Handmade Filled Pastas

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.

Sitting down to an assortment of dim sum in a bustling restaurant is the culmination of a weekend stroll through Chinatown. It's never easy to choose from the myriad of delicacies that pass by the table, or to not try just one more thing. In this class, you will learn to prepare a variety of popular dim sum dishes, to impress family and friends with a feast of your own. You will make: shrimp shao mai; spring rolls; spareribs with balck bean sauce, and pan-fried vegetable dumplings with spicy dipping sauce.

Braising - searing at a high temperature, then finishing in a liquid at a lower temperature to infuse flavor - can add umami and more to pretty much any meal! And the best part is, it creates tender, juicy dishes with a minimum of effort. We'll master this technique as we make a braised banquet of: Guinness-braised short ribs with creamy polenta; braised chicken thighs with mushrooms and balsamic vinegar and braised fennel.

Let's eat like we're in Italy, from the apps all the way through to a rich dessert! These dishes put you back in that Mediterranean mindset...even if you've never been there. Make and sit down to this warm, comforting Italian banquet of: fried zucchini with Parmesan; veal saltimbocca alla romana; spaghetti carbonara; cavolfiore alla napoletana (cauliflower with raisins and pine nuts).