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Stonewall Kitchen is now offering classes in three states - Maine, New Hampshire and Connecticut.  They are looking to start classes in York, Maine at the flagship store.  If you haven’t had the chance to check out the flagship store it is definitely worth the trip.  You can even enjoy at bite to eat at the cafe.  The campus is beautiful, especially in the summer time.  For the time being classes are being held in Portland, Maine, South Windsor, Connecticut and Portsmouth, New Hampshire.  It looks like many of the classes in Portland are sold out, but there are still a few classes available.  The classes vary from Vegetarian to Mediterranean.  The cost is $65 a person, which is slightly more than classes at Williams Sonoma.  You receive a printed menu packet and a %10 discount on products for the night of the class. 

  I have to admit if culinary school didn’t cost so much I would already be there.  What at home cook hasn’t dreamed of learning how to cook from the best?  Well, if you can’t afford the real thing the Culinary Institute of America offers a number of “Boot Camps” at the Hyde Park Campus.  Some of the camps are shorter than others and the prices range quite dramatically from $325 to $2,000 depending on which class you are interested in.  I was really surprised by the number courses they offer.  The offer everything from Asian vegetable cooking to pastry classes.  The classes range from 1 day to 7 days.  They even have gift certificates available, I guess you know what I want for Christmas now. 

Click on the photo above to view the Boot Camp brochure.

One of the things that many foodies want to know is - where can I find a great cooking class?  I know the feeling, I love going to cooking classes and demos.  In this post you will find a list of cooking class sites and websites to find more information. 

One of the one’s I found most recently is the Viking Cooking School - Viking offers classes across the country at various sites.  Each site has it’s own schedule of classes and topics covered.  Some examples of the classes offered are holiday pies, bakeshop basics, cookie swap, Italian Baking with Nick Malgieri (at the Fairfield, New Jersey Site), champagne cocktail parties, etc.  The listing is really quite extensive.  The price is about average around $70 per person.  If you want more information click on the links in this listing.

Do you live a really remote area, but desperately want to know more about baking?  Let King Arthur Flour help you out online - they provide online cooking classes.  The online cooking classes are done in written pdf format, not video format, so don’t get your hopes up.  But still these pdfs are very thorough and interesting.  Here’s a link to the list of classes available to you by simply turning your computer on - http://www.kingarthurflour.com/baking/online_list.html.

Williams-Sonoma offers local cooking classes at their stores.  Go online to www.williamssonoma.com to find out about a store near you. Sonoma also offers a discount of 10% to class participants for that evening.

Sur La Table also offers classes at different locations across the US.  To learn more about those classes and the fees visit their website at http://www.surlatable.com/category/culinary.do.  The price is $65 per person.

Locally, to New England that is - Now You’re Cooking in Bath, Maine offers cooking classes on a variety of topics from cake decorating to soup making for $40 per person or $70 per couple.  If you want to see the list of current classes follow this link - http://www.acooksemporium.com/calendar.php

Lidia Bastianich is coming to New England on Sept. 27th at Massachusett’s Big-E.  She is doing to cooking demos on the 27th.  Having trouble remembering who Lidia Bastianich is?  For those not heavily into the food scene she is probably most famous for being associated with Mario Batali.  She is a very famous Italian chef with a number of cookbooks, restaurants, and cooking shows under her belt.  She is an amazing chef, if you get a chance I suggest you stop by to see her.  There are no advanced tickets, so you may want to get there early. 

Here’s the information you need about the Big-E.  Need directions or want me information follow this link http://www.thebige.com/area_directions.html.

This is a quote from the BigE site - ”

Lidia Bastianich 
Thursday, Sept. 27 - 1:30 & 7 p.m.

Don’t miss these exclusive demonstrations by Lidia Bastianich at 1:30 and 7 p.m. followed by a book signing on Sept. 27. Demonstrations will be conducted in the Harvest New England Kitchen Theater, sponsored by Uncommon USA/Ladderworks and Performance Food Group.

For more information please visit www.lidiasitaly.com“

If you are like many foodies, you have dreamed of a culinary education.  I readily admit that I am one of those dreamers.  One of the places that I have always dreamt of is NECI.  NECI is located in Vermont.  Who wouldn’t love to study in such a beautiful place?  NECI is a serious culinary school. (For all of you Food Network fans, this is where Alton went to school.)  One thing I love about NECI is how upfront they are with the fees for their programs.  Most culinary schools don’t openly advertise the price, as it is very steep. 

Here’s a quick run down of the programs and the fees for NECI.  They have certificates, associates and a bachelors program.  The three areas of study are Baking and Pastry Arts, Culinary Arts, and Hospitality and Restaurant Management. 

There are two tracks in Baking and Pastry - you can either get an associates or a certificate.  The associates program is a 24 month program with 2 six month paid professional interships - the cost is around $60,000 for two years.  There are four enrollments for the associates programs in March, June, September, and December.  You can also get certificates in either Baking or Pastry.  These certificate programs are 15 week residency programs with 1 six month paid (700 hr) internship.  The cost for the certificate programs is around $15,000.

There are also two tracks in Culinary Arts.  The associates has 2 six month paid internships and 4 starts in March, June, September, and December.  The cost for the Culinary Arts associates degree is around $60,000.  You can also get a certificate in Basic Cooking.  This program is a 15 week residency with 1 six month paid internship.  The cost is around $15,000.

You can get two degrees in Hospitality and Restaurant Management.  The associates program is a 15 month program with 1 six month paid internship.  This program only enrolls students for September. The cost for the associates is around $45,000.  The bachelors program is a 15 month upper level program (you must have 60 college credits or an associates degree to enroll).  There is 1 six month residency on the Essex campus followed by 1 nine month internship off campus.  This program enrolls in September and March.  The cost for this program is around $35,000.

If you are interested in checking NECI out, you can visit their website at www.neci.edu/home.html.  A girl can dream, right?

I saw an article over at Yahoo today that I couldn’t resist writing on it.  It seems more and more Americans are looking to add culinary activities to their vacation plans.  I think this is a great trend and certainly something I would love to take part in.  The number of culinary trips you can take is really quite surprising, as is the varying degrees of intensity.  These trips range from taking a bus tour of Napa Valley to spending a week of intensive training in an Italian kitchen.  I think there is truly something for everyone out there.  You can do something as simple as a tasting tour or actually work in a real live kitchen.  Here’s a link to the article, below you will see links to some of my personal favorites.

Come visit Maine, enjoy the seacoast, and take a class - visit the Hartstone Inn in Camden, Maine

Want to try out your dream job for a day?  Vocation Vacations - sets you up on a vacation that doubles as on the job training. Have you always wondered what it would be like to be a baker or chocolatier?  Vocation Vacations can set you up with a mentor so you can find out what it’s like working in your dream job. 

Check out Fine Living’s Cooking Vacation page for cooking vacations throughout the US.

I recently had the opportunity to take one of Williams Sonoma’s cooking classes.  This one was on vegetarian cooking.  I have to say I really enjoyed the class, although I wished it was a little more hands on.  If you have never taken one of their classes, this is how it goes, when you come in they have chairs set up in front of the test stove they have in the kitchen.  You sit down and they give you a packet of information.  The chef who is teaching the class pretty much does a cooking show demonstration live.  The chef we had was excellent.  Her name is Debrah Rodriguez Gaspardi, she’s a local chef in Maine.  Debbie also teaches classes at her home if you live in the Southern Maine area.  I would suggest looking her up on the web if you are interested.  I thought she was very engaging and interesting.  She walked us through an entire vegetarian dinner menu including sides and dessert.  After each dish is made they serve everyone a sample.  We were fortunate enough to have a delicious menu that included roasted autumn vegetables, dates stuffed with goat cheese (probably my favorite new vegetarian app.), brussel sprouts with walnuts and argula, vegetable couscous, and we were suppose to have fig tart (but they could find the figs, so they gave us a pumpkin bread instead).  I have these recipes and if anyone is interested in them please email me and I would be more than happy to send them to you. 

These classes are a fun thing to do with any foodies friends you have.  They are from 6-8 pm on Sunday evenings and cost between $40-50 per person.