I mentioned that last weekend I was in Philadelphia for a French cooking class. There were some questions on how it was, and I thought I would take a little diversion from the sewing and talk about it.

The menu was very good, the kitchen beautiful and the equipment fantastic. But, I wouldn’t do it again.

Here’s why:

I kinda already have basic cooking skills. This class / program is for people who don’t cook already. They were showing you how to separate eggs and hold a knife and the difference between mince and chop. Which is fine, but several of us found ourselves ahead of everyone else with a lot of downtime.

I did like that almost everything came pre-measured.

And while the tart was easy. I was super annoyed because the instructor let our cold buttery pastry dough sit on top of a pan of carmelized apples for a good 30 mins before he put it in the oven. Why? Because the other groups were that far behind. See all the butter melting?

Then, after the pastry baked, he let it sit in the pan rather than immediately flip it out (so the apples would be on top and the pastry on the bottom). So, it got cold. And wouldn’t come out of the pan.

So then it went back on the stove top to warm up. It tasted like burnt apples.

I say all this to say that the class didn’t work for *me*. I think this style of class is good for people who are not confident in the kitchen or don’t have basic cooking skills.

I did learn to make French bread which I’ve always wanted to do. But, he also had us spray the bread with water 15 mins before it had to go in the oven (again, we were ahead of everyone else). And so when it came out, it looked kind of gray. Tasted good. But, looked bad.

The food overall was delicious and spending time with my friend was great and I had fun. But, the learning for me was low. She on the other hand thought it was fantastic because she doesn’t cook at all and tried food she would never have the confidence to attempt on her own. But, I give the class a C if you already know what you are doing and a B if you don’t cook at all. If I went here again, I would take a class in something I know little about. Like pastries, or cake decorating.