Sur La Table Cooking Class

I attended a Risotto class in Los Gatos with Terri Dien. There was no mention of rules during the duration of the class that you cannot take home what you cooked in class until the very end. I paid for the class, therefore, I paid for the food. Whether I eat in class or at home, is my decision. They made me throw the food away before I left the room.
I will never step foot into their store ever again!

And yet another thing checked off my bucketlist… taking a cooking class…
In this case, taking a French Macaron Cooking/​Baking class for my birthday :)
You can book your reservation for a cooking class online. the French Mac class cost $ 69/head…yeah, pricey… but worth it, plus… it’s French Macs we’re makin’ here haha…
The instructors were pretty organized, at the start of the class you wait in line to get checked off/​get your name tag… it’s open seating, so sit anywhere you like… you end up working in groups anyway…
Our French Mac instructor was very nice and is very talented at what she does… French Mac baking is definitely harder than what you would expect it to be b/​c there is a lot of technique and crucial steps to follow just to get the right outcome…
Anyway, long story short… we made our food, and upon leaving, we were given a 10% off coupon to purchase any items in the store for that day only…
So fun and worth it!

My kids and I love taking cooking classes at the Sur La Table in Los Gatos. My kids took their kid cooking camp last year and were in the teen cooking camp this year. Both classes they had Travis Fenech who is a fun teacher. They learned knife skills, how to make pasta from scratch, learned how to make sauces, entrees, desserts, and many more. Unfortunately they were not able to take home what they cooked. I asked an employee why and he said their policy is not to allow protein based dishes home since there was a case of someone suing them for food poisoning after taking a dish home after the class. I don’t know what they do with the cooked food after the class, but it seemed a waste the kids couldn’t take it home.
I’ve taken several of the adult cooking classes including canning, French macarons, Vietnamese cooking, and the mommy and me tea. The canning and French macaron class were taught by Catherine Pla who is a Le Cordon Bleu France graduate. With the canning and macaron class we were able to take home what we made. Baked goods were okay.
Travis Fenech taught the Vietnamese cooking class. We got to make several recipes but unfortunately the beef phở soup was entirely made by the chef due to time constraints. The beef broth requires 4 – 5 hours to cook so he had it cooking while we were doing the class. He did go over where to buy the beef bones and how to make it. We got to sample the phở after it was done and it tasted amazing! I wanted to keep eating it.
The mommy and me tea was fun and also taught by Travis. We made madeleines, tea sandwiches, and chocolate chip scones. We got to take the extra madeleines and scones home.
The classroom is large and well equiped. You’ll work in small groups of 4 people so you will take turns doing parts of the recipe. In some classes, you will not do all parts of the recipes since there are time constraints. The level of hands on will vary depending on what’s being made. A lot of prep work like measuring out ingredients will have been done earlier by the cooking assistants. They take away dirty dishes and pans and clean them up while the class is cooking. You will get to sample the things you cook. The classes are rather fast paced since there is only 2 –½ hours to cover 3 – 4 recipes. Most importantly you will learn some new things and have fun.
They will be remodeling the kitchen classroom in September so I look forward to taking more classes after they are done.

Did the pasta making class and the food was good. However, it is meant to be hands-​on but had to share the work station with three others and take turns. Had way too many people in the class.

Highly recommend trying out a cooking class at the Los Gatos Sur La Table store. There’s such a huge variety of classes every night of the week, it’s hard NOT to find something that sparks your interest. I’ve taken three different classes here and loved each one of them.
The classes/​instructors are easy to follow, it’s completely hands on, you get to eat (!) what you make, and depending on the class, you leave with some of the fruits of your labor– between the two classes, I’ve left with canning jars and fruit preserves that we made in class, and a full belly.
Even if you know how to cook and feel comfortable in the kitchen (as I feel I do), it’s still fun to learn a new technique or recipe– and you always leave with the recipes for everything you make. I’ve found my (new) favorite recipe for Coffee & Brown Sugar Rubbed Flank Steak and authentic, Curried Shrimp (both outrageously delicious recipes) from taking these classes.
My favorite instructor is Chef Travis. He is wonderful. And fun. And skilled. Take a class with him.

some interesting tips, the food was delicious but it was hell for a health conscious person. she cooked with chunks of butter larger than my fist, and it was hard to enjoy a deliciously cooked, high quality salmon filet after watching her slather it with basil butter the way a kid puts jelly on toast. when i put my spoon in the cassoulet and pulled it out, it was left with a film of oil, butter and grease. the food was delicous-​but made me cautious of eating out at nice restauraunts if this is how they cook. it might be fun to go to again once in a while, but dont go hungry (the servings are dixie cup sized)

My daughter and I took Classic Desserts with Samantha. I don’t usually think of Sur La Table as moderately priced, but this class was a fabulous deal! We got nearly three hours of instruction and participation with the fabulous Samantha, and made outstanding desserts. Samantha is extremely knowledgeable, friendly, relaxed and entertaining. The space is lovely and you get a 10% discount off any purchase. My daughter and I will be visiting often!

I’ve always wanted to take a cooking class but the $ 80 and up price tags would keep me away. That was until a few weeks ago when I got an email alert telling me that the remainder of the September classes were half off.
Like the tech savvy gal I am, I quickly texted a friend who I knew would jump at the chance to do it with me. Before we knew it, there were three of us signed up for the class.
Fast forward to this past Sunday 9÷28÷14 at 9am and we were all seated at the kitchen in the back of the Sur La Table store where they taught all of the classes. It was a cute set up with all of the latest gadgets to use. There were fancy Kitchen Aid mixers (Oh in my wildest dreams would I have one of these!), mini spatulas, ice cream maker, soufflé dishes, fine mesh sieve– just to name a few.
We were taking a dessert making class and here’s what was on the menu: I will describe how each of these rated in my sweet tooth palate of a mouth.
*Butterscotch Pot de Crème: Smooth, firm, a lot like pudding but SO much more sophisticated. Not super sweet. This is the kind of thing that I could probably get into some serious trouble with. Put an entire bowl in front of me, and watch it disappear.
*Silky Chocolate Soufflé: Unlike any other chocolate dessert I’ve ever tasted. Super rich chocolate base and moist.
*Pear and Almond Tart: Filled with ground almonds and rum, which then puffs up and turns golden brown around the poached pears during baking. Yes, Yes, Yes. I love almond paste and this was just delightful. I can’t wait to try making this on my own.
*Flaky Pie Dough: I’ve never made my own pie dough before and it was buttery, light and really tasty.
Salted Caramel Ice Cream: Wow. Trust me on this. So good. I don’t think I’ll ever splurge on an Ice Cream Machine but watching the instructor dissolve the sugar and water to make caramel was just a wonder to watch. The end product was just magical. Salty and sweet.
I’m taking one star off because the class felt a bit *rushed* and crowded. There was limited seating but since we were working in groups of 4, we still only got to do a fraction of every dish. It wasn’t enough for me to feel confident that I could pull it off on my own at home. Also, with so many desserts to prepare and only a 2 ½ hour time span, they definitely had to push through everything to get us done on time.
Our instructor was great– engaging and funny. I would probably want to do this again, but only when they do the 50% off!

My husband and I took a seafood grilling class here.
I guess I should have really thought about this before hand. Knowing that the classes were being held indoors, I guess my brain did not connect the «that means no actual grill» piece of the puzzle.
The classes were expensive. $ 79.00. But, that price includes them purchasing the food, etc, so for seafood, it seemed reasonable. But I still feel like I paid a little too much.
This is not a hands on class. This was not my husband and I at a workstation blending ingredients. It was really a class focused on how to pick out seafood, a tasting of some recipes, and that was it.
We did enjoy our chef Brian, and we did learn a ton in this class. We both read a lot of cooking blogs and have too many cookbooks, and we still learned some valuable tips, particularly on how to pick out seafood at the store, and even a small one on how to keep honey from sticking to a dish.
Other people in the class had attended other sessions, and said the knife skills class was outstanding. I would probably attend that one again, considering I just nearly butchered myself with a chef’s knife the week before and have 3 stitches to prove it.
For attending the class, you get a 10% coupon to use in the store. For the price of the class, it really should be 20%. Even better, they could have given us all some type of free tool (which I have received from other cooking classes), like something grill related.

I bought a cooking class as a gift for my husband since he loves cooking. It was a seafood grilling class, which I thought would be great since he really wanted to learn how to grill fish, but he came home really disappointed. There was no hands-​on activity – just watching! How are you supposed to learn without doing it yourself? Also, because the «grills» are indoors, they ended up putting a lot of the dishes in the oven and saying, «It’s the same thing as grilling.» Um, no, that’s not the same. Overall, I feel like my $ 79 was wasted and I feel bad for getting my husband a mediocre gift.

Took two cooking classes here this past weekend and LOVED it.
My experience may have been a bit biased as I got a limited half off deal for this weekend only. (Found out about this via email subscription), but I think full price would still have been worth it.
LEARNED SO MUCH and officially feeling confident in my ability to cook after Sur La Table’s classes. Cooking classes are way more useful than learning from a video or book.
I HIGHLY recommend taking one of their cooking classes. Super fun, completely worth your time & money, and you learn a lot!
Each class was about 14 – 16 individuals which I thought was good (compared to a previous cooking class I took in Willow Glen with about 20 people crammed into a small space with groups of 8ish)
Groups of 3 – 4 go to a station which gives you a more hands-​on experience.
«Secrets of Perfect Macarons» class: with Kevin. He had a jokester humor and I felt bad for the guy, he definitely tried hard to keep a quiet class entertained. Lol (But Saturday mornings… and being prepared to tackle a complex cookie… I can see why people were quiet) Learned a lot of technique involved with making the cookie & the ganache. It wasn’t easy and a lot of the cookies did not turn out so perfect, but he warned us that the first time never usually is. He was clear and thorough with every step/​process & helped correct us when our piping technique or anything else looked incorrect. Each group works on a different macaron flavor (3 total) We also got to take a box of macarons home.
«Fast & Delicious on a Budget»: Sarah, the manager of the store, was AWESOME. Learned A LOT from her and she was very clear, loud and thorough. Gave extra tips and information about types of oils, ingredients, cutting methods, food tricks, etc. We made about 4 dishes and didn’t feel rushed at all. Can’t believe I learned how to make 4 fancy-​looking/​sounding dishes in 2 hours! I think this class was probably the best value. And the feast we had was awesome. I was honestly shocked that I had made something this delicious.
FYIs & Tips:
–With each class, they serve you water, fancy coffee, & a plate of strawberries, salami, cheese & bread.
–They also give you a book with the recipes that were made in class.
–Comes also with a 10% off store coupon that you can also use on sale items while we wait for our dishes to cook/​bake. (Such a good way to get us to spend some money because after learning with some of the tools we used, I definitely ended up making a few purchases)
–They’re not strict about your shoes/​attire
–The classes are really worth it: no rushed feeling, A TON OF FUN, a lot of hands-​on experience/​opportunity, spacious enough for a group, food to eat &/​or take home, nice sides to enjoy before & after class, you learn a lot (can’t say this enough)
The store: Organized and helpful store employees. A LOT of clearance/​sale items and a greater selection that most Sur La Tables I’ve been to.

I received a phone call from Sarah, the resident chef at Sur La Table and an email from Alex Le, the district manager. Sarah has graciously given me a full refund and has offered us a complimentary class. I am very satisfied with the way they have handled my complaint, and I look forward to giving the cooking class another chance. Thank you, Sur La Table, for listening to me and making it right. Great job.

The Los Gatos branch of Sur La Table has a calendar of cooking classes that spans quite a variety of culinary skills, ethnic cuisines and entertaining menus. Most of the classes are «hands-​on» which enhances the learning experience.
The classes are small in size and there is generally light refreshments. Detailed recipes are provided and the course time is refreshingly short.

My boyfriend and I just finished the Valentine Macaron class taught by Catherine. My boyfriend and I have tried to make macarons a few times by watching you tube videos and researching on our own. I researched a ton before signing up for this class and was a little nervous because a common complaint from other people was that there were too many people in the class to get a chance to be hands-​on or that they didn’t actually get to participate but mostly watched the instructor instead.
I’m pretty sure after taking the class that there is definitely potential for those things to happen and that it really probably comes down to the instructor teaching the class. That’s why I would recommend Catherine a hundred times over. She was amazing. She’s VERY qualified (educated at Cordon Bleu in France and worked professionally in France), well prepared, organized, informative, laid back, extremely approachable and friendly. Kevin (who is also a pastry chef and teaches a bread-​making class and another class at Sur la Table) was helping with our class and is really great as well. I’m interested in taking one his classes at some point.
We had sooo much fun today and are anxious to take another class. It’s a little pricey, but I think for a special occasion or for a special treat, it’s totally worth it.

I HIGHLY suggest that if you ever get to take a cooking class through Sur La Table, you should! It was a lot of fun and I learned a lot. Luckily, there was only 2 other people in our class (on a Saturday night — strange, I would think), but it was great. We obviously got a lot of attention and participated in every aspect of the meal. Just absolutely fabulous time. Chef Mimi was hilarious and I would definitely take a class with her again.

This review is for the cooking class. Don’t do it. Save your $ 78/​person and go get a nice dinner out.
The theme was «Date Night» — preparing steak, grilled salad and Tiramisu. (I am craving some starch!)
Positives:
Decent cheese and salami appetizer.
Negatives:
Crowded — 16 people is too many
Not any «teaching» — we merely followed the recipes. Whisk in, pour, move onto and off of grill
Each person has about 10 minutes of «active» participation.
The chef and aides wanted to get this over. While it was nice that they kept the workstations cleared, did they have to turn the dishwasher on while we were trying to hear the instructor?!
The recipes and resulting food were, at best, mediocre. My wife’s piece of steak was full of fat, I was served two gristly end pieces of steak. The tiramisu was very runny, not enough time for it to have set up.
The topper:
At the beginning of the course, the group was asked if there were any «special events» being celebrated. Two people in the group (including me) happened to be there on our birthday. «Oh, that’s nice» was the response. Nothing else. Why did they ask the question if they weren’t going to do anything about it? (In reality, if they had attempted to put a candle in the tiramisu, it would not have stayed up!)
We have attended other cooking classes that had superb food and much more shared technique. We won’t do this one again.

I have literally just come home from a pastry cooking class with Nikki Frias, and it was awesome. She was super fast-​paced and incredibly personable, which is something I appreciate, having gotten here with 3 minutes to spare (I’m an earlier is better type) so I was a little jittery when we started, but she put me at ease.
While this is probably not the class for the first-​timer just based off of the speed with which we progressed if you aren’t super quick on the uptake because you really don’t have time to read the instructions while cooking. That said, neither I, not it seemed the girls in my «team» appeared to have any problems. Some other reviewers saying that you only got to do one dish worried me a little, but we did in fact do everything. The only thing we had to split production on were the souffles and the sauce, but Nikki did make sure to call your attention to both processes and made sure everyone got to see just how it was done.
On the store side of things, the staff was quite friendly and more than willing to help you find something, or offer their opinion on what worked better for them in the kitchen if you were interested. While this is quite out of my way, if I ever need/​want a cooking class, I know where to go.

Just got done paying for my first class here but I always crash classes here
Totally love it here wish I could rob a bank to get three coffee makers just for me… yeah that is a problem
I need four different sizes of whisks… because I whisk alot of things… egg whites when they show up you whisk those.
(editorial note: this NYE posting review is fueled by champagne so the rhymes are completely fine and authentic)
I need a martini shaker and they teach you about a martini shaker and what goes into a martini (guess what you don’t just make martini’s with a martini shaker… shock and awe)

I suppose for the amateur and i mean AMATEUR cook… meaning you don’t know how to boil water, these classes are probably good for you.
I took the French Bistro class. The «chef» talked for the first ½ an hour or so, giving us a verbal lecture of her résumé, basically telling everyone where to buy everything and how all the prep and basically all the cooking was practically done for us already.
The class consisted of everyone standing around stirring things that were already cooking and just putting things into bowls.
The only benefit from taking the class was the 10% off coupon.
This is the 2^nd (and last) class I’ve tried at Sur La Table. I feel like a snoot but I have vested a LOT of personal time and money into perfecting my cooking skills on my own. Maybe I need to seek professional education, but for sure now, for me, Sur La Table Cooking Classes are definitely not it.

I’m actually reviewing the cooking classes they offer. I recently tried the Desserts class and it was great! We baked 5 different items and were able to take some leftovers home.
Class size was about 12 people. All of items are cooked in various stations at the same time. It is a little confusing and distracting, but overall, I learned some great baking tips. We were also given coupons for 10% off any purchases in the store. It’s a high end store and Los Gatos, so pricing is a bit above the norm. ($ 40 for a crappy made apron… umm no) I did find some small items that, thanks to the coupon saved me some money.
They offer (menus online) all types of baking and cooking classes each month. This class was $ 69 for about 2 hours. It’s hands on, but can be chaotic at times. I’d definitely go back again for another class.