ever tried a cooking class at Williams-Sonoma? or other culinary ideas in NYC?

[cicero]

Hi all, thought i might try a cooking class when i'm in the states in a few weeks. I noticed that williams sononma offers them in some of their locations. Has anyone ever been? worth the money? do you know of other one-time culinary classes in the NY area?

I'm a pretty good cook, like to cook healthy (but not tofu/wheat grass style), and always lookng to improve especially on technique and making things look pretty

[Raina]

I haven't taken a class at Williams-Sonoma but have toured and thought about applying to the French Culinary Institute in NYC.  Just poked around their website again and they do offer 1-day classes at their SoHo location? Hmm, apparently they've changed names now (wow!) but it'll pop up in a search engine.

[PastryGoddess]

Sur La Table offers pretty good classes.  I second the idea to take a cooking class at a cooking school if possible.

[rain]

In my area the Williams Sonoma classes offered on Sundays (mornings) are free, while the Wednesday evening classes are $75, but you get a meal + cookbook


I've been doing the Sunday classes for 3-4 years now & enjoy them

Never done the Wednesday classes, but friends who have enjoyed them

[SoCalVal]

I've gone to the Williams-Sonoma ones a couple of times on Sundays here in Northern CA.  They are free, but I don't think of them as classes, I guess, because the attendees don't get to do anything so they are all demos.  Don't get me wrong; I'm not opposed to demo-only classes.  However, when I really want to learn a skill, it needs to be hands-on.  I've also taken a few semester-long classes at one of the professional culinary programs at a local community college and learned a lot in them.  If I were inclined to spend the money, I'd take a one-day class (hands-on) at Le Cordon Bleu (or some other respectable professional culinary school) because I'm pretty sure they aren't demo only (they're $99 so unless someone wants to gift me with that class, I'll go with the community college classes which are slightly more expensive but provide a great deal more instruction since they're about 16 weeks).

[cicero]

thanks for the tips! the french institute and sur le table are full up for the period i'll be there who would've thunk that so many people would want to take a class? plus they are way out of my budget.