Our Fundamentals classes are designed to give home cooks a solid foundation of skills for everyday cooking and baking. They will build your confidence, equip you with techniques, and provide you with abundant inspiration in the kitchen.
What You'll Learn
By the end of the class, you will:
- Master basic knife skills
- Know how to properly balance flavors and seasonings
- Learn essential techniques and apply them to a variety of dishes
About This Class
Anyone looking to gain confidence and intuition in the kitchen needs to learn some basic skills and techniques. Aimed at the novice cook, Cooking Fundamentals Part I will show you how to plan, prep, and season, and introduce quick sautés and comforting braises over the course of this five-session series.
Meeting every day over five consecutive days, each session will cover methods and ratios that act as “base recipes” from which you’ll be able to prepare many variations. The toolkit you develop over the course of this series will help you understand the basics of how and why things work in the kitchen, how to make food with balanced flavors and proper seasoning, and how to execute a basic set of fundamentals skills. Once you complete the series, you can graduate to Cooking Fundamentals Part II where your focus will dive much deeper into the next level of kitchen skills.
Class Meetup Dates:
Mon. Jun 22nd: 6/22, 6/23, 6/24, 6/25, 6/26
Menu
Day 1
Learn to take control of your chef’s knife: slicing, dicing and improving your prep skills, and understand which kitchen tools are really essential for the home cook.
Day 2
Learn the art of timing in the kitchen while becoming more efficient through organized prep and planning, or “mise-en-place”. We will cover how to read a recipe, stock a pantry, and which cookware and essential tools to use for all your tasks.
Day 3
Seasoning food and balancing flavors in an art. We will practice it many times, starting with how to properly use salt, make vinaigrettes, prepare homemade stocks, and create dishes that taste amazing. Identifying herbs and spices, and knowing when to use them, always makes your cooking game stronger.
Day 4
Sautéing is an essential cooking method and properly sautéed proteins can be the base for a simple but bold pan sauce once you know a few key tricks. You’ll try several variations, and also start some simple baking lessons with light, fluffy biscuits, and your new go-to basic butter cake and tart dough.
Day 5
Braising and Stewing let you take tougher cuts of meat and cook them until they are melt-in-your-mouth tender. From a Thai Curry to a Coq au Vin, the methods are basically the same and you’ll master them in a way that lets you create your own amazing dishes.
Details
- Wine included
- Full meal served in class
- Work in teams
- Five-session series
- 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.
If you can’t make it to a class in a three, five or six-week series, you are welcome to send a friend for family member in your place. Please notify us if someone else will be attending a class in your place.
Unfortunately, due to the small size of our classes, we do not offer make-up classes for missed sessions in a series.
Cancellation Policy
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Patty Ponciano
After spending almost 20 years leading travelers all over the world and exploring delicious and exotic cuisines, Patty decided to pursue her passion for cooking. She enrolled and graduated from the Professional Culinary Program at San Francisco Cooking School. Patty trained at the highly rated Italian restaurant, Perbacco, in San Francisco where she learned first-hand the intricacies and complexities of food preparation, presentation, and service. Today, Patty works as a private chef, teaches cooking classes, and still makes time to travel.
Eric Lundy
A native Californian with a Midwest upbringing, Eric spent several years as creative director for a premier event/catering company in Detroit and a manager for a Michelin-starred restaurant and specialty food shop in Manhattan. A graduate of San Francisco Cooking School and Francophile who knows how recipes work, Eric is a freelance recipe tester, developer, and food stylist. He’s also a consultant for local food businesses, personal/event chef, and culinary instructor who makes a great drink and throws remarkable dinner parties. When his apron’s off, you can find him cooking, hiking, biking, eating out, entertaining, and exploring great food and wine regions around the globe.
Patty Ponciano
After spending almost 20 years leading travelers all over the world and exploring delicious and exotic cuisines, Patty decided to pursue her passion for cooking. She enrolled and graduated from the Professional Culinary Program at San Francisco Cooking School. Patty trained at the highly rated Italian restaurant, Perbacco, in San Francisco where she learned first-hand the intricacies and complexities of food preparation, presentation, and service. Today, Patty works as a private chef, teaches cooking classes, and still makes time to travel.
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.
Justin Fertitta
Justin began working in kitchens at age 15 and went on to graduate from the CIA in 2004. He honed his craft in New York restaurants for over a decade, working in many renowned kitchens including Aquavit, The Waldorf Astoria, Five Leaves and Desnuda. He has traveled extensively throughout Southeast Asia, where he draws much of his culinary inspiration. Before relocating to the Bay Area, Justin developed and led a Chef-in-Training program that created culinary opportunities for disadvantaged individuals. He now splits his time as a private chef and a freelance culinary instructor.
David Groff
After graduating from both the California Culinary Academy and Tante Marie’s Cooking School, David spent time teaching cooking classes and working as a line cook at Zuni Cafe and Gioia in San Francisco. He has worked as a personal chef and volunteered with the Bay Area’s largest fish supplier before joining SFCS as Lead Recreational Cooking Instructor. David believes cooking is about bringing people together to have a good (and delicious) time.