Sur La Table Cooking Class

I’ve taken about 6 – 7 cooking classes here, & I’ve fallen in love with cooking for the first time in my life! The classes are excellent and the chef instructors are so knowledgeable, friendly & approachable ! I highly recommend any class here.

Took an awesome cooking class here! Everything was perfect and I learned a lot. The service here is so meticulous and they really make sure you are taken care of plus they have the best cooking gadgets. I would definitely take some more classes here and if you ever need any kitchen supplies, this is the place to go.

We hosted a private cooking class here in honor of a friend’s bachelorette party and had a fantastic experience. Both Chef Liz and Chef Matt were extremely helpful and very responsive.
From the beginning planning stages, both Chefs worked with us to design a custom menu for our private event. We had many special requests and dietary restrictions, and both of them were able to provide great recommendations. Also, Chef Liz specifically added some helpful tips based on her experience hosting a large group of rowdy ladies.
Prior to the event starting, they let us BYO alcoholic drinks (with no corkage fees) and decorations for set up. They even let us swap out the usual last course of dessert for another entrée, and bring in our own special dessert.
On the day of, everyone felt extremely pampered. It was like cooking with a personal assistant at your side. The staff took drink orders, served us with new dishes, linens, and silverware after each meal, cleared plates, cleaned dishes, and even had mini-​appetizers for us to munch on.
Plus, the food was delicious. Everyone felt satisfied and full. Our menu was:
— Arugula, Roasted Beet, Goat Cheese, and Pine Nut Salad
Perfect starter, light and whets your appetite
— Butternut Squash Ravioli with Brown Butter & Sage Sauce
The sauce was amazing, and learning this was so easy and interactive. I will definitely be making this one again.
— Sherry-​Marinated Grilled Shrimp with Pimenton Aioli
Perfectly grilled shrimp
— Lemon-​Buerre Blanc Sea Bass with Roasted Green Beans
My personal favorite. Chef Liz made cooking sea bass look so easy, and it came out fork-​tender.
Everyone walked away with a great experience, filled belly, brain full of new cooking tips, and even a custom cooking packet with all of the recipes to replicate at home.

We attended Sur La Table’s cooking class for homemade mozzarella and ricotta cheese on a Sunday morning. Surrounded by competitive «Rancho Santa Fe meets Poway» moms, my husband and I were crowded out by our «classmates» who wanted to teach us instead. The recipes and instructions were detailed and helpful. However, the class was way too crowded. I found that we did a lot more observing than cooking because there was not enough space on the stovetops.

I surprised my fiancé with a cooking class here for his bday/​xmas. We took a class with Chef Wood, and our menu included soufflé, salmon, and pear tart. Everything was delicious, and easy and fun to make. Chef Wood was super nice and helpful, even when some people in the class weren’t listening.
We got all the recipes to take home as well, which is awesome. The techniques we got were easy to follow with our own food, and we’ve already made a similar seared salmon at home. We got a 10% off coupon good for a week, and we bought a cook microwave popcorn popper, and kernels, which were affordable and useful. I can’t wait to try it.
Overall I recommend Sur La Table’s cooking classes even though they’re somewhat expensive (80ish$ per person). Its worth it because you get a meal, plus techniques for the future, and a cute date night idea :)

I had the best time at The Tour of Italy cooking class. This is a hands on experience. Making pasta was a little more challenging then I expected. The classroom enviroment was great and to talk with others while you preparing the pasta and sauces. Our group at the table spoke of making pasta, pesto, and Europe. Besides the chef, there were approximately 5 – 6 assistants to help us and best of all do all the clean up. The class was a mixed enviroment of ages and genders. What a wonderful experience. Yes, you eat all the dishes prepared. I plan to go again.

I love Sur La Table and LOVE LOVE LOVE the cooking classes from Pam Schwartz. I have taken numerous cooking classes in the past and she is as good as it gets. Not only will her recipes make you say «WOW» as you eat and leave you eager to try them yourself.
At the class I took all of the recipes were simple enough to cook for a weekday meal, but would also have been wonderful for company. They would have been good for a casual backyard bbq or for a holiday meal. I was able to execute every single recipe from the last class and they turned out beautifully. Each of her recipes packs a ton of flavor without needing a ton of wacky ingredients or bizarre kitchen tools that you would only use for that recipe. They were simple ingredients, simple techniques and AMAZINGLY flavorful.
I have taken a lot of cooking classes and none of them have been the quality and fun of the ones at Sur La Table. Pam sets the bar and she sets it high. Bravo!

Visiting fam in Carlsbad we were treated to a cooking class at the store. The store in Seattle is so cramped with the latest gadgetry, we had no idea they hosted classes.
The whole fam was able to come in and learn to cook such deliciousness as succotash, mashed potatoes, grilled chicken, beet gnocchi, and a butterscotch dessert. The recipes were apparently from famous LA chefs, but taught by another accomplished chef. This seems a bit clunky as she wasn’t a big fan of some of the techniques & recipe.
We learned some great new stuff and had a fun time with family we don’t get to spend a lot of time with. But there was def some intermittent awkwardness with dumb questions from the group, instructor hustlin to make a meal/​answer said dumb q’s/ and trying to offer advice on tools needed, and superfluous junk sold at the store.
Taking the class did offer a discount at the store. So much beautiful, funny, and useful kitchen tools. Everything you could need & tons of stuff you would never use. Lovely displays & helpful (if a little too attentive) staff. Maybe because there is simply SO MUCH stuff, it was difficult to find things without a staffers help.
At the end of the 2 hour cook sess’, we ate. And oh my! How lovely. It was an excellent way to spend quality time with fam you don’t know well & pick up some skills.

Took a cooking class here on a friday night. Learned a lot, but too little cooking to justify the price.

For amateur and other wannabe cooks, this place has a lot of fun but expensive kitchen tools (and a lot of kitchen toys – stuff you really don’t need but are dying to buy).
But the real reason to come here is for the cooking classes held in a separate room at the back of the store. Fair warning – the classes are not cheap. They generally run $ 70 or $ 80 per person and everyone seems to come with their spouse or date, so it can be a pretty «big» night out.
Then again, the classes are an absolute blast. Trust me on this – once you take one class, as soon as it is over, you will be scanning the upcoming calendar for the next class which interests you.
Here is how it works: You, and everyone else in attendance, do the actual cooking of that night’s meal. So, the main cook leading the show (who usually has credentials like you would not believe) explains the recipes and the top-​notch knives, bowls, and kitchen appliances are all at your disposal as you work on some aspect of the meal everyone will eventually consume for dinner.
I’m talking appetizers, salads, steaks, fish, veggies, fries, desserts, you name it. Believe it or not, the combined efforts of the attendees make for some damn great food. And it doesn’t hurt that the assistants who help run the class keep everyone’s wine glass filled pretty much from start to finish (and the classes run about 3 hours).
I’ve taken two classes and can’t wait to attend more. It’s a great chance to learn some new recipes, work on your cooking skills, and meet a lot of very friendly people. And best of all, it’s a great date night out.

This store is AH-​MAZ-​ING. Seriously. If you are a foodie… you need to go. They have very useful and hard to find gear along with gorgeous dishes, gifts, books, etc, It is useful and pretty all at the same time! The staff is very helpful and knowledgeable and I love the many purchases I have made there. I am not giving 5 stars because of a cooking class I took. I really wanted to LEARN something… but unfortunately did not. My class was interactive so each table of 5 – 6 people were assigned a dish to make. I was flying solo and everyone was 20 – 30 years older than me. Everyone was being very bossy, telling me what to do and really didn’t let me get involved. I could have been more assertive but wasn’t feeling it. The class also did not include wine and for $ 80 or whatever it was, I didn’t think having food cooked by rookies without wine was worth it. I will not attend another class here, which is sad. In fact, the whole experience turned me off cooking classes all together. But other than that, if you need high quality cooking ware, go to Sur La Table.

Finally made it to a Sur la Table cooking class! Since my friend’s beau lives in Del Mar, we decided to make an excursion out of this. what a perfect reason to escape to San Diego.
On this occassion, we took the ‘Summer Al Fresco Dinner’ menu since we adore dining outside on warm summer nights. The Chef, Pam (who was the ex-​chef over at Nobu in Vegas and Pamplemousse in SD) was awesome. She really emphasied on ‘room temperature’ served food since it was summertime. We cooked up some fun and easy things.
Now the style of this class is different from HipCooks… with it being a part of Sur La Table, we got to work with the BEST equipment and I’m fully convinced that my next big purchase will be a Global kitchen knife. (Although my mom’s supposed to bring me back a cool knife from Tokyo… the Global knife was seriously so ridiculously perfect, it made you cut everything, real effortlessly and precisely like an expert)
Also, the class was so tiny, (my friend, another lady and myself) that it really enabled us to get to know the Chef and her assistant… I really had a great time and got to ask any question I had in my small bag of culinary neuroses.
Menu:
We were all pretty much in charge of selecting one item to «own» since it was such a small class… we took turns in executing the items. I was responsible for the Panzanella which is a Bread and Tomato Salad and Beef Tagliata, which is a Beef Tenderloin Salad. The Panzanella Salad required a lot of prep work, which I really didn’t mind, thanks to the phat Global knife. I basically cubed some ciabatta bread, sliced up some tomatoes, cucumber and red onions and tossed in some chiffonaded basil, olive oil, red wine vinegar and salt & pepper. SO GOOD. After I was through, I made the Beef Tenderloin salad where I marinated this hunka burnin’ beef tenderloin which typically intimidates the crap out of me with olive oil, thyme and balsamic then pan seared it and threw it into the oven. The Chef taught us how to assess rare, medium rare, medium, etc by a ‘touch technique’, by poking your fist to compare its readiness by mere touch.
My friend made the Pannacotta which turned out to be absolutely wicked. We even made a sorbet made out of Oranges and Campari to lace this above Pannacotta as a sauce. I’ve had something similar to this at Craft for desert and now, this will give me an excuse to get some small ramekins. I really loved this simple dessert.
Onto other items… we actually made homemade pasta tossed into a crab vinaigrette. I was at Linens & Things’ liquidation the other day with the same friend and she scored a pasta maker for $ 14.99. So jealous! But seriously, JT doesn’t need to be eating more pasta.
I think the next class I’d like to take over here or at Farmers Market (Grove) would be the Essential Knife Skills class! I’ve never cut myself, but would like to see myself go faster.
PS — they give you a 15% off coupon to shop with for the remainder of the day if you take this class. So I purchased a Peugot Peppermill I’ve had on the back of my mind, as well as a cool Salt Pig, very cool vegetable peeler that could also be used as a cheese slicer and real funky modern wipable place mats I actually saw at MOMA in NY.