down south, Morocco is a mysterious and alluring destination and should definitely be on your “must visit” list. While experiencing this diverse and yet culturally rich country, your senses will be stimulated; while learning, cooking, and tasting the flavorful tagines, salads and patisseries of Morocco.

About the lessons: This tour includes four cooking classes, each totally different in their styles; from cooking in a traditional dar (house), to cooking over the charcoal in the Berber village. Your classes will be taught by a number of different chefs, each with vast experience in Moroccan cuisine. Each of our teachers speaks fluent English and French, and their establishments are licensed by the government. After spending the days exploring Morocco, you will return to your accommodations (hotels or riads) for the evening.

Riads are beautifully restored houses, usually with a garden inside, that offer the perfect blend of luxury, comfort, and tradition. Where riads are not available, we have chosen high quality four and five star hotels. Seeing the country through the eyes of a Moroccan will open the doors into some of the secrets of the culture. Your driver/guide will accompany you for the entire tour and will escort you throughout the country and make your holiday memorable.

What’s included:

  • Nine nights accommodations (riads and four-star hotels)
  • Arrival and departure transfers
  • Daily dinner (beverages not included) and breakfast
  • Three lunches (beverages not included)
  • Transportation as per itinerary
  • English speaking driver/guide
  • Professional tour guide in historical cities
  • Four hands-on cooking lessons
  • Excursions and entrance fees as per itinerary (excluding Hassan II Mosque)
  • Portage

2012 Prices
US$3655 per person based on double occupancy for 2-3 people
US$3045 per person for 4+ people
US$650 single supplement

Please add 10% for Christmas and New Years departure.

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