There are a lot of great reasons to hone your cooking and baking skills and expand your culinary repertoire: you will save money by making what were once more exotic and challenging meals at home, break out of a boring rut and add variety to your familiar weekly menu rotation, and learn new recipes for entertaining or hosting. And let’s face it, as the days grow shorter and cooler, hanging out in a warm kitchen sounds pretty appealing. Here are our top 3 destinations for cooking instruction in and around Calgary.
SAIT’s Culinary Campus
If you spend your days working downtown, you might want to consider spending your evenings at SAIT’s newest venture, Culinary Campus, located in the 200 block of Stephen Avenue SW. Classes are typically held after work, with some weekend classes, and all are led by professional chef instructors and world-class faculty. Many classes are hands-on, but a few are demonstration-style. For example, their Rush Hour series is a 45-minute class where the instructor demonstrates a fast and wholesome meal and you get to take home all the ingredients you will need to reproduce the meal at home. Other class series include Artisanal Series, Baking Basics, Tour of the World, Cooking Fundamentals, From the Bar, Cake Decorating Foundations, and Novelty Cakes.
Cookbook Co. Cooks
The Cookbook Co. Cooks is a veteran when it comes to teaching food-loving YPs how to cook. The fact that their classes often sell out is testament to the quality of the instruction. Cookbook Co. Cooks is centrally located in the Design District (11th Avenue SW) and offers a variety of classes nearly every day of the month (weekdays and weekends). Some of their unique classes include couples cooking classes and girls’ night out. Plus, they regularly host local chefs from some of Calgary’s best restaurants, like Top Chef participant Xavier Lacaze, executive chef at Home Tasting Room.
Paintbox Lodge in Canmore
If you’re craving a weekend getaway, check in at Canmore’s Paintbox Lodge and sign up for a cooking class with principal chef George Bayne. Most classes are demonstration-style, but they do have a couple of hands-on classes that focus on specific cooking skills (e.g., knife skills, cheese making). Your registration fee includes the class, dinner, and a glass of Prosecco, but wine or beer is also available (not to mention a $15 corkage).
Photo courtesy Paintbox Lodge