Helen's Kitchen Cooking School
#85 in USA
#32 in Boston
School
- 3 Ingleside Rd, Natick, MA 01760, USA
Company Description
While most people sneak into the kitchen to get a snack, Helen spent her life sneaking into the kitchen to cook. At 10, she thought making bean soup was more exciting than practicing the piano. At 18, she was feeding her fellow college students in exchange for help with her programming assignments. After finishing her degree in Computer Science, she went to Provence, France to study art history and ended up studying the art of cooking and eating. Traveling through the Mediterranean made her fall in love with the sun drenched cuisine of the coast.
Review & Rating
What a excellent experience. I've learned techniqes, not just recipes. Students have hands-on time in class. Also, love the video's on Helen's blog to reinforce all that I've learned in class. I've absolutely love taking classes at Helen's Kitchen.
The day after class, friends invited me for a simple dinner so I prepared Helen's pizza dough with my version of her yummy pear pizza spread and baked it there for dessert. Their pleasure was worth every penny and moment I spent in her class and more.
For the home cook, there is no better school. Helen is a top notch teacher who goes far beyond how to make a recipe, to the bigger issues of how to cook. She explains things that are usually only included in professional training, like how to season and how to intelligently use differences heat sources, providing enough technical information to give you the tools you need not just to be better at a recipe but to become a better cook. Meanwhile, she is enormously generous to her students and happily answers questions 'til the cows come home. She is a consummate caring, brilliant, and charming cooking teacher, and provides the best training you will ever receive in the Boston-area, short of signing up for professional cooking school. By the way, did I mention how fantastic her food is? Helen can teach you how to do it too. I am putting in less effort and our meals at home are at an entirely new level -- according to my husband, quite often at the OMG level. Not only did I learn to cook, I learned to eat, and have achieved a more optimal personal weight while enjoying food more than I ever knew possible. My relationship with food is at a whole new level. If you spend any time each week cooking and want it to be more fun, more yummy, more reliable, and more healthy, take a few of Helen's classes.
The class I took on knife skills was extremely well-organized. Helen provided a huge amount of valuable information in three hours, including where to buy knives and other tools, where to buy ingredients, what to buy, how to hone and sharpen and take care of knives, and how to perform a number of knife skills. I loved that we didn't have to take notes, because the packet she gave us to take home contained everything I would have written down. I got plenty of practice with a number of different new skills, with Helen and her assistant watching and correcting and giving tips. Our group of eight students was a fun group, and we all swapped restaurant recommendations, etc. The food we got to eat was delicious! It's nice to know I can watch one of Helen's videos online if I need a refresher. All in all, it was a very impressive class and a great value; I don't see how it could have been any better. The little company where I work also decided to do a private class at Helen's as our end-of-the-year holiday party last year. It turned out to be the best company party we had had in years. It was in an intimate setting -- someone's home -- but none of us had to shop for it or clean up afterwards! We brought our own music and drinks. Different people had different levels of interest in learning about cooking, but Helen didn't force anything. The food was unbelievable; two or three colleagues later told me the striped bass was the best fish dish they had ever eaten in their lives. Helen was very accommodating about people's different dietary needs and preferences, too. I highly recommend taking one of Helen's private classes as a fun and informative thing to do with friends and family or colleagues.
My husband arranged for a private social cooking class here with 8 additional friends of mine to celebrate my 40th birthday party. We had a wonderful night, filled with good conversation, wine, food, and relaxation! Helen was so accomodating, she even made a special meal for one participant who could not eat a few of the original menus' ingredients. My friends and I had so much fun, we would not hesitate to recommend Helen's Kitchen to anyone who asks!
I’ve been to many cooking classes in the Boston area. Helen’s was the only class I came back to over and over. I really enjoy cooking and was looking for a hands on cooking class to learn techniques I can use in my kitchen. I signed up for the vegetable class and it was a wonderful experience. Helen is great instructor, very friendly and knowledgeable. I’ve also taken her fish, pizza and meat classes. They were all amazing!
Helen is a genuinely warm person who knows how to cook really well. She understand the fundamentals behind cooking; what works and why, but best of all, she can explain it with humor and wit. My wife, 9-year old daughter and I have taken many of her classes and find them to be really useful, entertaining and yummy! She distills so much knowledge into those 3 hours. I've not found anything like her classes, which is why we keep going back.
We are big fans of Helen's Kitchen. We have attended five classes so far, starting with Knife Sharpening, then Grilling Fish, Grilling Meat, Orgasmic Vegetables, and our latest Easy as Pie…(making pie dough) which we put to use just the other day…and the compliments we received from everybody was "Oh my god, that was so good!"…Helen's cooking techniques and tips have taught us to prepare food that is so delicious we fine ourselves preparing more meals at home rather than going out to restaurants because frankly, the food is not as good. We highly recommend Helen's Kitchen!
We've probably taken every class at Helen's Kitchen we could possibly make time for (considering we have three kids at home :)). Helen makes incredibly tasty, healthy and varied entrees totally doable in execution. The thing my mathematically inclined husband loves (and he is now the family cook thanks to our classes there), is that every ingredient quantity is exactly measured and specified in recipes. We keep coming back to our hand outs at least once a week!
Helen's classes are wonderful. She takes a practical, empirical approach to cooking, and as a result it's much easier to replicate her techniques and recipes at home. I always leave with at least one new "trick" that's worth the price of admission by itself. But of course there's much more than technique: She thoroughly covers every step of the culinary process, from where to shop, what to look for in ingredients, how to best prepare ahead of time... all the way to presentation (and then all that's left to do is feast on the delicious results!) Highly recommended.
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