The food could taste like mana from heaven. The recipes could be writ on ancient tablets handed down from deities to monks to their own hands.
But I'd never know.
Four years ago, my wife bought me two culinary class gift certificates to Cuisine Classique. Back then I tried a few times to sign up for a few classes as they appeared on the website (a clunky affair, but it might be servicable). The website appears to have ways of buying into classes via Paypal, but no clear method of paying with one of the gift certificates (which appear to possess a unique id to each). I tried emailing them through the contact email address provided, and eventually got a call back to learn that the classes currently listed were all full up. Que sera, I thought. We moved away for a few years, but my wife has recently landed another job out here in Tucson, and I realized that my certificates were still good until 2020! Huzzah!
I visited their website again to look at the upcoming classes. The site does not appear to have been improved in any fashion. The schedule does appear to be up-to-date, but still no method of paying via gift certificate after four years. :(
I called on Wednesday to try and check if the upcoming chili relleno class had any openings. It was 9:50am, and no one answered, so I double-checked their website - aha, they don't open until 10am. Fair enough. I called at 10:20am, no answer, so I left a voice mail. By 3pm, I hadn't received a call back, so I called again. Still no answer, and now their system says that the mailbox is full. Hunh. I tried again at 4:30pm (since their site says it's open from 10a-5p), and got the same message. "Bummer. Better try tomorrow." I sent an email asking someone to call me back to see if I can line things up.
I called again at around 10:30am on Thursday. No answer, same message. Then I notice on their site that they also have an 888 number. I give that a shot - the robovoice stated "All circuits are full". Since other calls are fine, I suspect it's an issue with the number.
So, today, I had a spare hour - man, I wish I could have that hour back. I drove out to their address in Oro Valley at around 12:30pm. I confirmed that their website states they're open from 10am-5pm. On arrival, it appears that the classes are run out of someone's personal residence. There's a sign advertising cooking classes, and there is a bit of space for three or four cars to the side of the house. But when I knocked on the door, no one answered. I tried ringing the doorbell as well, but to no avail. No one came to the door, still no one answers their phone numbers. They have a blue box with pamphlets for upcoming classes, but as of today, the only pamphlets were from April.
At this point, I have to question the existence of this business. Is it real, or is it a scam? Have they shut down for some reason? I don't know. I'm just pretty jaded about this place right now. If someone asked me if they should give it a look, I'd recommend just taking all their cash and flushing it down a toilet. At least they'd get a show then. read more