Wanting to do something fun and interactive for our clients holiday party, I was looking for a cooking class near their offices in NJ. Through a search and reviews, I came upon What's Cooking. I had a very good conversation with the owner, who assured me that the experience was "appropriate" for a corporate group and a holiday event. The cost was high, but I chalked that up to the interactive nature of the event. I was told this would indeed be an interactive experience and while we wouldn't necessarily cook the entire meal ourselves, we would certainly be cooking and interacting with the chef.
I was shocked, disappointed, and embarrassed with the experience. First, we walked into what looked like a kids birthday venue, with a giant sign that read "Happy Birthday Layla" (this was a white board, so at the very least it could have been cleaned off, if not had our event name on it). There were picnic tables and plastic table cloths. No cooking stations. We were seated at the picnic tables, and at our place setting was a plastic bowl with two mushrooms in it. This was the extent of our "interactive cooking experience". We did not cook -- we chopped two mushrooms and later, a banana. Literally. The chef cooked in front of us on a burner and showed us how she made the items. We sat at picnic tables and were served on paper and plastic.
The food itself was fine (Chicken Marsala, sauteed spinach, salad (bagged?), avocado with bacon and blue cheese with chips, banana foster) and the staff was lovely to deal with -- courteous, polite, informative. But this was a FAIL from my POV and only worth one star (generously) bc the experience I was sold and promised did not match with what we received. read more