Sur La Table Cooking Class

My boyfriend and I went to a great pie making class at the Southpoint Sur La Table last week. We (all) received the recipe packet with a 10% coupon stapled to it. It reads, «Thank you for being part of our culinary class. Now go shopping and enjoy 10% savings on Sur La Table purchases!» We were excited to learn we could use the coupon for up to a week on another class!
So we found a pasta class we’d like to take. When signing up, I couldn’t get the 10% to work online. So I did the online chat. The lady told me that since it was my boyfriend who booked the online class, only he could get a coupon (He had «paid,» not me [even though I had given him cash]). I told her this was unfair and we weren’t aware — I could have easily done the online purchase as two separate orders last week. She gave me an 800 number to call.
I called while chatting online still to the representative and the man I spoke with said I couldn’t use the coupon since I didn’t purchase the class. I told him that I wasn’t going to be a returning customer and that I had friends interested in hearing about my experience last week. I told him it was my $ 7 versus the company’s reputation. He told me he wasn’t going to «break the rules» for «one customer.» I also told him that the online rep had told me to call to resolve this, and he said that Amanda was sitting behind him. I don’t know why she told me to call, if they were sitting together. I asked for a manager.
While on hold, Amanda, the online chat rep, replied saying, «I apologize for the confusion. I confirmed with a local store that the coupon can be used by anyone that attends, not just the purchase. I’ll have this information brought to the attention of my management team so it can be clarified with all of the agents.» I asked, «How can I get it?» and she never answered. The man picked back up the phone saying the manger wasn’t answering, and that he’d be transferring me to a local store for more help. I stayed on hold 26 min. before they transferred me to someone in our local store.
She put me on hold to check. Then she was able to give me the 10%, but only through her system. So the other items in my cart, I had to provide a SKU for her to lookup. Then she couldn’t get my free shipping code to work. It was a pain that I couldn’t see the cart and my own transactions, but she was helpful in resolving the situation. She explained that the classes provide the merch coupon, whereas the class coupon goes to email.

I recently took the Date Night in Paris cooking class with Chef Slate and I have to say I was rather disappointed with the overall experience. Chef Slate was very nice and charismatic and did his best to accommodate our class of 16 people. However, my main problem was that there were 16 people in one class! We were broken up into teams of 4 and each team shared in the making of all the dishes (salad, steak, cutting 2 potatoes for fries, soufflé). This equates to each person getting almost no hands on time. Throughout the whole class Chef Slate also used our group to demonstrate which created even less for us to do. I think the only thing my boyfriend got to do was mince one shallot and stir some things together… I took over making the soufflé because I was determined to do something from start to finish. We let the other 2 people in the group put the dressing on the salad and cook the steak. For the most part we just stood around for 2 hours. The food was tasty but for a $ 60/​person «cooking class» I actually expected to do some cooking. Sur la table needs to limit the class size or decrease the price for large classes because it is no longer a hands on cooking class. We won’t be returning.

Took the «Summer Fiesta» cooking class today and it was fun!
Made potato tacos with grilled poblanos and tomatoes, lime-​marinated pork with a grilled tomatillo and corn salsa, and a green bean zucchini salad with peaches
Everything was super fresh and delicious! A LOT of grilling!
The instructor was really lively and all of the other ladies helping were super nice.
The only negative is that I thought there would be a lot more hands-​on cooking but we had to share and do things per every 4 people. so didn’t get to do as much as I wanted.
But I learned a lot from the instructor. little tips on cooking that I will definitely use in the kitchen!
And definitely used the 10% off coupon which works on clearance items too!
Overall, a fun first time experience and would love to go back!

My sisters and I just finished our Paella cooking class at Sur la Table in Durham. It was so much fun! We worked in groups of three and four and made 3 different kinds: chicken and chorizo, vegetarian, and mixed seafood. It was a hands– on experience in the teaching kitchen where the atmosphere was casual and the chef and helpers were experienced and friendly. We got to eat all of our creations and learned how to create a wonderful and impressive meal for family and friends.

We took a cooking class on a Friday night — it was a ‘romantic, Italian’ theme.
The setup is very nice — they set all of the ingredients out for you, plus everything you’ll need utensil wise. Surprise, they’re all also available to purchase in-​store. A cool perk: you get a 10% coupon, good for a week’s worth of purchases. That would pay for the class by itself depending on what you’re in the market for.
They have a head chef directing the class, and 4 – 5 helpers walking around, giving tips, making sure everyone’s OK.
They have 4 stations, good for 8 couples. Each bit of the meal is setup such that everyone gets a chance to do something at all times.
The food we made was great, and we had fun.
Now, if only they had wine for us to partake while we cooked…
One last thing, you have nothing to clean-​up, so it’s the perfect meal. All the fun, none of the prep, and no clean-​up.

i had macaron class from surla table at south point mall .its not worth that money ($ 69).if you dont know anything about macaron dont take this class. theacher is not focus to the class… you dont understand anything … 1 mixer for 4 students. 3 kinds macaron with filling… time is not enough. when next class time still we had one tray in the oven. I dont recommend this class. you are going to get just 4 pages information clearly. You can find these information from internet free.
i gave 1 star for clean kitchen and more than enough utensils… but i am not looking for them. I really wanted to go this class make my mind clear…

My review is primarily for the Knife Basics class.
I have recently discovered a neurotic tendency to research everything I buy, probably beyond a healthy level. I’ve been using a cheap knife set for years and really have hated it. Wife and I have been trying to cook from scratch more often and decided to invest in some basic tools, knives being one of them. Being the novice that I am in the kitchen, I decided it would be prudent to take a class from an actual chef on basic knife skills. After all, researching on the internet can only take you so far, right?
The class is $ 60 or so, but I figure it’s for education. Hard to put a price tag on knowledge. I would get to learn about knives, some techniques and get to munch a bit along the way (like any home cook ;). I get there, put on my apron, check out some reading material and chat a bit with some other students. So far so good.
Chef comes in and introduces himself. We go over the basic anatomy of a knife (did that online) and how to hold it (again, online). We cut up an onion (clever technique), carrot (not as clever), pepper, tomato and garlic (all not that special). We then at the end of the class, peel an orange with the knife and eat the slices. Oh, and we took a break so we could look at their knife cabinet and drool. All throughout the class, the chef took time to boast about his experiences cooking in restaurants, and his favorite dishes, and rather mundane anecdotes about cooking for family or GF or something. No talk about sharpening, honing, knife care, different styles of knives, what you would use specialty knives for and use them to practice i.e. boning knife, filet, nagiri, et al.
I know you’re probably saying, what do you expect, it’s a basic knife skills class. Yes, but by basic you mean never held a knife before, then yeah, it’s great. But if you have ever cooked at all with a knife and took 10mins to search online for basic technique, you could easily save yourself $ 60 and a bunch of lame stories.
The other problems I had were all the food we cut up, we didn’t get to consume. They were all bagged up for future cooking classes/​demonstrations. So I paid $ 60 to cut up food for someone else’s class that they will have paid to attend. Also, I’m no Mr. Green but all the kitchen waste was just thrown away. Seems a shame to just cut and throw out a lot of decent food. At the very least it could be composted if not given to a soup kitchen or something.
Admittedly, I may have been over prepared for the class, but it was far below my expectations for the price charged. It didn’t even include the very basic knife skills of honing and sharpening, which is primarily what I wanted to practice hands on. The one good thing from the class (other than learning I was ahead of the curve) was the introduction of a silicone sleeve garlic peeler. They are like $ 6 (overpriced IMO like most of what’s here) but seriously the easiest and most effective way to peel garlic EVER!!! The class was almost worth that alone. Bought one and now peel garlic just for the fun of it. Silver lining ;)