The Gourmandise School of Sweets & Savories in Santa Monica, CA Open now

Reviews about The Gourmandise School of Sweets & Savories

• ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

  May 22, 2019, by Esther Kim
  My friends and I came here for a pasta cooking class to celebrate a dear friend's birthday. I have had this place bookmarked for a while so I was very excited for this! We parked at their parking garage and walked in. They had a sign that wished her happy birthday, which I thought was really nice, and the menu for the class was written on the large blackboard on the back wall. They had a board out for us with cheese, grapes, and crackers which I thought was really nice. We could bring our own wine if we wanted (no corkage fee), so we bought wine at the wine shop next door to drink while cooking. It definitely helped make the class even more fun ;) They also provide cubbies for everyone to put their belongings, since there is no room for that in the kitchen. Everything is so nice and organised here, and they have all the ingredients already prepped and measured out for you. It makes SUCH a difference having someone there to do that for you! I would cook so much more at home if I had one of the assistants from this cooking school helping me out like that :P They also provided everyone with aprons and clean towels, and there were two sinks for everyone to use to wash hands. Each station was set up for 4 people, but we had an odd number of people so our station had 5. We started off with the Passion Fruit Panna Cotta, since that would need time to chill in the fridge. Then we made the pasta dough and the sauces. There were two sauces: bolognese and pesto. My friend had already warned them about my nut allergy, so my station made nut-free basil pesto. So considerate! After a short break, we rolled out and cut the pasta dough. I loved using the pasta maker--tempted to get one for my KitchenAid at home. Sofia, our chef, cooked the pasta for us while we were putting it through the pasta cutter and then we mixed the pasta noodles with our two sauces. The pasta was quite good with the pesto sauce, but less appetising with the bolognese sauce because that sauce wasn't very good. Then it was time for dessert. Unfortunately, the panna cottas did not come out well and everyone hated them. I really enjoyed this class because they made cooking so much easier and I was able to make items that I would never even try to make at home. However, some of the items we made (bolognese sauce and panna cotta) did not turn out well, so I am not a fan of all of the recipes here. But we had a LOT of fun and the staff here was really great. I'm very happy to be able to check taking a cooking class off my bucket list and would definitely recommend this place to anyone who wants to try one!