Sur La Table Cooking Class

This review is specific to cooking classes at Sur la Table. I’d give the shop part a high two or three. It’s super cluttered and claustrophobic and has zero personality. But the cooking classes? Sign me up!
My husband booked us an Indian Cooking class for my last birthday. I love Indian food. I often say I could eat it every day. And I could. But considering that I can never find recipes it would get very, very expensive. So Kris thought it would make sense to learn how to make a multi-​course indian meal as a start and if we liked it, look for more in the future.
The space for classes is accessible and the small class size makes it great for really learning how to do something with whole class, small class and one-​on-​one attention at various times. Not only did we learn recipes, we learned about techniques, places to get hard to find ingredients, and were given more tips than we know what to do with. While the ingredients were all measured ahead of time, we had to chop and toast and stir and mix and lots of other things. This enabled the instructor to go deeper into educating us on the cuisine and methods rather than wasting time having us measure out teaspoons of spice. Each table works together to create a full meal, our main course was chicken based. In addition to our cooking station at the table we also used the deep fryer at the front of the room to make pakoras and the grill to make a delicious puffed bread. There were assistants in the room to help get to people who were struggling and to look at technique and offer reteaching and suggestions.
The class came with a packet of the recipes, ideas for where to buy things, and explanations of terms (both cooking terms and Indian-​food specific terms). Because it was local we were able to learn about some great Indian grocers we’ve passed but haven’t tried out and are excited to do so when we try cooking Indian at home (it never turns out right, though, so we always just go to Shalimar when we’re in the mood).
Sur La Table offers a variety of classes in ethnic cuisine, baking (I really need to take the macaron class), holiday-​themed dishes and desserts. Besides the recipe packet all participants also get a coupon to use in the store. It is good for multiple uses within a specific time period. We used ours to buy oven mitts (ours were in a sorry state) but never went back. As mentioned in my first paragraph, something about the store just makes me too claustrophobic to spend any time there. I will be back for another class, though!

I was looking for a «French knife» for my daughter’s upcoming culinary class. A friend, who happens to be a chef, recommended Sur La Table. Neither the sales person (who was quite pleasant) or the chef on staff knew what I was talking about! (A French-​style chef’s knife — often referred to as a «Sabatier» is straighter and more triangular than German-​style knives.) I ended up buying a Thiers-​Issard Four-​Star Elephant Sabatier from
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