Sur La Table Cooking Class

We had a fun time making steak Dianne and other things New Year’s Eve.
We returned today and learned to make dumplings, broccoli and Hong Kong lemon custard tart.
We had fun with friends at all of the classes, we learned, we made great food, we ate great food. We will be taking more classes.

The Make It Ahead cooking class was not worth the money, we assembled the previously prepared and measured ingredients as we were told. That is all we were told how to do, there was zero cooking instruction involved, no tips on even what could be made ahead. There was however plenty of time during our break to shop for the utensils «required» to prepare the meal. If you want a real cooking class go elsewhere or try a different class.

This is for their cooking class. I love love this store in general, but pretty pricey kitchen items. Check their sales out whenever though!
I took the Explore Italy: Great Sauces cooking class. There was a weeks worth of classes that was half off and this was one of them ($ 34). 5 people in the class. 2 hrs long w/​one break. We made pesto bruschetta, pasta w/​puttanesca sauce, green beans, and chicken Marsala. It goes by pretty fast. I don’t know how much I picked up, but it was fun and the food was good and light! Everything is pre measured for you and laid out. They also sorta sell their products to you. It’s nice because you can see how useful a kitchen item is through this class. For example, I wanted to get a digital thermometer now because of the chicken Marsala we made. And it’s readily available in the store.
Why not a 5 star? 1) Catching a class half off is rare. So $ 70 for the class is way too much for me. 2) The instructor didn’t even let us eat all the food. Not sure what she was saving it for of if she would just toss it. For the price of a class, I expect to be full!
You get all the recipes in a little packet to bring home. Also 10% off coupon to the store for attending the class (expires a week from the date of the class). For full price, I’d have to really be serious about the cooking class topic. Otherwise, no go until it’s on sale again.

My 8 year old just did the spring break cooking class and she had so much fun. She learned how to make all sorts of foods from different countries. She will not stop cooking now. I’m so happy that I had her go to the camp. It was around $ 200 and I was thinking it was expensive but all the new things she learned and the new confidence that she is showing in the kitchen is so worth it. They also gave me 10% off anything in the store while she was taking the class the whole week. I would definitely put her in more classes here. She said she really like the teachers.

I am late in writing this review… took a seafood cooking class back in February with John Neumark for a low key bachelorette party — JOHN WAS AWESOME! I worked with him to schedule the event (probably talked to him on the phone 15 times!) and he was super helpful, patient and nice to work with (even when I got stressed out or asked the same question 39 483 times). The class itself was a delight and all of us girls felt it was a great value for the money of the class — an event and dinner all in one! HIGHLY RECOMMEND and THANK YOU TO JOHN for making scheduling and teaching the class so wonderfully!

I really enjoyed the class. No cleanup, no mess and great instruction. The recipes were great and the discount for taking the course was nice as well.

This review is for their macaron class — yes, French macarons, not to be confused with the coconut macaroons! =)
I’ve heard how hard macaron making can be and after seeing my friend take macaron classes in SF, I was determined to find a similar experience in Seattle! I found Sur La Table’s macaron class online and me and several girlfriends decided to sign up together. The classroom is fairly spacious although the class was packed (not surprisingly!).
The chef, Michelle, used to work at Bouchon (*sigh*) and made a lot of macarons in her days which gave her a lot of credibility. She was very friendly and super approchable about tips and tricks. We first had some didactics about the art of macaron making (while sampling some fresh scones that she made), and then we were broken up in to team to make different flavors of macarons — we made the hazelnut ones (other teams made chocolate, banana, and pistachio). She then showed us how to make some of the ganaches (salted caramel) since those take longer to cool she premade them for us to use as filling beforehand. We then were broken up in to groups and we made banana custard (the other group make praline buttercream). And finally she showed us how to assemble them and we finished up by swapping our macarons around so that everyone left with different flavors and ~1 dozen macarons to take home!
This class definitely took some of the anxiety out of making macarons (and of course she made it look super easy). .. my friend went home and made them again to great success! Some of the things that this class could work on to make it even more perfect would be providing us with the most updated recipe in our handout. The chef informed us of some changes to the recipe that we had to make on our handouts — so it would be nice if they were updated. We were a bit confused during our custard making portion of the class, so a more thorough instruction would be helpful. There were 2 helpers in the class that took things away and cleaned up for us (most appreciated), but they were oftentimes in the way — they seemed like there were moving so fast to clean things up and transition us to the next segment that they got in our way at times.
Overall we had a great and incredible time! I’m super motivated to try my hand on these precious and dainty babies!

I took a macaroons making class here this morning and it was pretty great! We got instruction on making some very tasty macaroons. Even with a seasoned instructor though, many of the macaroons didn’t turn out that great, which is a bummer since we took the class so that we could make awesome macaroons! It was still really fun though, really informational, and the instructor told us what we did wrong when ours didn’t turn out fantastic.

Such a great idea to take a cooking class there! I had fun, learned alot and wow!!! to Dina the Chef and crew. The crew was amazing and wanted each and every one of us to have a good time.
We made a fabulous meal and enjoyed it at the end of the night. Do wish that the discount would have been more than a 10% tax savings.
Kitchen Products there are like porn for Larry Flint. Irresistible.
Thank you!

I am a cook at a restaurant opening up and I just took the knife skills class to hone and refresh my skills. I would not recommend it to any aspiring home cooks and I would tell my chef friends to avoid it like the plague.
The knives we used were pretty poor quality (none of them were even the same kinds) and there was a whole junkyard of other gadgets around, most of which we didn’t use and the ones we did use there were not enough of for everyone.
Marion was the teacher of the class and I don’t doubt her credentials at all, but she went very quickly through all the material which I’m sure left most of the students behind. Worse is that she didn’t fully answer the questions the students had. She instead promoted other classes offered (which cost $ 60 per session at least) and many of the useless gadgets that were sitting around.
Sur La Table does have a wide selection of interesting gadgetry, but their knife selection is far superseded by The Epicurian Edge across the street. I would recommend purchasing a knife from there and I would recommend learning how to use a knife via the food network or a friend that knows how to cook.

Utterly fantastic cooking store/​school. Come for any class, it’s sure to be fantastic. I’ve taken about a dozen over the years, and they’ve all been wonderful.

Fair warning for impulsive shoppers and misers, this is an «exit through the gift shop» cooking class. I was a little frightened to discover this. It is unfairly easy to pitch me on the merits of vanilla bean paste. But when you still hold a knife like a machete, everything is fanciness.
During my French Bistro class taught by Joel Gamoran, I learned:
— How to spend several hours caramelizing onions
— The true worth of duck fat
— How not to hold your crème brûlée torch (straight at the side until the ramekin gives you second degree burns)
— How to give your tray of food to someone else to put in the oven
— How to go through a cow’s worth of butter
After the class, we got a 10% discount on everything in-​store, which doesn’t put a dent in the price of things, but does let you take a temporary vacation to a land without sales tax.
Though the food was delicious, the instructor was hilarious, and the goods were fine, I’m not feeling committed to a five star rating. If not for the daily deal on this class, I would never have been able to afford it.

My mother and I took a cooking class here one evening on macarons as the Sur La Table in Seattle does not offer them. It was great– everything was well-​executed. They had the ingredients measured out before-​hand to save time, and the facilities are perfect for a cooking class. They even have a mirror hanging from the ceiling to show the inside of a mixing bowl. The instructor/​pastry chef was well-​versed in the subject material and the groups were small enough that everyone got a chance to contribute. There are also class-​helpers that magically whisk away dirty utensils and do all the grit work making it easy to move from step to step without worrying about cleaning up. (save that for when you’re at home!) They also give you a 10% off gift certificate valid for the entire week after your class to use in the store. You can bet that we used it during our 15-​minute break (while the macarons were in the oven) to purchase pastry bags and other items. If I ever need to take a cooking class again, I would look no further than Sur La Table in Kirland.

The Good:
Cooking classes!
The Bad:
Expensive
The Lowdown:
Been here a few times, but just went to a cooking class called «Date night dinner for 2» It was excellent. The food was good and the chef instructor was fun and very social. It was an awesome experience! If you like to cook and try new things or if you are just a novice this is a great choice.
Surprise your significant other with any of these cooking classes. Then you can use your skills for a real date night with just you two, or impress your friends with a dinner party.
The one caveat is that the classes are pretty pricey, so take heed.