A La Carte Cooking School

Had a really great time here for Mediterranean Date Night a few weeks back. While $ 100+ might seem steep for a cooking class, you can really learn some takeaways here and that (plus the dinner you eat) is totally worth it in my eyes. Things to be aware of…
* You will only be cooking one or two dishes on the menu that night. Don’t expect to be cooking all courses. When you walk in you can choose which group (dish) to cook.
* ASK questions! The pros here are more than willing to show you the proper techniques with everything from chopping an onion to creating a rue… but they don’t know your skill level until you ask.
* If you have down time, go around to the other stations and learn what they’re doing!
* Unless noted, the class is BYOB. Bring some vino (and extra for the class) to enjoy with your dinner (or while you cook)
* You will walk out of there and want to book another class asap
Overall, a nice night out and a few lessons learned. Will be back for sure!

What a gem located on Atlantic Ave in Lynbrook. Walking distance from the LIRR stop. Located in the middles of the block, this quaint culinary school offers all the amenities of similar, larger venues, with a more personal approach.
I had been fortunate to be invited here for a CMYE event and I left, very impressed.
waling through the door, you are greeted with a cozy dining area of about 12 – 15 seats. Beyond the café, there is a large kitchen complete with two Wolf commercial stoves, several large cooking spaces, sub zero refrigerators, and all the cooking utensils and cookware you will ever need.
The owner, Polly is a wonderful woman, whom is always willing to teach you new (and old) tricks. Her manner is gentle and delicate and is very knowledgeable about everything from how to make fresh homemade Mozzarella, to baking desserts.
Her staff is equally as helpful. Katie, her sous chef along with Beth were very polite and helpful. All of them together made the experience a pure pleasure!
I strongly recommend checking out their website,
for cooking class schedules as the classes do fill up fast!

What a great cooking experience.
Hats off, literally, to the chefs at the A La Carte Cooking School in Lynbrook. I came down for the Holiday Appetizers class on a Wednesday night. We had nice selection of quick and easy dishes to prepare for the Holidays:
Roasted Trio of Vegetable with Cumin and Mint
Mini Meatballs with Saffron Sauce
Grilled Rosemary and Garlic Lambchop Lollipops
Gougeres (Cheese Puffs)
Our chefs for the night were Polly Talbott, the owner of A La Carte, and Katie Ann Vultaggio, the assistant chef. Both were very high energy and very engaging with the audience.
The class started off with a safety demonstration on safe knife handling techniques, much appreciated. The chefs then took us step by step through each of the recipes for the night. They were very helpful in answering questions from the group on some of the techniques involved. We had about 16 or so people in class that evening so were broken up into 4 groups of 4 and each group tackled one of the appetizers.
There were four cooking stations throughout the classroom area and we each had our own individual workstation at each of those with a cutting board, chef’s knife, and pretty much anything else we needed for the night. The kitchen was very well stocked so we were never at a loss for a tray, pan, pot, or ingredients.
We got to pick which station we wanted to work at so I chose Team Meatball, or so it became what we called ourselves for the night. Feeling a little nervous myself about jumping into the recipe the chefs help me and my group figure out the nuances of the meatball recipe. It was great to have a few experienced cooks on my team who stepped right up to get the ball (s) rolling. We made a few mistakes along the way but the chefs were always they to help us straighten things out (Who knew appetizer meatballs were so small?). It’s really a fun atmosphere to learn. The results of my teams effort was 80 mini meatballs served up in a delicious saffron sauce.
Now let me tell you about some of the other team’s dishes. They were amazing too. The roasted vegetables had a really nice flavor to them; I didn’t realize how simple it was to make red beets until now. The lamb chop lollipops were also easy to make. The chefs even showed us how to make those frilly paper leg panties for the chops. Pretty cool. And last but certainly not least was the cheese puffs. The cheese puff team did amazing. I can’t believe how delicious this came out. The chefs explained to us that the puff recipe was the same basic technique for making profiteroles and cream puffs.
When all of the cooking was done we all gathered around the big station in the center of the classroom for a buffet style feast. I couldn’t believe how much food we actually prepared in such a short amount of time. I loved my experience at A La Carte Cooking School.
And dare I forget to mention what an awesome class I had to work with. I not only learned a few things about cooking but also made a few really good friends at the end of the night. You guys (and girls) were great. Thank you!

Had a great time and learned some stuff at the same time. Made a full meal with some fun people and someone else did the cleanup! Lots of choices of classes in a well appointed facility with a professional cooking staff. This is the fourth time I’ve been there and I will certainly go back