Chef/owner Jackie Price has parlayed her extensive experience as a former culinary instructor with Saint Louis University’s Department of Nutrition and Dietetics into Fennel Cooking Studio, a joyful setting with the feel of both a classroom and a dinner party. Price’s goal: to make cooking accessible to everyone, dividing her sessions into small groups, so participants can learn at their own pace in a non-judgmental environment. Although she teaches a variety of styles, Price focuses on vegetable-forward cuisine, with some of her most popular classes centering around area farmers’ markets and seasonal ingredients. 3043 Olive.
Find the best food in St. Louis
Subscribe to the St. Louis Dining In and Dining Out newsletters to stay up-to-date on the local restaurant and culinary scene.
The grand dame of area cooking classes, Kitchen Conservatory has been a leader in culinary education since 1984 thanks to its extensive course offerings, hosting more than 900 classes per year. The school draws upon the experience of some of St. Louis’ most beloved chefs, who help students of all ages and levels become the cooks they want to be, with offerings ranging from how to bake the perfect sourdough bread to perfecting Chinese dumplings to cooking with bourbon. Both demonstration and participation-based classes are offered to groups of all sizes. 9011 Manchester.
After coming to a plant-based diet for health reasons a little more than a decade ago, Caryn Dugan is now proudly known as STL Veg Girl and the founder of the Center for Plant-Based Living, a nutrition and education facility whose mission is to help people live healthfully through a vegan diet. Dugan’s classes are designed to help those new to vegan cuisine understand all of its possibilities, ones that are as utterly delicious as they are good for you.
St. Louis native Charlie Ragel opened his first Kitchen Social in his second home of Ft. Meyers, Florida, because he found the usual cooking classes that he enjoyed taking were a little too stuffy, formal, and contrived. His hope is that folks will walk into a Kitchen Social class feeling as much like guests at someone’s dinner party as they do students ready to embark on a lively, hands-on learning experience. Classes are offered seven days a week and include everything from dim sum to pasta-making. 124 Chesterfield Commons.
During his years in the chocolate business, Kakao founder Brian Pelletier has found joy in the stories that people share as they gather around the table. This idea underpins his charming Maplewood specialty foods and vintage cookbook shop, Tale to Table, which offers a variety of cooking and pairing classes that teach students how to pair wine with marshmallows, understand the world of tinned fish, or learn to make pizza and chocolate. These intimate sessions, booked through Eventbrite, offer the chance to learn the art of food and the interesting footnotes that accompany it. 7310 Manchester.
Chef Dawn Wilson’s passion for Italian cuisine was ignited after learning the art of Italian dining in slow-food restaurants throughout Tuscany. At Vicini Pastaria, she shares that ethos with her guests through both her counter-service restaurant, as well as private hands-on cooking parties, demonstrations, and participation classes that focus on traditional Italian recipes. 1916 Park.
Chef Ashok Nageshwaran views food as a vehicle for connection, which is why he left behind the corporate world to become a chef instructor and private chef through his company, Food Raconteur. Nageshwaran’s individualized dinner parties and cooking classes touch on a wide range of global cuisines, but the one thing they all share is that they inspire people to not only learn about food but also about the cultures and people that have brought them to life.
One St. Louis’ local grocery chains offer great opportunities to learn how to use the ingredients you can get in their aisles. Schnucks Cooking School, at its Des Peres location, offers courses for students of all abilities and ages in such topics as knife skills and curry-making.
Those looking to up their at-home bar game can learn from the professionals at Intoxicology, who teach the essentials of cocktail technique, such as stirring, shaking, measuring, and flavor profiles. Classes are private, include hands-on instruction for three full-size drinks, and will have you looking like a master mixologist in no time. 4321 Manchester.
Named after Ebenezer Scrooge’s employer, Fezziwig’s Marketplace is a charming gourmet foods, tea, and coffee market, which doubles as a venue for fun cooking classes that teach students on topics such as the art of lasagna making, baking with tea, and how to prepare delectable vegetable-forward cuisine. 225 W. 1st, O’Fallon, Illinois.
Sallie’s Cake and Candy Supplies
For more than four decades, the family-run business has been the metro area’s premier destination for confectionary supplies. It’s also a vital resource for bakers and candy-makers of all levels who want to learn from the best in the business. Classes teach students advanced techniques, such as the art of fondant and casting with isomalt, as well as fundamentals such as cupcake-making. 14340 Manchester.
