Great Amateur Cooking Classes: Le Cordon Bleu MasterChef

I’ve been asked a couple times lately about where to take cooking classes in Portland. Yes, I’ve gone to my fair share of cooking classes so I am excited to give suggestions! 

As Portland is quickly becoming a true foodie city, there are quite a few options.  I think where you end up going really depends on what you are looking for. 

Are you looking for a night out where you can get a demonstration on cooking, have a glass of wine, and chat with your significant other/friends you are with?   

If so, these are a few options. 

• Sur la Table: Located in the Pearl District.  Often pitched as hands-on, these classes aren’t really…while they can still be fun and informative, most items are almost fully prepared for you with some minor plating done by the “students.”  So just be prepared for that.
• Caprial and John’s Kitchen: Located in SE Portland just off Burnside.  Their classes are all demonstration-only, but they are super fun, you get tons of incredible food, and you really can learn a lot from this husband-wife duo with numerous years of professional cooking experience.  
• SweetWares: Part of SW Portland’s Baker & Spice‘s baking supply store.  I am taking a cupcake class there taught by Saint Cupcake‘s Jami Curl (!) next weekend, which I of course am pretty excited about.  I haven’t attended one of their classes before but they have a really fun list of offerings, which primarily sound like demonstration-only classes as well. (I will give more details after next weekend!)

Are you looking for a real hands-on, learning experience, more like what it would be like as a professional culinary student?

If that’s more your style, I HIGHLY recommend the classes offered at Le Cordon Bleu’s MasterChef program. 

• Le Cordon Bleu MasterChef Courses: These classes started in 2010 as a partnership between the world-class Le Cordon Bleu cooking school and the FOX tv show MasterChef.  The Portland campus is right downtown on SW 10th and Alder.

I took their “Sweet Doughs & Pie” course a few weeks ago (see my post here) and it was so great.  The class only had about 9 people in it, everyone with their own station.  The class was 4 hours long and was taught by one of the pastry chef instructors. She taught the class just like their professional baking program – first she demonstrated, then we all went to work on the recipe as well.  The only difference between us and the professional program was we didn’t have to do the set-up or the clean-up.  Not a bad deal!  Plus we got to head home with two delicious pies we made ourselves!

They offer everything from Basic Cooking Technique, to Taste of Italy, to Chocolates, which are all offered on Saturdays. 

Check out their schedule here for more details.