I took a flower and gum paste class... which I felt was pretty unorganized and extremely rushed. In…read moreclass she taught or tried to teach too many flowers for the short time we were in her GARAGE/classroom. The supplies she gave us to use in class were subpar and very very cheap. I had a piece of pvc pipe for my rolling pin. 2 students asked to pay and leave an hour early out of frustration; I made myself continue on but left feeling even worse. I asked in class and then again in email later if I could PURCHASE samples of her work of the flowers she had taught, she replied she sold them to another student. April claims she is some top of the line, one of the best flower designers and that her customers are all the Food Network stars. That they want her flowers... but yet she refused to make or sell to me. I simply wanted to PAY for 1 each of the flowers she attempted to teach us. I feel so very cheated... $60.00 for 3.5 hours, no book or hand out, nothing other than the few flowers you attempted in class that definitely were not assembled. The take home recipe given for pastillage did not work at all when I tried it at home. When I emailed for help...April's answers were not helpful and avoided my question. Her recipe is just water, gelatin and confectioners sugar. Her suggestion was that I added too much shortening!!! Shortening isn't even in HER recipe. When I pointed that out she said she was just suggesting a problem and couldn't know what I did wrong... what the hell... 3 basic ingredients... how wrong could I have gone...seriously!! She demonstrated how to make pastillage in class and let us touch it and then she gave us a different batch all together to work with. Something she prepared before we got there. April knew before I took the class that I am also a cake decorator and instructor, and THIS is how she treats her colleagues! Her business is a lousy cold garage that is crammed with crap, boxes, and product and is definitely not worth what she charges. If you need to go to the bathroom, you have to walk through her messy house and dirty kitchen. Not what I expect from someone claiming to be a professional. She ran in between the house and the garage and made it well known that she was watching a tennis match inside on TV. She also offers Wilton courses on her website, however Wilton claims she is in violation of the teaching agreement and is not an authorized instructor. Go to Michaels or JoAnns and save the frustration, time, and unprofessional-ism! I really feel that April is a cheat and probably discourages first time decorators. I would not recommend her class to anyone!!

This place is AWESOME! I came here for a week of baking classes and a chocolate class. She teaches…read moreit from her garage, which she has converted into a complete cooking area. Coolest garage in the world! Everything that we made came out delicious, and anything the teacher made for us was super good as well. The owner of this business, and the teacher of the class is a really friendly lady named April. She showed the class tons of new techniques, like icing cakes, and how to make royal icing, how to pipe etc. We made tons of cookies. I remember these jam shortbread like bars, and these pinwheel cookies. We also made biscotti, and a banana cream pie. Everything tasted really good! And we were able to take home usually more than 1 treat each day. For the last two days of the class, we made a red velvet cake from start to finish. We made the batter, lined the baking pan, and then made the icing, sliced the cake, iced the cake, decorated it, etc. I learned tons of new techniques. The chocolate class was very fun as well, and very informative. We made many different kinds of truffles, and we made chocolate mousse, and chocolate cups, and a few kinds of edible molding chocolate decoration! This place is awesome! Not only can you take cooking classes, you can order cakes and cookies for parties. The cakes here are really good! I really like her carrot cake, and her red velvet cake! YUM! The cookies here are really good too! For my brother's birthday, we planned it last minute, and called her about a day ahead, yet she was able to put together a cake for him, so that was a huge plus! But if you're able to tell her a week or more in advance, all the better, because you can get it more to your preference, and you'll probably like your cake a lot more. Overall, a great place for baking classes and cake decorating classes for kids, teens, and adults. And on top of that, a great place to get a cake for a party.

Super cute and high quality coffee shop…read more I ordered the volcano and iced honey vanilla latte. The volcano was a new experience for me, so correct me if I'm wrong, but you sip the coffee without mixing. The coffee is iced but does not contain any ice cubs, as the milk is chilled. The iced honey vanilla latte was also good, strong coffee flavor and not super sweet. It takes a while for drinks to come out but that was expected as I read the reviews before coming here, and it is a nice to relax and slow down while waiting for your coffee. It a small space but they have a big table in the back where some people work. I would definitely try this place at least once!

Purchased some pour overs for a corp. event, and the med-dark roast samplers were well received by…read morethe recipients. They have kettles too, but we'd already sourced some nicer ones. Probably best to preorder in advance, although the staff were kind enough to let me know when the "drops" were, and I managed to get the quantity we needed last minute. I got myself a drink as a treat. I'm no coffee expert, but it did taste delicious. The store has a surprising amount of sunlight, and natural feeling decor. I heard that service is slow, but it didn't feel particularly slow when I was there. Price is maybe a bit high, but not unexpected at a boutique store. I cannot work remotely at this location, but I would have loved to do so. It was quite busy on the public days I went (despite seemingly being in the middle of some industrial area) so the "membership" (essentially just prepaid store credit) benefit may be worth it for someone who is a regular anyway.

I have been wanting to take my kiddo to a caregiver and me cooking class for a while now. She is…read morefinally old enough and I felt like she was ready. I booked a Tuesday evening class during winter break. You get a confirmation email and that's it. I was worried about prep but they prepare everything for you and thought up everything as well. Small parking lot. They had us wash our hands when we arrived and then each kiddo had a color sheet with crayons. Nice touch but defeats the purpose of washing our hands first. The two of us shared a table with another mom with their toddler. Each toddler had their own set up to make 6 cookies. Everything was pre measured and it wasn't too messy. We were able to bake 6 cookies and use whatever toppings - she got to choose between chocolate chips, m&ms, white chocolate chips and these dried fruits. They read a book to the kids and then made milk shakes as a group. Each kid got a small cup and to place chocolate chips/m&Ms in. The cookies were really delicious and my child loved the milk shake. One thing is that you can't stop other kiddos from touching your items/food. Would return.

I wanted to share feedback about the Taste Buds Kitchen class my family attended in Palo Alto. We…read moresigned up for a shared table experience, but we did not realize that "shared" meant all parties at the table would be sharing the same sauce, ingredients, and cooking steps. For example, all six of us were mixing one single sauce together with only three ingredients. This was not communicated clearly in the class description and felt very uncomfortable. The class description also stated that everything would be made from scratch, but that was not the case. We wrapped pre-cut chicken in pre-made phyllo dough, which was very different from what we were expecting based on how the class was advertised. Additionally, the experience felt a bit low-quality. The appetizer was a single small plate of pita bread and oil--probably under $2 total--to be shared among all six people. There was also a lot of waiting around, with the kids taking turns doing very small tasks such as sharing the chopping of just one onion. Overall, the experience felt slow, uncomfortable, and not aligned with what we believed we were paying for. Unfortunately, based on this experience, I would not recommend this class to others and do not plan to return. Thank you for taking the time to read this feedback. I hope it helps improve future classes.

We just took Veena's Indian Cooking class and it was truly amazing! We booked last minute, and it…read moreturned out that there were only two of us in the group. Usually classes are held if more people sign up, but Veena was able to offer us an option of having the class at her own place. This was a great experience and at her own kitchen, Veena was able to show how exactly you cook Indian dishes at home. It was fun and extremely easy - we cooked 6 vegetarian dishes in just 1.5 hours almost from scratch and then had a wonderful meal together. Veena showed us every step, we have learned how to measure and combine spices for every dish. We were given recipes for all dishes, also Veena advised great spice stores in the area. We are looking forward to meeting again Veena and can greatly recommend Veena to everybody who want to learn vegetarian cooking and living.

They do not answer the phone, and their website says they are not taking in person classes due to…read morecovid! Disappointed as we were wanting to give this as a present to our vegan son and his wife

It's with disappointment that I'm updating my review of Mission Valley ROP, and deducting a star…read more As a graduate of American High School and Mission Valley ROP, having taken 3 different courses through ROP, and even earned college credit in one of them, I felt fortunate to have had the pleasure of taking Business Ownership, Marketing, and Law Enforcement. However, it has come to my attention, that the current students at American High are currently without an Instructor for Culinary Arts, therefore the students are being "taught" by "substitutes". I get that teacher shortages are happening everywhere, and we are just getting through a global pandemic, but at the same time it's not like the previous Instructor Chef Rosen, decided to retire last minute. They knew well in advance, and you would think they would have been able to get an instructor before the school year started. If for some reason, they weren't able to find an instructor, which seems to be the case now, why even offer the course this year at all until an instructor is found? I've heard that students are trying switch out of the class and into other classes because they don't have an instructor, and are still being taught by substitutes. It's such a shame many of these students who are seniors, many of which who are coming out of distance learning, signed up for Culinary Arts, yet are being taught by substitutes. They probably aren't even being taught much or learning much about Culinary Arts. I hope Mission Valley ROP is doing everything they can to get a qualified instructor to teach Culinary Arts at American, as there are 4 Culinary Arts classes and 1 Event Planning course offered at American. If anything, perhaps they should ask Chef Rosen to come back until a permanent instructor can be found? Just to show the impact of taking an ROP class, not only did I earn College Credit for one of the courses I took, to this day, I still stay in touch with one of my instructors, Sergeant Crawford. Unfortunately, the other instructor I had, Mr. Gary Marsh sadly passed away a few years ago.

I was a student at American High School who took the Culinary class hosted by MVROP. Chef Mike…read moreCarey was my instructor and my friend. He helped me not only to pursuit my passion in culinary arts but he also helped me and a lot others through high school. Once I graduated I attended CCA in San Francisco and continued to go on a internship in Walt Disney World. Now only two years out of high school I'm being trained as a head line cook in a restaurant in Niles, California. None of this would of happened without Chef Mike with his guidance and teachings. Thank you for teaching this wonderful class.

What fun we had at our cooking class with Dayna this past weekend! We had such a delicious dinner…read moreand it was really fun helping Dayna cook and learning some cool, new techniques! I'm pretty sure Dayna wants me and my sibs to help her on her next catering gig! (And, yes, the six of us are available!) Many, many thanks. :)

Want to have a great time and good food too? Then Dayna is your chef. She recently instructed,…read morehelped us cook and laughed along with my 5 siblings and I. We picked a great menu and she made sure that all of us learned new cooking skills while keeping the menu moving and on time. A delicious dinner followed with a round of applause for Dayna. Can't go wrong!

I cannot say enough great things about Jess! This past weekend she taught a class of 4 adults and…read more3 kids (of which one is a 3.5 year-old) in my mid-sized kitchen. She was extremely knowledgeable, patient, organized, and fun! Everyone had something to do, and everyone had a great time! I asked her to come on short notice, and she was very accomodating. She crafted a menu that included a vietnamese summer roll appetizer, two protein main dishes, two vegetable side dishes, and a salad. We all agreed that we never had such great summer rolls before, and the rest of the food was equally delicious. The flavor profiles of the dishes were complex, but not hard to make. She gave us all the know-how to prepare, cook and season the food properly. It was so fun to take a class, then enjoy the fruits of our labor. It was a wonderful way to spend a Saturday night with family! Clean up was also a breeze. For a family of seven, including all the cookware, I only had to do one load of dishes in the dishwasher. I only washed the serveware and one non-stick baking dish by hand (my normal practice). I didn't even realize as we were cooking that Jess had been so efficient in her use of the cookware and bakeware. I think Jess would be helpful to anyone, skilled or not in cooking, who wants to learn how make a delicious meal in an efficient way. I will definitely be calling her again for more lessons, and I would recommend her to everyone!

My sweet, sweet boyfriend bought me three cooking lessons with Jess for Valentine's Day. She sent…read moreme a questionaire to fill out before our first session. She found out my strengths and weaknesses in the kitchen. She was wonderful! She came in, gave us a binder with all recipes and plans on how to overcome my challenges and gave us great, new, fresh recipes to try on our own. Not to fail to mention, all were very healthy! I even learned how to properly chop an onion! She has a great amount of knowledge of cooking and had answers to all of my questions. I'd highly recommend her for a special gift for someone, bachelorette party, or even just something fun to bring friends together and get them cooking!

We came with a group of 55+ people for a corporate event, and everyone had such a good time! The…read morecouple that runs this cocktail and pizza making class were so nice, super fun, and really engaging. Everyone had a blast. The drinks were yummy and the pizza was so good! I finally got to try making pizza from scratch. They had a real pizza oven and a ton of pizza toppings to choose from. I could see this being a great fit for not only corporate events, but birthdays, big get togethers, holiday parties. Just be sure to uber or get a shuttle because there isn't much parking in this residential area.

One of the best and fun classes I have attended. We booked city of cocktail for my gfs birthday for…read more16 attendees. It was a seamless process with booking reached out to Amy the event coordinator, super easy to work with. Kevin the instructor and owner was what made this event so much fun! The stories, the jokes really made the event so much fun! He is really knowledgeable and really helped the group make some really delicious drinks like an old fashion and cosmo! Highly recommend coming and booking with them!

Knowledgeable staff and a wide variety of charcoal options…read more If you own a Big Green Egg or want to broaden your BBQ horizons, I recommend checking them out. It's nice to support a local business when I can, and it saves me the trouble of going to multiple hardware stores/ bbq stores to look for certain types of lump charcoal. I'm willing to pay a premium for the convenience of having the specific type of lump charcoal that I feel like using on any given week.

Excellent source for BGE grills, accessories and general information. The classes are amazing and…read morethe chili cook off should not be missed! Smitty is awesome. If you have your eye on an Egg, talk to these guys!

Of course husband last minute says day of birthday celebration that we need a cake. Found Izumi…read moreCakes on Yelp and was bummed at first because the soonest online reservation for a cake would be two days later. Husband called them around 11am and they said they were in the middle of making their strawberry cakes so they could add our order in for a same day pickup at 4pm. Pickup went well and the cake was so cute and it tasted great! Like the Chinese bakery strawberry cream cake with a moist sponge cake; not too sweet, just right. Might sound basic but it was done very well. Would 100% recommend. I don't know prices for cakes nowadays but I didn't feel bad paying about $60 for a cute and tasty cake (6", strawberry cream cake). I wouldn't bank on same day pickups, I might've just been very lucky they were in the middle of making their cakes but it wouldn't hurt to try calling early in the day if you're in a pinch for a solid cake. I'm very thankful for their service!

We tried this spot for a joint birthday and were delighted with a really cute cake. They let us…read moreorder a week in advance and then pick up. Taste: The taste was light. It wasn't personally my favorite. I usually like light cakes but if it were a little denser, it would have been perfect! The fresh strawberries were very nice. Appearance: 5/5 super cute!