Sur La Table is well known for its elevated kitchenware and cooking essentials, but its in-house cooking courses are an epic epicurean experience and are filling up fast in the new year.
Whether you are a beginner in the kitchen, looking to hone your techniques, or planning a hands-on date night experience, Sur La Table offers a myriad of classes taught by its expert chefs. The Market Street location is a much-loved store in the community, and their holiday specialty mixes, sauces, and seasonal ingredients always fly off the shelves.
Donning the Apron
Popular January classes that can be booked online include: Date Night Thai Kitchen, Intro to Making Sushi, French Country Supper, A Spanish Spread, Creative Croissants, Marvelous Macarons, Date Night Classic Italian, Dolce Italiana, Handcrafted Breads and Butter, and more.
In each two-and-a-half to three-hour course, you’ll be creating recipes from scratch and donning chef’s aprons at a station in their professional grade in-house kitchen. The best part is experiencing it with friends or a loved one before taking home your creation and newfound knowledge to recreate the recipes at home.
Warm, buttery chocolate croissants in the morning are my favorite, and the croissant-making class was an unforgettable experience. The art of making traditional sweet and savory croissants was well taught and achievable for patrons. We prepared a laminated dough, perfected our rolling, shaping, and proofing skills, generously buttered each pastry layer, and added in shavings of dark chocolate before popping them in the oven. I never felt so accomplished and would not have attempted the feat on my own. Plus, I had croissants for dinner and dessert all week.
Better than Europe
At the Market Street location, floor lead Rhonda Nance shared that the pasta-making classes are wildly popular. She explained that one client came back with high praises from Italy, boasting that Sur La Table’s hands-on experience from start to finish was more well-rounded than that presented in the country known for pasta.
“I like that our chefs use food that a consumer would buy for their home versus high-end things you’d never buy or items that are hard to source,” says Rhonda. “I love that sometimes the chefs will alter recipes slightly if they have extra ingredients, like bacon grease, to incorporate or enhance the recipes; it gives people ideas to get creative.”
The Chefs at Sur La Table are dynamic, funny, and, more importantly, they are formally trained at culinary schools with extensive experience. The chefs get rave reviews from the clientele for how helpful and informative the classes are, and it brings them back to try their hand at other cuisines. Cooking does not have to be intimidating, and the experts at Sur La Table make it an enjoyable, teachable experience where nothing has to be perfect--well, except maybe when measuring baking ingredients.
Rhonda took a Julia Child-themed class and purchased the cookbook from the store–and learned so much more than she had imagined. She shared that her next kitchen endeavor is learning how to master the soufflé.
Flavorful Fun
Many younger clients and teens enjoy the kids’ themed workshops, expressing an interest in becoming a chef once they’ve appreciated an interactive class. Sur La Table’s chefs incorporate food with fun, which encourages youth to keep pursuing the love of cooking—along with trying new foods.
Whatever course you select, it is guaranteed to be an informational, enjoyable epicurean experience, for both the seasoned home chef and kitchen-fearer alike.
Bon appétit!