Great place to pick up some cooking tips as well as great supplies for the home. Everything is…read morevery high quality but a bit pricey.

To start, your experience with Cozymeal will vary based on the course that you choose and more…read moreimportantly, the chef that hosts your course. Chef Titik and her daughter hosted my girlfriend and I a wonderful anniversary night that we wont forget. Her knowledge of food and techniques are presented in an easy to understand manner regardless of your skill level in the kitchen. More importantly, she gives off this motherly vibe that I much appreciate considering how far I am away from my hometown. Attended her Spanish flavors course and will most likely try her Indonesian flavors course the next time that we take another Cozymeal's course. My girlfriend and I very much recommend Chef Titik because of her homestyle vibes and caring attitude that you are having the best possible experience.

I had no idea what to expect other than hoping for as great of an experience as the reviews I read…read more I was a little apprehensive about it being at someone's home instead of a restaurant or business, but it was probably even better I set this up for a work team bonding event. We ended up being only 5 minutes late, but Chef Titik was so welcoming. The only thing should have been a disclosure about having pets and potential allergies. She made us a welcome drink which was very tasty. She told us a little about herself and experience as a chef. We learned so much inclusive of knife sharpening techniques to how to properly cut fruits and vegetables, putting together seasoning, tips and tricks, and some facts about food. She even took photos of us and shared them. She made us feel like family at home having us over for dinner helping cook. It was such a memorable experience and so unique and perfect for my team. We all love food and travel so this is definitely one for the books. We all had a blast and would highly recommend.

Chef Laura was incredible! We attended a chef demonstration class and Chef Laura was so fun and…read morealso engaging. We asked a lot of questions and learned a lot. The menu was perfect and the helpers were wonderful. We love the Joyful Gourmet!

Very homey and functional type of environment and a good for small group events. I would encourage…read morethe chef to have equipment ready and back up in case equipment malfunctions to keep the event on time. The pizzas we made were good, the salads okay, drinks limited but sufficient. A cute parting gift for all members, a Photo Booth would be a nice upgrade in my opinion.

My husband and I had a wonderful time at the Cinco De Mayo cooking class. We learned how to chop,…read moredice, slice and cook a delicious meal and enjoyed eating it too! You have a great staff who is friendly knowledgeable and helpful. Thank you for having this special place right here in Palatine. We will be back!

II had an extremely disappointing experience with the French Finesse Class…read more The class was to feature Grilled Salmon with Caper Sauce, Grilled Vegetables, and Parisian "Gnocchi." We made the grilled salmon and vegetables, but the so-called "gnocchi" was a disaster. This was extremely disappointing because I was the most excited about making the gnocchi. Instead of making a more traditional gnocchi like you would picture (little dumpling pillows), we ended up with a soupy mess of polenta mixed with milk, butter, and French cheeses. The instructor told us that this polenta mixture would typically be baked in a pan and then cut in little squares like gnocchi (or at least that's what I understood), but in class we just let the mixture cool off and ate it as it is. It was basically eating polenta cheese goop - disgusting, and nothing like the gnocchi I pictured. First of all, the class description should have clearly specified what type of gnocchi we'd be making and if the class would not finish the entire recipe (note: writing "Parisian gnocchi" for the class is not sufficient because just by a google search there are different ways of making it). It's misleading not to clarify this in the description. It makes me wonder about the rest of their classes and what else they mislead people on. Secondly, the class was advertised to run from 6:30 PM to 9 PM. However, we finished (and I mean completely finished like by the time we finished eating everything) by 8 PM. It felt like they were rushing us out. They started cleaning up and doing dishes while we were still sitting at the table. It made us feel like they wanted us out as quickly as possible. If the class had actually run the full time as promised, we could have spent that extra hour finishing the gnocchi properly. Or we could have done the gnocchi first and while it was baking, cook the grilled salmon and vegetables. And that definitely could have been possible (I mean, come on). Instead, we were left with a below average dish and a rushed experience. Overall, this class was a huge letdown. The misleading description, poor quality of food, and the rushed environment made for a frustrating experience. I wouldn't recommend this class to anyone. And with the price I paid, I felt robbed. I do not know how they think this can be okay. To be clear, I would give the staff and my experience cooking everything else 5 stars. But the gnocchi and rushed experience really completely destroyed this entire thing for me.

Did a pasta making class here and made pasta and salad and had olive oil cake afterwards…read more Everything was easy to follow and a lot of fun!

I recently attended the "Hands-On Essential Building Blocks" class at The Chopping Block! The 9…read morehours of cooking certainly paid off with some delicious meals! Although I did think the chef in charge was very knowledgeable, and the meals did turn out fabulous, I was a little disappointed with the class structure for a few reasons. 1. For the price of this class, I assumed that we would all be individually learning to cook each component - that was not the case as we were put together into teams of four where we divided responsibilities. So not all building block skills were able to be practiced by all team members. I had chosen this class because I wanted to learn these building block skill hands-on. However, if you're looking to meet new friends this may just be the spot for you! 2. Like I mentioned, the meal we made was super delicious. But in my opinion, it's creativeness / the fact that it wasn't more simple skipped over some of the true basic skills needed in everyday kitchen use. For example, I wish we had learned more about pan use / heating up / etc. And because we had so many components to the meals, some of the lessons felt kind of rushed where we weren't necessarily able to dive deeper into those questions since there were so many people per amount of chef / helpers I do think that this is a great org, but perhaps I would have felt more bang for buck in a more specified topic / shorter class

My husband and I took a date night cooking class here with Chef Alex. We had a fantastic time and…read morethe food turned out delicious! We learned how to make NY strip steak, crab cakes with a roasted garlic aioli, roasted asparagus, and chocolate lava cake. We had two other couples in our class, and we were paired up with another couple, which actually turned out to be pretty fun. Then after class they give you an additional 10% off of anything in the store, even sale items. We had a great time and enjoyed doing something different and interactive for our date night. We'll definitely be making these recipes at home now too.

Just took a wonderful macaron class with Chef Nancy! She really took the time to explain the…read moreprocess. She used examples of what you are and aren't looking for and the why. This makes me more confident for trying it on my own. Really the instructor was wonderful, personable, funny and most importantly informative. Highly recommend Chef Nancy!

great fun class with a lot of new information and a great meal to finish it off! Sean is very…read moreknowledgeable about meal prep and history of Ramen cooking

This was my first time at Taste Buds Kitchen in Bannockburn, IL. This was part of a team building…read moreexercise that my manager put together for a group of eight people. About a week or so before the event, we were given three options to select from for the menu we would be preparing, so we ended up with pasta. Taste Buds Kitchen is located in a mall, so I had some difficulty locating it, but finally saw it. We were split into teams of four and the meal we were prepping was fettuccini, spinach/ricotta ravioli and a marinara sauce. Our instructor was Lauren and she was very nice. There were two ladies assisting her as well, responsible for the clean-up and helping with the prep work. Lauren was great explaining all the steps as well as showing up the prep moves. I love fresh pasta but never thought about making it (and still won't do it at home), but I had no idea how easy it could be with the right tools. Making the dough was fun and interesting, with each of us taking turns kneading the dough in preparation to make the fettuccini and the spinach/ricotta ravioli. Making the fettuccini was such fun and so easy if you have the proper equipment. I really enjoyed putting the dough into the pasta roller to flatten it, then into the cutting attachment to make the pasta. We each got turns going through the process, so I can say that all of us made the pasta and sauce. The spinach/ricotta ravioli and a marinara sauce were also very easy to make. Marinara I have made at home before, but the recipe we used at Taste Buds added a twist by adding shredded carrots for sweetness. Not something I would have thought of, but it really worked. Making the spinach/ricotta ravioli was a hoot. The very first one was a hot mess, but I learned and moved on to make perfect restaurant quality looking ones (IMO). Because we did a morning 2-hour session, tea, water and lemonade were provided for us. What we prepared was delicious and a nice early lunch. Because Lauren and her crew had made dough in advance, there was plenty of pasta for eating and to take home. My only complaint (if there is one) is I would have loved that we had made more of the marinara because it was so good and I would have loved to have taken more home. Overall this was a wonderful experience and the staff was amazing, cleaning up behind us, setting the table, cooking the pasta and ravioli for us. I think this is something I would consider for my direct reports as a team building event.

Today I had a wonderful time taking the cookies 101 course at the Wilton school. It was a one-day…read moreclass that lasted from 9 AM until 4 PM. Our instructor was very helpful and took us through various stages of decorating eight different cookies. The Davie again with having the teams work together to prepare royal icing in different shades and consistencies. Once when you got that in play then we started with decorating our cookies at various levels. For this class we did not have to bake the cookies. They came prepared and ready and all that we had to do was learn the proper techniques for applying royal icing and we're given our supplies needed and could even keep the supplies that we used to take home after the class. I will definitely be taking more classes at the Wilton school. All of my questions that I had were thoroughly ask. I was not a beginner royal icing student. But I did ask questions that were a little bit more complex and regardless of the kind of person that I had I was met with a smile and an appropriate answer. If you have any doubt about whether or not you should take a class at the Wilton school, do not hesitate. They are great! Added some more photos of either cookies that I made from their designs or ones that I took their technique they taught to the next level!

Bright cheerful place. Fun opportunity for kids and adults to learn to bake and decorate. Wilton…read morehas all the products you need from start to finish. I can't believe how easy it is to decorate a cake or cupcake using Wilton's product line.

Had a great time at Funtopia with my kids. So many climbing walls, it was a good time (especially…read morethe Christmas theme for the winter). I had the chance to check out their party rooms as they were running kind of a family open house for their Christmas time. Lots of fun challenges for the kids as they put snowflakes and cookies on the climbing walls for kids to collect for a prize. They had a food buffet showcasing some of their food options pizza, pizza puffs, meatballs, chicken tenders. Salad and hot chocolate. The staff was super friendly and good with the kids. We had a great time. The party space accommodates several groups at the same time.

Great variety of activities for all ages. Plus, there are tables for parents to hang out or work…read more Free wifi!