The Kitchen at The Store

If you’re looking for a fun, entertaining, and affordable cooking class to attend, The Kitchen is the place you want to be. While perusing the inter-​web for cooking classes around Burlington, I came up only with pretentious and expensive classes (upwards of $ 175 per person). Then, I came upon the website for The Kitchen and I was intrigued. They had a calendar with a couple of classes a week at an affordable price and within driving distance of Burlington. The description of the classes and the cuisines also made it sound genuinely fun so I thought it would make for a fun date night.
Fast forward three weeks later and I found myself in a quaint Williams Sonoma-​type store in a small town at the bottom of a ski resort. The hostess at The Store part of the kitchen store was very gracious and offered us coffee and tea. While waiting for the class to start, we wandered the store and found a ton of kitchen gadgets, cookbooks, and useful supplies. The merchandise wasn’t the cheapest, but you could tell it was good quality.
The kitchen is in the back and class started off with an offering of sparkling water. Chef John is the house instructor and is a funny and wildly entertaining host. Today’s menu was «Fish 101.» Most of the ingredients had been pre-​prepared so we didn’t have to do much prep work. It was fun to pick up small tips in the kitchen such as secrets to peeling garlic, skinning tomatoes, and de-​veining shrimp. Time flew by really fast and the best part of the class was of course enjoying the fruits (or fish in this case) of our labor. On the menu today was Norwegian bacon-​wrapped salmon, Italian seafood risotto, fish cakes with ginger glaze and Thai herbs, and chocolate gelato for dessert. Chef John even prepared some extra side dishes, a baked whole head of cauliflower and mashed sweet potatoes. Dinner was delicious and filling and there was enough left over for me to bring home some extra risotto. At the end, you have a folder filled with all the recipes from the day as well as a 20% coupon for anything in The Store. This was definitely a fun-​filled experience and I highly recommend trying out some of the other cooking classes here.