Cooks Of Crocus Hill

I recently attended a cooking class at Cooks of Crocus Hill, it was a gift from my better half; she knows I love to cook :-)
She signed us up for the Holiday Dinner with Julia course, which was led by an Executive Chef from Le Cordon Bleu. I wasn’t sure what to expect, if the class participated and if there would be a lot of people; I suppose we both didn’t know!
Cooks is located on Grand Ave, at the intersection of S Victoria Street. It’s in a separate building and you can clearly see all the lights from the street. Per the usual in West St Paul, parking is at your own risk; especially during peak hours on the weekends (meaning, parallel street parking that is free).
The retail space is well lit and tightly packed with all sorts of kitchen goodies. You can find the usual assortment of kitchen items, some not so familiar and even cutting boards shaped into the state of Minnesota (almost bought one!). The classroom space is upstairs and if you wish to have beer/​wine, it’s an additional charge (prepay at register for voucher).
We made our way upstairs and discovered an amazing space, an open kitchen concept and bright dining décor for guests. We secured seats on the far side, away from the stairs, which came with a nice view and easy access to hot beverages (behind us). What made the space feel like a reality TV cooking show was the 45 degree angle mirror hanging from the ceiling, allow guests to see what was happening with the chef.
The evenings meal was based on recipes from the famous Julie Child; all dishes were French inspired and focused on simple ingredients with easy preparations. The meal included…
*item list to come soon*
Obviously for time reasons, several things were done ahead of time; otherwise, it’d be an all day affair. Overall, the food was bland, cold, some things under cooked and overwhelmingly unimpressive. The steak was served cold (it sat on the counter for nearly 20 minutes), potatoes were under cooked and the appetizer was bland. The highlight of the evening was dessert, which like any mousse was wicked rich. Given the status of the Executive Chef as an instructor, I would’ve expected more… MUCH more.
So here’s the deal, at $ 75 per person and sitting there for nearly 2 hours listening and watching the chef before we had a chance to eat, I don’t believe it’s a worth while adventure. If you love sitting and watching someone cook your food and talk for a couple hours, sure, go for it; just know this is an experience and not necessarily fine dining.
Finally, if you do decide to partake in a class, the schedule and chef’s are different for each week; so, you may have better luck than we did.

My review is not of a class itself, as I didn’t get to take one. I’m leaving a poor review due to the inflexibility of changing a purchased class due to a death in my family. My husband purchased a pasta making class for me for our anniversary, and I was so excited to take the class — I was very much looking forward to it. However, my grandmother passed away, and her funeral was scheduled for the day of the class my husband had signed us up for. He called 5 days ahead to change our class date, but was told the cancellation policy is strict and we could not move the class date. My husband even offered to pay for the food they would have purchased for the original class date in order to move our date out. I do understand the need for a strict cancellation policy, but am very disappointed to not have an exception made for a circumstance such as a funeral. We are now out $ 150, and are certainly not willing to pay $ 300 total for one pasta making class — so will not be taking a class here in the future. I would likely have been a repeat customer, as I am an avid cook and was looking forward to the class very much.

Thinking of buying a cropshare? Don’t do it. I know what you’re thinking, they are local and they work with great local purveyors so I should be getting great products. My wife thought the same thing when she purchased a December duck cropshare for my Christmas present. Unfortunately it never came and they never called us to keep us in the loop. Worse yet, they never returned any of our 7 calls or 1 email about the duck. Finally today – April 22 – I was able to call at just the right time to catch the coordinator and get her to refund our money. She tried to claim it arrived in March and we never picked it up while passing blame on my wife («we called her»…our cellphone bill says otherwise) and to the store personnel («they have a lot of new people and are still learning») but I left messages directly for her during that time so it is hard to take anything she says seriously.
Yes, the cropshares look good on paper but our experience says otherwise. Save the headache and work with someone that might actually provide customer service.

This review is specifically for the Cooks of Crocus Hills cooking classes. I took the Salut French Cooking class a couple of weekends ago. The class was pretty small comparatively with less than 20 participants. The chef from Salut showed us how to cook a four course meal and patiently answered any and all questions from the audience. The mirror above the prep kitchen was particularly helpful to see how the meal was coming together and the knife skills involved.
The prep assistants were very efficient at serving dinner and prepping the meals for the class. They probably could have used one more for the size of the group and for the fact that they also were serving beverages.
The food was absolutely delicious and I cannot wait to try the recipes at home!

Good Store, Great Classes, Terrible Website
This is a great store, but sometimes the staff isn’t as knowledgeable about the cookware as they should be. And it is small, so sometimes things are not in stock. The classes are fantastic! Love them. But the website is always slow. They need to work on that, because it’s frustrating.

This review is of the Cooks of Crocus Hill Crop Shares — do not purchase! Spend your money at a Farmers Market or someplace else. I have purchased crop shares for a couple of years and this year they seem to have dropped the ball. Cooks did not send an email regarding the strawberry crop share which came in on a Thursday. We were already at our cabin for the weekend and came home to pick up 10 lbs of rotted strawberries and two voicemails. Had Cooks emailed us we could have asked friends to pick up for us and store in our fridge until we returned home.
I also emailed Cooks after sorting through 10 lbs of rotted strawberries and have not recieved a response back from them, I will not purchase crop shares from Cooks again, and I have also told my friends to proceed with caution as well.

This morning, I sizzled-​up several strips of apple smoked bacon and a handful of jumbo-​sized organic brown eggs with my new Lodge twelve-​inch cast iron skillet that I purchased last week from Cooks of Crocus Hill.
I’ve been searching for cast iron for several months, but wanted my dollars to go to a local business instead of buying one online. Thankfully, COCH has plenty that are only a couple dollars more than the Amazon listing (which I checked on my app), and is even more affordable when considering the additional cost of shipping (assuming you don’t have a Prime membership).
However, this is not to say that penny pinchers should shop at COCH. This store primarily carries high-​end goods, and if you leave with something new in hand, your wallet will likely take some heavy damage. (However, maybe in the long run it’ll save you money since these goods will likely last for decades and you won’t have to buy the same thing over again.) #shorttermcostvslongtermcost
COCH has plenty of friendly and knowledgeable staff members to assist customers, and I had a pleasant experience conversing with one woman who dropped some mad knowledge regarding cast irons. She sold me on why I should only buy a Lodge (made from pure –non-​radioactive– ore), what to cook (no soups or anything with acid), and how to season (rub oil on it then bake at 350 for an hour). I wish I remembered her name…
As a person that lives in Minneapolis, I’m not sure if I would travel across the river to specifically shop at COCH, but I think it’s a fine store with high quality and reasonably priced products. If I were in the area today, I would consider buying something else. Although, tax day is coming up…
I’ll definitely consider returning to try one of their cooking classes!

Kid in a candy store.
I’ve done a cooking class here in the past that was phenomenal. I should really take some more, they’re great. Great teacher with applicable lessons that were easy to follow/​understand.
I love coming here because it usually means I’m looking for some quirky kitchen gadget and they almost always have it. Last time I was here I discovered they have Jack Rudy tonic and DIY bitters kits. Awesome.

As part of a Deloitte Bonding Event, they took us to this place in St. Paul for their Steak and Scotch class. At first, I thought that we were actually cooking the meal but it was just us sitting there while they brought us a bunch of food. We had a line up the following dishes:
Beef Carpaccio with Parmesan, Oil, and Capers
Thai Flank Steak Salad with a Oyster Sauce dressing
Beef Stroganoff with Mushrooms and Homemade Pasta
New York Strip topped with Bleu Cheese Topping served with roasted carrots, onions and parsnips
Ice Cream and Berries with a Chocolate Sauce
I would have enjoyed the class but they just talked SO much about history. We thought we could never leave. I think that the homemade pasta wasn’t really worth the effort because I don’t think it added much to the taste of the stroganoff and I actually enjoyed the thai flank steak salad! One thing I definitely didn’t enjoy was the 5 scotches that we paired with each meal because they all tasted so strong and I think I will need a while before I enjoy it. But I think that in a few years, when I enjoy such things, this would be a great place to go to and I think it is a nice way to bond.

I have done two cooking classes here – the first one was a joke – it was how to prepare for thanksgiving and the people in there were ridiculous. it really was a class I feel designed to sell more of their products… I mean who the hell uses a potato ricer to make mashed potatoes for a freaking crowd??? Also at one point they recommend that if you are too stressed out you can peel your potatoes and keep them soaking in water for up to three days before cooking them — really??? wouldn’t they be grey and slimy — me and my friend just walked out of there thinking get a grip people!!! I think the people attending the class had never walked into a kitchen before and they wore us out…
On to the good things… the store itself is just inspirational — I love to go in there and just stroke the gorgeous pans and roasters –I love seeing what new things are out…
It is a great place to shop for your foodie friends… I have purchased several gifts here and they always wrap them so pretty —the gift says yes I went to cooks!!!
Then the highlight of everything the cooking class I went to by Antionio Cecconi — I love that man… he is spectacular and I urge anybody to sign up for anything he is selling… he was awesome…
What I really don’t like about the classes is all the damn couples that are taking them. I typically go alone or with a lady friend and it just gets on my nerves to have all that lovebird shit going down in there… I feel a little intrusive actually — perhaps Cooks should offer more classes geared toward couples so if I’m not attending with my lover I can actually find other people there alone to get to know and chat with instead of everybody being all paired up…
All-​in-​all it is a fabulous place —yes it is expensive — -but they have the high quality investment tools for your kitchen —–

Recent cooking class, «The Art of Prima Piatti», with chef Antonio Cecconi, was my first ever cooking class. It was entertaining and fun (read here: the CHEF is entertaining and fun); however, I feel the class size was just too big (6 to 8 fewer people would have been much better, I think). I would have loved to have really gotten my hands into each dish being prepared, but that did not seem possible unless I flitted around the kitchen area like a hummingbird, stopping only for moments here and there but not really absorbing much. Ultimately, the dishes created were so very delicious !!!
Having read the course description before committing to enrollment, and understanding that wine/​beer would be part of the «experience», I was surprised to learn that you had to purchase a ticket for $ 5 in order to get a glass of wine (and not a generous pour, either).

The good:
I love their classes. I’ve done a couple group classes for my workplaces team-​building exercises (nobody poisoned their coworkers — success!). The directions are always thorough, the chefs area always fun and pleasant and really helpful. (Special shout-​out to Bob, who is awesome.).
Parking is decent — if it’s not too busy there is a parking lot in back. Otherwise there is sometimes street parking, and of course the ramp. Not a problem. It’s Grand Avenue, not Mall of America; you may have to walk a block.
They have some hard to find gadgets and spices that make it worth the trip. I’d been looking for a particular tool for a while, but didn’t want to risk spending the money on Amazon. Found the exact one I wanted at Cook’s (plus I used my 20% off coupon from class).
The bad:
While the chefs are fantastic, the clerks appear to want to do anything else other than assist you. The woman who rung my purchases up was pleasant, but the other woman who was restocking shelves wasn’t helpful when people were asking questions. I suspect it may be because she knew we were part of the class upstairs. I’m speculating, though. It wasn’t that busy and it was getting later in the day, so they may have just been busy with other tasks. Still…
Summary:
Take a class. It’s worth it and it’s fun.

I was surprised that once I came in I wasn’t offered any assistance or anything. It didn’t seem as warm and friendly as I thought it might be. I came here to look for a potential housewarming gift for my sister and brother-​in-​law but they didn’t seem to see anything that they needed. I was looking for coasters for them but didn’t see any, and felt like too much effort to ask. I did see that they have cooking classes available upstairs, and that they have a grill outdoor as well too. They have wine glasses, cookware, bakeware, small kitchen appliances, tableware along with other kitchen utensils.

Great service. Smart staff. A fantastic selection of items for one’s kitchen. So much that my friend unexpectantly purchased gorgeous french press that I know she’ll enjoy. Plus they offer cooking classes! The shop smelt so good from all the food smells of today’s classes.

This is the best place for cooking lessons in Minnesota for the home chef.
I have taken classes since they were down by Lexington and the teachers are great chefs.
It is also a great place to have a noon time foodie event.

I love this place! Of course it is all the way over in St. Paul, but totally worth the trip :) I have taken a few classes at Cooks recently (Paella Feast and Shrimp Boil) and although they were not really classes in the traditional learn to cook sort of way, they were educational and entertaining all the same. The groups are always really fun and the food is out of this world.
I also love getting wedding gifts here. My favorite gifts include an assortment of serving trays, kitchen towels, and Minnesota cook books. And, I have purchased a few things for my own kitchen from here ;)
You should totally check this place out! You will be happy you did!

I really love this place. It’s got great selection of Le Creuset, amazing appliances, and an excellent variety of cookbooks. The staff is also wonderfully helpful and if you’re lucky enough to stop in during one of their cooking classes upstairs, your nose will be in heaven as well.
Check out their crop shares! They have great deals on meat and the occasional morel mushrooms/​truffles. Even if you’re not a great cook yet, they will inspire you!

This place is the little store that could. They have some pretty great in store book signings (met Andrew Zimmern here), interesting classes (if you move fast enough to get a valuable space in one), and quality kitchen basics.

In the sea of William Sonoma and Sur la Table, I always seem to forget about this place. Which is odd cause every time I have been I simply love the store. I am so glad the Unilocal Elite was there because it reminded me of why I love this store. They are simply about good food and preparing good food. They don’t have an over inflated sense of importance as you find in the other culinary stores. I just have to remember to go back.
FYI — I like the St Paul store better than the Edina. Only reason is the Building. I like it old style :-).
Thanks Sarah P for a great event. You rock!

simply the best. It was so great my wife is going to start Unilocaling. The wine and apps were superb, the staff was super nice and we got some sweet kitchen stuff with our coupon. Nice job to all.