Thank you Marti and Chef Linda...
I was looking for a fun evening activity for a group of fourteen yelployees during our recent regional week conferences, and cooking class was appealing to most of our group. Unfortunately, when I went to do some research on local cooking classes, most of them were way out of our budget. That is, until I spoke to Marti at Sweet Basil.
Marti was extremely accommodating and I was pleasantly surprised to hear that the pricing for our group was reasonable compared to some of the other cooking schools that I was looking into. There was a great selection of menus to choose from as well. I went with the "Easy Entertaining" option, which included recipes for the following items:
* Baked Brie with Shallots & Roasted Raspberry Chipotle Sauce
* Smoked Salmon Cakes with Lemon Dill Aioli
* Grilled chicken Satay with Ginger Mustard Sauce
* Bloody Mary Shrimp
* Pork Pot Stickers with Garlic Soy
* Pepper-Crusted Steak with Horseradish cream
* Mini Caramel Pecan Pies with Bourbon whipped Cream
When the group arrived, there were aprons for all, and Marti introduced herself and Chef Linda prior to us beginning. Our group was ready to get our hands dirty right away, but we did have to be patient as Chef Linda walked us through each recipe... From there, we buddied up (except for Emi H who bravely took on the Chicken Satay on her own) and were on our own with the large kitchen and ingredients. Tiffany and I did the Brie which was by far the easiest, but we had fun with it and it turned out incredibly (if I can say so myself)!
All in all, this was a fabulous evening, and great for team building too... but if you do book Sweet Basil, a couple of things to keep in mind that may be helpful:
*While SB does provide iced tea and water, they allow BYOB, so if your group is anything like mine, I do recommend taking advantage and bringing some wine!
*You'll likely begin your class promptly at 6:30, but won't be digging into the food for quite some time, so you may want to grab a bite prior to arriving or ask about purchasing some snacks to nosh on while you eat.
In addition to the above, note that SB is also a fabulous store for all kinds of cookware, kitchen accessories, and more... I purchased a great little salad dressing bottle while I was there and definitely could've done a lot more damage given more time!