Cook the Book: Mastering the Art of French Cooking
$165 per person
Instructor
Our Cook the Book classes celebrate some of our favorite chefs and restaurants through their cookbooks. We select a signature dish from their cookbook, adapt it for the home kitchen, and build a menu around it to bring the book to life. These events are less instruction-based than our other cooking classes and make for an enjoyable night out.
What You'll Learn
By the end of the class, you will:
- Understand the basics of French cooking, striking a balance between the complexities of the cuisine and the practicalities of the American home cook
- Know how to adapt classical techniques wherever possible to recipes in all other French cookbooks and modern American cooking
- Learn how to reproduce the taste and texture of French ingredients, using products available locally, for example the appropriate fish for poaching versus a bouillabaisse and the right potatoes for mashing or a gratin
About This Class
Mastering the Art of French Cooking is for both seasoned cooks and beginners who love good food and long to reproduce at home the savory delights of the classic French cuisine. The focus will be on Coq au Vin, Julia’s famous recipe that employs so many core techniques of French cookery. Using many seasonal ingredients, we’ll round out our menu by adapting some classical techniques to more modern American conventions. After all, foundation and excellence of French cooking (and of good cooking in general) is due more to cooking techniques than to anything else!
We will demystify the splendor and glory of French sauces, explain how to poach and saute so that food cooks perfectly without losing its flavor, and conquer the epitome of French cooking, the souffle by learning how to fold beaten egg whites into a batter to retain maximum volume.
Menu
Galettes Au Fromage (Cheese Wafers), French Bistro Salad, Coq au Vin, Gratin Dauphinois, Haricots Verts a la d’Hotel, and Chocolate Souffle
Details
- Wine included
- Full meal served in class
- Work in teams
- Ages 18+
FAQ
The average duration of our cooking classes is 4 hours, and they are broken down into three segments: Introductory lecture or demo, hands-on cooking, and eating.
The class will begin with a short discussion or demo from your instructor. After, you can expect to work either on a team or individually to prepare the class menu. As a group, your class will prepare the selected menu in its entirety. In most classes, not every student will make every dish.
Learning happens throughout the class, and your instructor will often call out key techniques as they happen in each recipe.
Most classes conclude by sitting down as a group to eat what you’ve prepared, followed by a discussion of each recipe. You will leave with a copy of the recipe packet and a working knowledge of every dish that was made so you can recreate them at home.
Doors open 15 minutes before the class start time.
You do not need to bring anything with you to class, unless otherwise noted in the class description. The kitchens at SFCS are fully equipped and aprons, recipes, equipment, food and wine are all provided for you.
In most classes, you will be sitting down to eat a complete meal that you have prepared along with your classmates. Since this typically occurs towards the end of the class period, an appetizer or small plate is usually prepared early on in class. However, you’re welcome to additionally have a snack before you arrive or bring one with you.
Please note, for our Baking & Pastry classes, a light meal will be provided for you.
We suggest wearing casual clothing you can easily move around in, and highly recommend wearing comfortable closed-toe shoes. Long hair should be pulled back.
Cancellation Policy
Margie Kriebel
After earning a professional culinary certificate from San Francisco Cooking School, Margie founded Local Flavor, a personal chef company providing small event catering services, in-home cooking classes, and recipe testing & development. When she is not in the kitchen cooking, she can be found with local farmers, ranchers, and fisherman learning about their craft and products or cultivating her backyard vegetable and fruit garden. In addition to teaching cooking classes, Margie also helps in the vegetable garden at the local homeless shelter.
Christine Gallary
After graduating from Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, France, Christine moved to Boston to test recipes at Cook’s Illustrated / America’s Test Kitchen, to teach children how to cook, and to work for Chef Barbara Lynch at her newly opened demonstration kitchen, Stir. Upon a return to California, Christine became a food editor in the test kitchen at CHOW.com. She is now the food editor at The Kitchn and loves the process of cooking as much as she enjoys eating the finished product.