Tacos and Tequila

For a flash course on all the basics you need to make a varied and impressive meal, look no further. With a professional chef, you'll gain the skills vital for moving through any simple menu with ease. You'll practice knife skills, roasting vegetables, cooking proteins with a pan sauce and a vinaigrette. Then you'll use what you learned as you make a menu of: popovers; sautéed chicken with classic pan sauce; roasted root vegetable salad with fresh herb dressing and garlic mashed potatoes.

There's nothing like handmade pasta's flavor and texture, and in this class, we'll have a blast leaning how to make fresh handmade pasta, stuffed pasta, perfect sauces and all the accompaniments! There's nothing like handmade pasta's flavor and texture. Together, we'll learn to make dough the Old World way, then how to shape, cut and stuff it. You and your partner will create a complete fresh Italian dinner of: pappardelle with Bolognese; burro e salvia (butternut squash ravioli with sage butter).

Working in teams of two, each student will finish and take home two of the following cakes: vanilla mocha latte with mocha ganache and espresso buttercream; triple chocolate cake with dark chocolate cake, white chocolate ganache, chocolate frosting; chocolate chip cookie dough with edible cookie dough filling and vanilla buttercream; Ferrero Rocher cake with praline ganache and feuilletine crunch and chocolate ganache frosting.

From coasts to prairies, the diverse geography of America results in an abundance of meat and fish varieties that eventually end up on our plates, deliciously prepared. In this class, you will prepare dishes that celebrate this bounty and highlight famed regional preparations. On your menu: Chesapeake Bay crab cakes with sauce rémoulade; New York strip steak with onion rings; and broccoli-cauliflower gratin.