I’ll admit it. I’m the last person you’ll ever call when you want a gourmet meal. It took me until I was in my thirties to be able to properly cook rice. Even now, I screw it up about half of the time. Thankfully, more and more cooking classes are available for me and other culinarily-challenged folks like me. In fact, Boulder has quite a few cooking schools designed for people who just want to up their cooking game, but don’t necessarily want to become chefs.
Sur La Table
Located in the 29th Street Mall, they have classes for cooking Italian, Mexico, and Pizza. They also have skills classes that include using your knives properly and cooking with spices. The prices range from $60 to $70 most of the time and the class sizes are relatively small, around 16 people. You’ve got 2 hours to spare to pick up a new skill.
Stir it Up
Want to make learning to cook a family affair? This place in South Boulder is just the thing for you! They have classes for the whole family, classes for kids, adult classes, and even cooking parties. For adult cooking parties, you can choose between brunch, French, Greek, Italian cuisine, and more. The prices range from $80 to $55 person. The more people you have in your party, the cheaper it is. With summer coming up, you should consider signing the kiddos up for their summer camp series.
Food Lab
Formerly the Simple Spoon, Food Lab is located on Pearl Street and also offers a pretty good variety of classes, including private events and kids’ classes. Their pasta making classes are wildly popular (they sell out quickly), but they also have classes for sauces, dumplings, and brunch. You can also easily purchase gift cards as a subtle hint to a friend or family member. Plus, every 6 months, they choose a new non-profit to support through some of their dinner series. You can’t go wrong with community support.
Piece, Love & Chocolate
For all of you dessert nuts, these are the classes for you. Learn cake decorating techniques, crème brulee, ganache techniques and more. They also have chocolate tasting and pairing workshops (beer and chocolate, yes please!). Classes are around $85 each and classes are 3-4 hours long.