Best Cooking Classes Near Me: Find In-Person & Virtual Training

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Everyone loves to enjoy a good meal, but not everyone knows how to prepare one from start to finish. To some, cooking is a fun hobby; to others, it is a simple day-to-day task. However, the process of turning raw ingredients into a flavorful, delicious meal is an invaluable skill that everyone should learn. Cooking encompasses a wide range of skills, including baking, boiling, sautéing, grilling, and steaming, in addition to rolling, grinding, chopping, blending, and curing. Truly, there are many ways to cook a good meal, but it is all in the technique. You can use various ingredients and seasonings to create a savory experience or different kinds of sweet treats. Many meals are created out of concern for nutritional value, while others are made for celebration. Regardless, cooking is a useful life skill that everyone should learn—everyone has to eat.

Cooking has been a part of society since prehistoric times when early hunters and gatherers discovered that heat could be applied to certain ingredients to make them easier to eat, taste, and digest. An open fire was all they needed back then, but people today use stovetops, ovens, deep fryers, air fryers, blenders, and other household items that make the cooking process far less difficult. Cooking is a deeply personal act as well, with many cultural attachments. For example, in the United States alone, the cultural landscape is largely defined by food. The Southeast is known for soul food like cornbread, barbecue, mac and cheese, and collard greens, whereas the food often found in the Southwest has strong influences from Mexican and Native American cultures. Both New England and the Pacific Northwest may be known for their seafood such as lobster, crab, and clams, but their preparation and flavor profile may be drastically different. All of this shows that cooking is as tightly bound with culture and society as it is with the need to eat.

Why Learn Cooking?

The main reason to learn cooking is that it is an essential life skill that involves expressing yourself creatively, considering health and nutrition, and practicing cultural awareness. Cooking is a fundamental life skill that helps you solve problems and think on your feet, which results in a more resourceful and mindful attitude. You can personalize recipes, fuel your mind and body efficiently, and adopt healthy habits that will serve you well for years to come. Overall, cooking is necessary to learn if you want to be considered a fully functional, self-sufficient adult.

Not to mention, you will save a considerable amount of money by cooking at home. Fast food is not healthy but rather cheap. However, eating at restaurants can be slightly healthier but far more expensive. Purchasing groceries at the store, or even growing a few fruits and vegetables in your garden, is far cheaper and allows for more versatility in your meal options. You can budget more effectively when you cook at home by meal prepping, planning grocery store trips, and reducing your dining out expenses. Home-cooked meals also lead to better long-term health outcomes since you will have more awareness of what is going into your diet.

It’s also important to consider the social benefits that come with cooking. When you learn how to cook, you are opening new doors to explore different cultures. If you have never tried Thai food before, cooking a traditional Thai meal gives you a chance to learn more about the country and perhaps inspire you to visit someday. You can broaden your horizons this way and also foster a sense of community with others. One of the best ways to show someone how much you care is by making them a home-cooked meal, so you will greatly enhance your close relationships by doing so. Plus, if you feel like you have become a great cook, you can start a side business such as a food truck or stand at a local fair. The opportunities for personal growth are endless when you start learning how to cook.

What You’ll Learn in a Cooking Class?

In a cooking class, particularly one suited for a beginner, you will start by learning the basics. This will include understanding different ingredients, tools, recipe techniques, and safety standards. To start, you may learn about basic tools. Becoming familiar with kitchen utensils and equipment is of utmost importance so that you do not encounter any mishaps. This includes everything from learning how to operate a standing mixer to using knives properly. In addition, you will learn techniques such as the difference between blanching and steaming or roasting and sautéing. Learning both the techniques and tools is essential for efficient and effective cooking.

Likewise, you will study different ingredients and spices. By experiencing and experimenting with different ingredients and spices, you will learn how to add the proper amount and ensure the ingredients are at their peak ripeness and quality. Plus, you will learn how to store each ingredient properly. Some need to be placed in the refrigerator and will have a shorter shelf life than others. Most important of all is learning the proper way to combine these ingredients and spices to make a well-balanced and adequately seasoned meal. If you add too much or too little, the entire dish may taste different, so it is important to practice patience and learn by trial and error.

In a more advanced cooking class, you may practice developing customized recipes, or at least learning how to adapt recipes to your liking. This practice leads to more resourceful thinking and an adaptable mindset. By doing this, you will experiment with ingredients and techniques to develop something unique and modified to your liking. That way, you can suit anyone’s dietary needs and tastes without sacrificing flavor and ingenuity.

Food safety is an important practice to learn, especially once you venture into your own kitchen and start cooking. An expert instructor will teach the class how to handle, store, and prepare food in the safest manner possible. This includes understanding hygiene standards such as washing your hands before and after touching raw meat. Additionally, you may need to learn how to prevent cross-contamination of certain foods so that you do not accidentally harm anyone with allergies. Plus, you need to monitor the temperature to ensure the meat is cooked properly, or else you risk becoming sick.

How Long Will It Take to Learn Cooking?

If you are curious about how long it will take to learn how to cook, the answer is not as straightforward as it may seem. Without any experience, it will take a little longer. However, if you have relevant experience, you may feel that you can pick up cooking skills with less difficulty and therefore take less time. For example, if you like to bake, it is quite similar to cooking. In fact, some say that baking is more formulaic and scientific, which can make it more challenging to learn. However, most agree that learning how to cook is a lifelong process. It can take up to a few months to master the basics and become an adequate home chef. If you want to become a professional chef and work in a high-end restaurant, it will take a lot more time to achieve—up to a year or a few years of consistent, dedicated work.

What Are the Advantages of Taking a Cooking Class?

The major advantage of taking a cooking class is that you will learn a valuable life skill from a professional in the field. Through their expert guidance, you can learn new cooking techniques, recipes, and skills that will serve you for years. You can enhance your ability to prepare various dishes and impress a special someone on a date or feel proud for contributing a wonderful dish at a family get-together. You may learn specific knife techniques or how to handle certain ingredients, but you can apply this knowledge to other recipes as well.

Most of all, cooking gives you the confidence to go through life more independently. If you are looking to improve your cooking skills for personal or family needs, a cooking class will equip you with the mastery and knowledge to whip up a tasty dinner instead of relying on take-out, even after a long day of work. You’ll be able to assess what you have in the fridge and pantry and use your resourcefulness to decide what you can put together. Cooking classes give you this adaptability by teaching you various styles and explaining how you can use diverse ingredients to change recipes as needed. You can customize a meal based on your dietary needs or preferences, which helps you become more versatile, flexible, and clever.

Plus, taking a cooking class can provide you with plentiful creative exploration, enriching social interaction, and increased cultural awareness. Cooking classes, although structured to some degree, encourage experimentation with spices, ingredients, cooking styles, and flavor profiles. You can explore and develop your culinary expertise as you learn, which is what makes cooking enjoyable in the first place. Not only that, but this leads to a heightened cultural awareness. You can broaden your horizons and feel more connected to others. As a result, you may be more inclined to join more cooking classes, explore new cuisines, and meet people with similar interests. Even if you only cook when there’s a special event, you will still make a statement with everyone at the next holiday, event, or dinner party by bringing a delicious meal.

Best Cooking Classes

If you’ve ever wanted to enjoy fresh, flaky croissants in the morning without having to leave home, consider enrolling in the Bake Your Own French Croissant class at Atelier Sucré held in New York City. Here, the complex art of rolling and layering croissants will be simplified with the help of a professional pastry chef who will walk you through every step of the process. You will learn how to make a traditional plain croissant, pain au chocolat, as well as ones filled with ham and cheese. You can take home the recipes and your croissants to enjoy later and use the knowledge you’ve acquired to make them for friends, family, or during get-togethers. This French classic is warm and buttery and will leave you wanting more, which is entirely possible once you enroll in this course.

The Hand-Rolled Sushi course from CocuSocial Cooking Classes is a great way to have a hands-on culinary experience in the Big Apple. Sushi seems like an unattainable dish to make at home, but with an expert instructor's help, you can spread, roll, and build your own sushi. The chef will impart the importance of finding quality fish for your sushi rolls and show you how to incorporate other traditional ingredients that make the process more authentic and delicious. You will learn how to prepare sushi rice and make ponzu sauce as a garnish or dipping accompaniment. In particular, this course will teach you to create a California roll, a vegetable maki roll, and a tempura roll using the catch of the day. You can even purchase drinks on-site at the venue if you want to add an extra layer of relaxation and fun. Once you are finished, you will be able to enjoy your sushi and have the skills necessary to make rolls at home for a fun date night or a special dinner.

Chef Eric’s Culinary Classroom provides a Four-Week Culinary Basics Series for Los Angeles-based folks who want to become adept home chefs or even those who want to kick-start their career in the culinary field. Regardless of your skill level, Chef Eric will help you become more comfortable using knives, equipment, and tools that are commonly found in the kitchen. Moreover, you will learn essential techniques that not only make your dishes taste and appear more appealing but will provide you with confidence regardless of what you choose to make. You’ll learn the importance of preparing your workspace to be more mindful of time and reduce any chaos or stress that may arise from jumping around the kitchen looking for ingredients and tools. Plus, this ensures your meals will not turn out over- or undercooked. Beyond the basics of proper knife skills, meal preparation, and organization, you will learn how to make a variety of dishes ranging from plant-based such as Parmesan risotto orzo pasta and herb and cheese spaetzle with cream sauce, to meat-based meals like grilled carne asada with pilaf-style rice. In addition, you’ll learn to make tasty snacks like guacamole and Asian chicken skewers with a spicy peanut sauce. This course is the ideal way to build a solid base for culinary arts skills while learning about different cultures, cuisines, tools, and techniques.

You may already know how to cook fairly well, but you may just want to sharpen your knife skills—no pun intended. At Chef Eric’s Culinary Classroom, you can do just that in their Knife Skills class. Here, you’ll learn how to precisely and safely dice, chop, slice, and cut into all kinds of ingredients. Specifically, you will learn the difference between julienne, brunoise, and batonnet cuts, which can all be used with different ingredients to significantly enhance the look and taste of a dish. You will want to wear comfortable shoes as the class requires a good deal of standing. After two and a half hours of instruction, you will leave with the skills to properly cut vegetables, de-bone a whole chicken, and make beautiful, intricate meals that will impress your family and friends.

The Chopping Block Lincoln Square offers a night of family fun with their Hands-On Family Night: Pasta Party. Located in Chicago, this course is designed to give families a relaxing night filled with bonding and tasty Italian dinner ideas. The menu includes a fresh Caesar salad with homemade croutons followed by hand-rolled fettuccine Alfredo and perfectly spiced chicken. On the side, you will make perfectly oven-roasted broccoli and top it all off with a decadent chocolate lava cake. You will learn about the individual ingredients, practice rolling out the pasta entirely on your own, and reward yourself with a chocolatey treat at the end. You will also be paired into groups of three to five people, so you may stick with your family or meet new friends throughout the two-and-a-half-hour course. By the end, your entire family will enjoy a tasty meal that they will want to make again and again.

You can learn how to make NY-Style Pizza in the heart of San Francisco with The Foodery. In this authentic pizza-making class, you will learn how to create everything from the dough to the sauce and will be able to customize your pizza pie to your liking. You will explore ways to enhance classic flavors like Margherita, pesto, and Bianca and enjoy the fruits of your labor. This class will be led by Chef Daniel, an expert in the field who has formulated a special pizza dough recipe so you can enjoy your pizzas in less time. First, Chef Daniel will explain how to make the pizza dough from scratch and the importance of balancing sauce and toppings. Plus, if you’ve ever wanted to learn how to stretch pizza dough like a true professional, you’ll learn that as well. You can also bring your own beverages to this class, so if you want to enjoy a nice glass of wine with your pizza, feel free to do so!

Live Online Cooking Classes

You can learn to make Homemade Ravioli from The Good Food Project entirely online. In this course, you will learn the skills necessary to make, roll, and fill three types of stuffed pasta—ravioli, mezzaluna, and tortellini. The ingredients list will be provided, so once you acquire the materials, you can get started. The instructor will teach you the importance of ensuring each step is done correctly, such as kneading the pasta just the right amount and making sure the dough has the perfect bounce before rolling it out. The filling is a delicious blend of cheeses, herbs, and spices, so you will be able to form, fill, and shape a delicious pasta dish. You will even learn how to make a sauce to accompany your homemade meal, which will be a bright, tangy marinara. Once the course ends, you will be able to enjoy your pasta dish, keep the recipes, and make pasta whenever the craving hits you.

The Good Food Project also offers a course that will teach you how to Make the Best Cream Puffs. You may think that cream puffs are a challenging dessert, but with the help of an expert instructor, it becomes much easier. They will guide you step by step to ensure you can master the art of pâte à choux, which involves perfectly blending chocolate and cream to make ganache and filling the pastry without overstuffing or cracking it. Even if you have never made a pastry like this before, it becomes much less intimidating with the right amount of practice and guidance. Ensuring that you have all the materials on hand before starting the class means you can practice in real-time and make a sweet treat to enjoy after all your hard work.

The League of Kitchens provides a course that covers delicious Persian cuisine. You can enroll in the Persian Cooking Online with Mab course, which allows you to experience flavors you may have never tried before. Specifically, you will create appetizers such as a bright tomato and cucumber salad Shirazi and a smoky eggplant spread called Mirza Ghasemi. The main dish will include a saffron-infused Zereshk Polo Ba Tahdig with crispy rice, which has a unique blend of seasonings and barberries. Mab has ample experience cooking this style of cuisine, and she will be passing along family recipes that she holds near and dear to her heart. The online class is intended to be just as interactive and enjoyable as an in-person class, so you will be able to ask questions, tell stories, and learn more about your virtual classmates and instructor. In the end, you will enjoy a virtual dinner party where you can appreciate all your hard work and gain a deeper appreciation for Persian cuisine.

If you are looking for a quick, tasty breakfast or mid-afternoon snack, consider learning to make Sweet and Savory Scones with Teaching Table. The flavors include sharp cheddar and chive, and sweet oat cream with dried fruit. Baking is dissimilar from cooking in that it is often considered more of a science. You must provide the right amount of ingredients, knead the dough properly, and work in a certain order to get the intended result, but the guidance you will receive from the instructor makes this otherwise challenging endeavor far less so. You will learn the basics behind making scones and understand the important role each ingredient plays.

Cooking Topics

Culinary

Culinary classes provide you with hands-on experience and theoretical knowledge in cooking techniques, food preparation, and kitchen management skills.

Couples Cooking

Couples cooking classes provide a fun and interactive way for you and your partner to enhance your cooking skills and bond over delicious meals while creating lasting memories.

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Baking

Baking classes teach you the skills and techniques needed to create a wide variety of baked goods. You’ll learn to make everything from breads and pastries to cakes and cookies through hands-on instruction and practice.

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Cooking Team Building Activities

Cooking team-building activities help you and your team learn new recipes, cooking techniques, and teamwork skills in a fun and interactive culinary experience.

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Pasta Making

Pasta making lessons teach you the techniques and skills necessary to cook homemade pasta from scratch. You’ll explore the art of pasta making and create delicious dishes with fresh and authentic ingredients.

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Wine Tasting

Wine tasting classes teach you to appreciate and evaluate different types of wine and enhance your ability to pair wine with various dishes to elevate your overall culinary experience.

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Pizza Making

Pizza making classes teach you the fundamentals of dough preparation, sauce creation, and topping selection. This class is ideal for food enthusiasts and aspiring chefs alike and combines hands-on experience with culinary theory to master the perfect pizza.

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Bread Making

Bread making classes give you the skills and knowledge necessary to bake delicious and fresh bread from scratch and cover techniques like kneading, proofing, shaping, and baking.

Cheese Making

Cheese making classes teach you the art of making various cheeses using traditional methods and techniques you can use at home.

Sushi Making

Sushi making classes teach you to prepare and roll sushi and also covers the techniques and skills needed to create delicious and visually appealing side dishes.

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Cake Decorating

Cake decorating classes teach you to turn simple cakes into beautifully decorated masterpieces using techniques like piping, fondant modeling, and icing designs.

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Knife Skills

Knife skills classes teach you to safely and effectively handle and use knives in the kitchen. In this way, you can improve cutting techniques and enhance your overall culinary skills.

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Wine & Cheese

Wine and cheese classes teach you to pair various cheeses with wines to produce harmonious flavor combinations and fantastic meals.

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Mixology

Mixology classes focus on the art and science of creating cocktails and other beverages using various ingredients and techniques.

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Butchery

Butchery classes teach you the knowledge and skills necessary to cut and prepare various meats to enhance your understanding and expertise of the culinary arts.

Vegan Cooking

Vegan cooking classes teach you to prepare delicious and nutritious plant-based meals. You’ll learn the skills and knowledge necessary to incorporate vegan recipes into your everyday cooking.

Vegetarian Cooking

Vegetarian cooking classes help you learn to cook delicious and nutritious meals free from meat and animal products and cater to those who follow a vegetarian or plant-based diet or anyone interested in doing so.

Italian Cooking

Italian cooking classes teach you authentic Italian cooking techniques, recipes, and flavors to master the art of creating dishes such as pasta, risotto, pizza, and carbonara.

Indian Cooking

Indian cooking classes teach the techniques, ingredients and flavors used in traditional Indian cuisine to help you create authentic and flavorful dishes at home.

Croissant Making

Croissant making classes cover the techniques needed to bake perfectly flaky and buttery croissants from scratch, including making the dough, shaping and proofing, and baking your bread perfectly.

Chocolate

Chocolate making classes showcase the art of working with this favorite sweet, including techniques like tempering, molding, and decorating with chocolate, and recipes to make various types of delicious chocolate confections.

Healthy Cooking

Healthy cooking classes focus on teaching you to cook nutritious and balanced meals with fresh ingredients. You’ll also learn about portion control, cooking techniques, and ingredient substitutions that promote a healthy lifestyle.

Asian Cooking

Asian cooking classes teach you the skills and techniques needed to prepare and cook traditional dishes from various Asian regions using authentic ingredients and flavors.

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Learn More About Cooking Courses

Why Learn Cooking?

What You’ll Learn in a Cooking Class?

How Long Will It Take to Learn Cooking?

What Are the Advantages of Taking a Cooking Class?

Best Cooking Classes

Live Online Cooking Classes

Cooking Corporate & Onsite Training Noble Desktop

Cooking Training Map & Top Locations

197 Courses Available in NYC

Cooking Topics

Culinary

Couples Cooking

Baking

Cooking Team Building Activities

Pasta Making

Wine Tasting

Pizza Making

Bread Making

Cheese Making

Sushi Making

Cake Decorating

Knife Skills

Wine & Cheese

Mixology

Butchery

Vegan Cooking

Vegetarian Cooking

Italian Cooking

Indian Cooking

Croissant Making

Chocolate

Healthy Cooking

Asian Cooking

Cooking
Corporate & Onsite Training