Bought the Groupon deal for $55 per person. This is different from any cooking class I've attended in the past. In all my other cooking classes, you get to cook your food (or cook one part of the meal). In Conrad's version, you are actually watching the chef in action as the audience. Both formats are good, but I have to admit the food comes out much better when you let the pros do it for you :) This review is for the French Class: Courses Prepared: Chicken Pot Au Feu Steak Au Poivre (Pepper Steak) Steak Diane Lamb Shank with Ratatouille and Orzo Pasta Chef Gallagher cooked the entire 3 hours and kept us well fed. While he is cooking, he is giving you tips on technique, shopping, and other interesting information. He allows the audience to ask him any question that they have and provides knowledgeable answers in return. You can tell this man knew his stuff. He is passionate about cooking and leads an extremely busy life centered around great food. If you are not aware of who Conrad Gallagher is, Google him. Quite an interesting life. Tips: 1) Bring something to drink: wine, soda, water etc. 2) The meal is served on plastic plates with plastic cutlery. BYOPAF if you wish. 3) Come early to grab a seat in front so you can see all the action and take all your pix. 4) The chef allows students to be in the kitchen so wander in if you like! :) All in All, I had a fabulous time and would recommend to anyone for date night, girls night out, or food adventure :) read more

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If I could, I would give this establishment 0 STARS!!! I bought a Living Social deal online for about $80 for a 3 hr class. However, none of their business phone numbers work. I tried emailing them and didn't hear from them for weeks. The email finally stated that they were still fixing their schedule to accommodate people's requests. What requests? I couldn't even make one request. A week later they asked through an email if people wanted to watch a cooking demo through a video instead. Really?I could just turn on the cooking channel for that. I think their fault was trying to spread themselves thin by offering classes both on the west and east coast. They really need to be aware of their unethical business practices. It's a shame, the chef's food looks delicious and I'm sure he's talented. . SCAM ALERT Living Social should not honor this business on their website any longer. read more

My wife bought a Conrad Gallagher cooking class for my Christmas present. Unfortunately, when we tried to make a reservation, we received an email stating that they no longer had classes and to contact Groupon. I then read the Yelp reviews and was horrified by everyone's bad experiences. I considered ourselves fortunate that we were never given the runaround when scheduling a class. I'm also happy that we didn't make the drive to Newport Beach, only to be disappointed that the class had been cancelled. Most of all, I'm glad that Groupon was quick to refund my wife's money in the form of a Groupon credit. NOTE: I see that Gallagher's Groupon in New York is still being sold. Not sure why Groupon is offering this after so many people have been burned, but in the words of Mr. Brady, "Caveat Emptor" ("Let the buyer beware"). read more

Terrible business. I bought the cooking class in NYC on Groupon and signed up 2 months in advance, as advised. A week before the class, they tell us that they over booked and had to move the class. Three days before the class, they say that the class had to be cancelled because the new kitchen did not have the proper permits. WHO DOES NOT CHECK THE PERMITS BEFORE SELECTING A LOCATION?!? When I inquired about this and said my friend who I had purchased the class as a gift for flew in from California to attend, she said that Conrad flew in from Dubai and is also disappointed. The difference here, is that this is HIS BUSINESS and he is flying in TO MAKE MONEY! See email below. I do not recommend this to anyone, ever. From: Candice Gallagher [mailto:candice@conradgallagherfood.com] Sent: Friday, January 23, 2015 5:49 AM To: Kasey Subject: Re: Cooking with Conrad Gallagher - URGENT NOTICE!!!! Hi Kasey, Conrad has just flown 15 hours from Dubai to host these classes to be given this news, so we too are extremely disappointed and understand your frustration, the best I can do now is refund your classes at this point and will forward your message onto Conrad. Regards CAndice Candice Gallagher Managing Partner Conrad Gallagher Food Private Chefs,Pop Ups,Cooking series. C.+1347 659 5987 O.+1347 659 5988 Los Angeles,New York,Boston,Cape Town . www.conradgallagherfood.com Follow us on Twitter @conradgallafood and Facebook conradgallagherfood read more

SCAM ALERT!!!!!!!!!! I bought this cooking class for me and my boyfriend on February 11th I send multiple emails with ZERO response until I posted something on theirs Facebook page then Candice Gallagher email me back saying that they're over booked and dont know when the next live class will be open and if I want to do online class instead?!?!?!?! I asked for a refund then the next email I got after 2 mins was she's out of town and will get to me in 48hours. I went back to theirs Facebook page and they deleted my complain so I write a new one and now they blocked me. My advice to you ? STAY AWAY FROM THEM !!!! read more

In January 2015, I purchased a Groupon deal for a cooking class in NYC. I attempted to contact Candice Gallagher to schedule a class date for my sister's bachelorette party, to which she responded with a 1 line email that said "they are booked 90 days out". I have not heard from her in 3 weeks--even after sending 4 follow-up emails. This business should be ashamed of their customer service. Yes, you're busy, but so are your customers. Get your act together and treat paying customers like you actually want their return business. read more

I bought the groupon for the cooking class in December 2014. I've tried scheduling a class since then (February now) The booking agent (seems like his wife) keeps telling me future months are booked. I respond with counter-inquiries about other dates to schedule. I am met with a whole month of silence. I call the business # and it goes straight to voicemail. I send another email (less polite this time) attempting to schedule, and am met with an auto-response email saying "dear customers: please be patient, as we are typically in class during the weekends" despite it being 3 pm on a Tuesday. I do a quick search on Conrad's name, and find that he has a history of having his restaurants close due to either fraud (stole paintings) or nonpayment for his staff. http://www.the42.ie/conrad-gallagher-closes-las-vegas-poshburger-989647-Jul2013/?r_dir_d=1 Conrad may have won a bunch of cooking awards early in his career, but he's quite terrible at running a business. Whoever's financially backing him should just stop. Don't bother, it will only bite you in the ass later. I'm out 100 bucks and am currently resolving the issue through groupon, asking for a refund. read more

As everyone else stated, do not purchase any cooking classes from Conrad Gallagher or Candice Gallagher. I have been an Elite Yelper for over 5 years and this by far has been the worst experience ever. We purchased a Groupon in 2014 to have our class cancelled, not once, but twice on us. The 2nd time they cancelled, it was a group birthday celebration where the birthday person was flying in from Nor Cal. Candice tried to apologize and offered us the options of an online dvd tutorial or rescheduling the class stating that "she'll take care of it" even though the Groupon expiration would be in a few weeks. We tried contacting her a month later to receive an automated response that they are no longer doing any cooking classes and to seek refund from Groupon or Living Social when the majority of people who purchased these cooking classes were well over the expired date. I have been running a family business and I've ran into quite a number of companies who lie, steal, and cheat money our of hard working people...however I didn't expect this from an apparent prestigious chef. Groupon and Living Social should be ashamed of themselves to not stand behind their customers, by allowing merchants to screw customers over. STAY AWAY AT ALL COSTS EVEN IF THEY'RE OFFERING FREE COOKING CLASSES...YES IT'S THAT BAD!!! read more

Absolutely terrible experience so far... and I haven't even taken the class. I purchased a groupon for a cooking class for two, which looked promising, given the variety of options (Italian, Brunch, Seafood, etc). I booked our class for late November. The week before, I was sent an email saying that they had cancelled the class and that I could use my groupon to book a later class. They also clicked 'redeem' on my groupon, stating that is what they do when people make a reservation. Come 2015, I'm ready to learn how to cook! I emailed Candice, asking for the upcoming class schedule. After a terribly written auto reply and two days later, I'm told that they are offering an online cooking course as an alternative to the live cooking course. I responded saying I would not like to accept the alternative. There are plenty of free cooking courses online.. this is not what I paid for. Candice then suggested I reach out to Groupon, to ask for a refund. But, of course refunds through Groupon aren't easy if your voucher has already been redeemed! Still in the process of discussing the issue with Groupon. No cooking class is worth this much trouble. read more

If I could give negative 100 stars I would. I purchased a $100 groupon and gifted a class for two to my brother - a food junkie and his wife for his birthday. After numerous emails with Candice, who promised me I would get a one on one class with Conrad Gallagher himself - she simple said one day "sorry guys no more classes but ill send you DVD's with the class" Like hellz no! And then I tried to get credit for groupon and they said I would only get $50 because the groupon was already expired! My brother tried using it before it was expired but Candice said classes were over and he had to wait. UGH I'm so upset read more

I wish that I could write this review based on my experience in the class, but I never made it that far. I, like many of the over reviews in this thread, purchased a two person cooking class for $99 in NYC on Groupon in the beginning of January. As soon as I got my Groupon number, I contacted the person in charge on scheduling, Candice Gallagher. I intended for my boyfriend and I to do this class around our anniversary, which is in April, so I asked if there was any availability during this month. The response I received is, "we're sold out but will have more dates by next week." The next week comes and goes and I don't receive any emails from Candice. I followed up two more times with no response. Finally, WEEKS later, I get a generic email response asking me to spend $450 for their online class!!! Obviously, this isn't at all what I wanted to do, so I responded yet again letting her know that I wasn't interested. I asked for ANY date that was available through the end of 2015, even if it was in December. With Groupon, as long as you book the appointment before the expiration date, it doesn't matter if the actual appointment is after that date. Candice responded by saying, "perhaps get a refund for now, you can always purchase again at a later stage." Yeah... no thank you. Luckily Groupon was willing to work with me and gave me a refund after seeing the trouble I went through. It's embarrassing that a company would treat their customers like this. I shouldn't have to spend my already limited free time chasing this Candice woman, when she refused to give me ANY type of answer to the question I asked. Don't even bother doing business with them, their customer service is disgraceful. read more

Conrad does know how to cook, but he also knows how to ruin his own brand. My girlfriend and I purchased a groupon for his cooking class which was supposed to run for 3 hours, however he decided to cut it down to 2 hours that night for personal reasons. I contacted his wife Candice, who schedules all the events, and she offered a buy-one, get-one for our next class. To my fault, I paid Candice directly rather than purchasing through groupon. I was contacted a few months ago to find out that Conrad Gallagher was having "passport issues" and all classes were indefinitely suspended. After numerous attempts to get a refund with this company, all I get is an away message. So unprofessional and for stealing my money, Conrad Gallager, you sir deserve a 1 star rating. read more

Highly Recommend this class. Sitting in on cooking classes is one of my most favorite hobbies. So when Living Social offered cooking classes with Chef Conrad Gallagher in Costa Mesa. I signed up for the Monday night Seafood class. This man is incredibly talented. His instruction and technique were very easy to follow. He took the time to explain the more complicated methods, by breaking them down so even us novice could understand. He would demonstrate each dish by preparing and cooking it. Then he would take the time to answer questions, while we sampled the dish. Bottle water and Lemon Water (dispenser) were available. Some people brought wine along. Bring your camera to capture those special techniques. The class was three hours long and the Chef delivered on every dish. I had no idea what to expect and am very pleased with the results. Thank you for a delightful event. read more

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DO NOT prepay for any classes. This business is a scam. I prepaid via paypal about 2 months prior to the class I originally signed up for. A few days before the class, I got an email that it was canceled and I was rescheduled to a few weeks later. Not a huge deal, except that the newly rescheduled class was canceled too. At that point I asked for a refund and Candice replied that she would issue it, but over a month has passed and I have never heard from her again. I sent 3 or 4 emails following up on the status of my refund but I have received zero replies. So basically they stole $95 (it's now way beyond the 45 day paypal refund window). This is my very first yelp review... I'm so upset with this "business" that I just had to write a review for them. Save your money and STAY AWAY. read more

Tried multiple times over months to schedule a class. Absolutely no luck. Main reason is that they're completely unresponsive to emails...I've written several times with no response at all, and sometimes where they say "we'll get back to you when we've scheduled more classes" but then never do. I understand they may be swamped. But they needed to address that a while ago. The frustration of dealing with them will trump any value the class would've provided. read more

Just left an incredible class in Redondo Beach with chef Gallagher. In our Italian inspired course, he prepared carbonara, meatballs, bolognese, and vegetables-- each was delicious. The carbonara was my absolute favorite-- the richness from the egg yolk was perfection! The kitchen was intimate and he encouraged us to help with the food prep while being extremely informative about different techniques and answering many questions about his methods. Chef Gallagher's dishes were elegant and delightful. His stories about coming into adulthood, learning about the culinary world, education and life overall, were engaging and a heartfelt addition to the meals being prepared. He was funny, personable and not at all pretentious. We were truly impressed. I would definitely recommend taking his classes!! read more

All the reviews are accurate here. I went though the same thing and am still waiting for a refund. Will pursue BBB and legal action. I don't give up! read more

This Company is a scam! They offer cooking classes through Groupon, and then cancel the event. What a joke

Pretty much what everyone else wrote. Bought a 99$ groupon for 2 for a cooking class in Boston. The first class they canceled the night before, after I had already taken the night off of work. Her email, "HI Guys, Im sorry to have to do this but I have to postpone classes for Boston until further notice, something has come up at the airport with Conrad. I will keep you posted with new classes. Regards CAndice." Then after a few weeks, they said we could switch for their "new" online class because they wouldn't be able to do any in-person cooking classes. Personally I think it's a SCAM and I would avoid their company AT ALL costs. We did get our money back through groupon to be used towards another groupon purchase. read more

We recieved a groupon for this class back in October. In the beginning of November we scheduled a date for the last weekend of January. We hear back from them 5 days before saying the class is canceled due to not having a proper licensing and permits. We just got an email offering a $500 value cooking video instead. I thought it was a joke! We got our $ back from groupon even though it was a gift, at least we were able to get groupon credit so I guess now we are just gonna get a roomba vacuum robot instead :) read more

I bought the Groupon in January and had the same problems that have already been described by others -- the claims of overbooking, the lack of response and finally the offer of the online class, which I did not want. I contacted Groupon and complained and they gave me a full refund. I encourage you all to do the same. I also told Groupon they should not do any future deals with Conrad Gallagher because this is clearly a scam. read more

Horrible experience. I purchased a groupon in December and have had no luck booking a Boston reservation - despite numerous attempts to schedule through Candice. Candice's delayed replies are often pre-written canned replies that do not help. Recently, I received a message that they sold too many groupons to honor and offered a series of cooking videos in place of the live cooking class. read more

I purchased a Groupon for a cooking class, and I had signed up for a date and that class was cancelled. Then, I signed up again and that class was cancelled. After that, they wouldn't give other dates and then said the classes were no longer being offered, and I was told to take the class online. If I wanted to take an online cooking class, I would watch a YouTube video. This was a terrible experience. They clearly were not ready for the amount of people that purchased the Groupon, but they should have capped the number of offers or never have put the deal on Groupon in the first place. read more

I bought 6 cooking classes for our office party and the class was cancelled and so far no refund of 330 dollars Candice seems to have fallen off the face unfortunately I feel scammed and my Dr is not happy at all looking for a possible day in court to get funds so Candice if your reading it even care I'm coming after you and your chef!!! read more

SCAM! I bought this for a gift and then they canceled on the date that we set up for "visa" issues while the chef was traveling. After that they stop responding to our emails. STAY AWAY! Lost $100 read more

Can't review the class only the customer service which is ABYSMAL!!!!!!! Bought a groupon in December Andrade been waiting over a month for Candice Gallagher to let me know when and what classes are available. Multiple attempts to find out any information have resulted in one word responses, or responses a week after. I seriously have never encountered this level of awfulness in support. After a month plus of asking if a schedule was available I received an email blast stating everyone needed to be patient. At this point I cancelled my Groupon and got a refund. It's acceptable'ish that they were trying to determine a schedule for classes, even though the groupon would expire in a few weeks (and still no available schedule). But the fact that it took days to get a one or two word answer was just ridiculous. I highly recommend avoiding this place as getting information after purchasing classes is near impossible, and you won't get any answers. Very let down since I ordered classes as gifts for people and had to cancel them. read more

Such a scam! I am basically one of those folks who bought their classes of Groupon and after trying several times to schedule a class, I received an "offer" to get their online class worth $450 instead. (Really? I can watch online cooking classes for free.) Groupon has been taking too long to resolve the case. It has been 2 months and I'm still waiting for the refund. The most surprising thing is that after all the complains they still offer their cooking classes on Groupon. Unbelievable! read more

I hardly ever use yelp and this is my first review but I had to post something so what happened to me doesn't happen to anyone else. What all the one star reviews are saying is true. This is a scam. You purchase the groupon thinking you'll be able to get a cooking class...good luck. This is the reply email you will receive when you try to redeem your groupon: Dear Valued Customers & Friends We have been over run with reservation requests, class types and cancelations and we are running into problems with kitchen scheduling and conflicting customer schedules. Our class sales peeked in December due to holidays and in hind sight we are now battling to schedule everyone over the next coming months. We have started this week filming an exclusive on line cooking class video in high definition and hope to have 18hrs which is our complete 6 classes ready to share with you. We appreciate you purchased a live cooking class for 3 hrs but at this point we are not going to fit everyone in over the next few months and for those customers we are prepared to offer the entire series at a value of $450 for the price you have paid for 1 class being $55. We are working to get through the backlog of bookings and hope that over the next 3 months, we will clear the backlog. Please let us know if you are happy to swop your single class for the online version which will include recipes, methods, special tips and a forum to ask cookery questions that Conrad will answer personally and on scheduled times be a live question and answers, we will ensure you are given preferential first option and discounts for bookings when we start selling live classes again. Take my advice DO NOT BUY INTO THIS. They are already oversold for months and yet groupon and this place are selling more. That is just plain deceitful. I did finally get my money back from groupon, but it was an ordeal. Like I said earlier, I don't use yelp and find that most people complain a lot over petty stuff, but this case is different. This is pretty much a scam. read more

Class was very informative, Gallagher is soooo soooo SOOO passionate. He's funny, entertaining, knowledgeable and definitely has that sarcastic English humour. He's energetic and very much into it, he wants his students to be into it as well =] So participate as much as you can in class. It's BYOB, so remember to bring some wine, I totally forgot, so I didn't bring anything. And what a life he's lived, he started working in restaurants when he was 16 and by the time he was in his early 20s he had his first Michelin Star. His life story has some ups and downs, teaching this class was just out of passion and getting back into actually cooking again. Truly, I'm sure that teaching this class doesn't actually make him much money, but he does it because it loves it. He's pressed for time because it's only 3 hours, but he gives it his all and there's so much love in his food. Gallagher even goes out of his way to make sure he buys quality ingredients, I truly appreciate the experience and feel his passion. read more

Should be zero stars! Just like the previous reviewer, I purchased this for my husband and he has gotten no response at all from them. I've filed a complaint with BBB, since we are obviously not getting what we paid for, and if we don't get a refund, then I'll be disputing through my credit card. Groupon should be giving everyone refunds if requested, not credits. This makes me want to NEVER EVER buy another Groupon. Rather than just accepting any business's word that they can handle the influx of new clients, shouldn't they at least provide some proof of this? read more

Like everyone else here, I purchased a Groupon for Christmas for my girlfriend and I to take a cooking class. After signing up for the class for April 1st, we were informed that all classes have been cancelled and we can take an online class if we want. read more

One of the finest Chefs in the world , watching him work his craft is like watching Da Vinci paint . Some of the 1 stars here are clearly watching to much Hells Kitchen . read more

super experience!! great food, high energy, keeping it real.

Our group paid for and showed up for this class only to find the doors locked at the Costa Mesa location! No class, no refund and no response from anyone!!! Buyers beware! read more

I signed up for the gourmet cooking class in Nov 2014 with Conrad Gallagher food. We supposed to have class in Dec, but they said there was not enough people so they postponed to Jan15. Then they cancelled the class because Conrad had issues in the airport when he flew to Boston. Since they cancelled the class twice, I asked for refund by emailing Candice-Conrad's partner. She respond that she will process the refund in a week, but it has been two months. I have emailed more than 10 times and still did not issue the refund and never heard back from them. In one of the email, I mentioned that if I still don't get the refund, I have to write a review about it, so she finally responded and asked me to request it on Paypal. After I did and still did not get the refund, I contact her again. She told me to go to the original transaction to select service not provided so she can issue refund that way. But since this payment was paid over 3 months ago, there is no way to choose service not performed. So I just request the refund again. So far I have contacted them at least 15 times and request refund from Payapl from this company but never got my money back. I've never seen a company operate like this. If you canclled on the class, you need to refund instead of ignoring people's request! read more

got scammed! can't believe it. merchants from groupon sucks, esp this one. beware people!