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Weekend Cooking Schools – The New Trend for Quick Trips Away

If you are serious about cooking, and have a friend with similar tastes, there is no finer weekend break for two than a short cooking course in an exciting, romantic or exotic location, depending on what kinds of friends you are. These quick culinary breaks are varied enough to suit all levels and interests, suiting those wishing to perfect their technique for Baguettes or finally master Sauce Béarnaise, to learning basic regional cuisines like Classical French or Thai, and specialty courses such as cake decoration, seafood preparation and lots more.

A New Trend for Dates

While dinning out is still a popular choice, a fashion for taking a special date out to an evening, day, or weekend of cooking school has swept the nation. Make the time spent learning new skills a way to grow closer or learn to prepare a favorite meal you enjoy. For those couples with an element of competition going on, its fun to see who can turn out the best finished dish, so don’t forget to pack at least a compact camera to record your culinary triumphs.

Not just cooking, but also sightseeing, entertainment, shopping and more.

At the end of the designated class hours, you may enjoy the meal you have learned to prepare together and then hit local night clubs or just stroll around exploring the area. Depending on your chosen location of city or countryside, the time spent away from class can be used for any activity that takes your fancy, before heading out to a show or relaxing evening at a local spa to finish up the day.

Choose from Exotic or Convenient Locations

Courses may involve a short hop by plane to any of these locations: Paris, Spain, Italy, Dublin, Canada, Turkey and Edinburgh. For those wishing to stay nearer home, the choices are just as exciting and delicious, with many famous restaurants, cooking schools and some very unique locations offering short courses on hundreds of cookery related topics.

Choosing the Right Weekend Cookery Course

With so many options to choose from, it is hard to pick just one course. Some groups of friends take a different course each month, alternating between domestic and international destinations (keeping the longer trips for weekends where extra days can be squeezed in, to allow for travel) while others work through regional cuisines of countries that interest them.

Please Sir, I want some more.

If a weekend away cooking fires up your culinary enthusiasm for more, consider taking classes at online cookery schools offering an even wider variety of subjects. These courses are completed at the student’s convenience, for both casual and serious learning, which can lead to recognized qualifications. This guide will look at options for both and make recommendations for interesting and educational experiences of the culinary variety.

The Top U.S. Weekend Cooking Trips

Tour Inns in the Hudson Valley

For those with a love of good food and wine, but with little time to spare for traveling afar, it doesn’t get any better than a three day tour of the Hudson Valley’s Inns, N.Y, with Inn to Inn Cooking Vacations. Satisfied customers recommend the trip for the variety of cuisine explored, excellent wines and friendly manner in which the chefs shared in their evening meals. Convenient flights out are easy to find at Stewart Airport, and stops for wine tasting, days spent learning from the best European trained chefs and nights in a different Inn at each stop on the route.

Learn to cook at a Top NYC School

In New York City, The Institute of Culinary Education offers the best variety of short courses on hundreds of types of cooking from ethnic styles to classical and back, via cake decorating, home made pasta preparation and baking all kinds of breads. The courses are some of the best cooking course bargains to be found, starting at under well under $100 per day. A big variety of customers take their 3, 4 or 5 day courses which run a full 355 days a year and all agree their teachers keep it fun as well as educational. Some offer a tip to look for B&B accommodation while staying in the city, to save funds for exploring, after class hours.

Cook in the Well Equipped Kitchen of a Log Cabin.

“Small, cozy and very useful,” is how her guests describe the course at Turtle Pond, P.A.

They are greeted by chef and host, Una Maderson who has been busy all day, preparing their evening dinner. Described as both patient and an accomplished teacher, Una inspires confidence in her students and is happy to tailor classes to meet the needs of each fresh batch. Her expertise is primarily in Asian Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cuisine, with an emphasis on fresh produce and the use of fresh herbs in season.

Take a Cooking Break in Scenic Vermont

Vermont's beautiful countryside is the perfect place to relax as well as take a weekend cooking course at the world famous New England Culinary Institute. (NECI) A serious professional chef’s school, the NECI offers more relaxed courses on the weekends witch combines tutorials with the privilege of eating at their two highly recommended restaurants where senior students prepare your meals. Guests comment that from the moment you arrive and are greeted with the gift of a chef’s hat and apron, to the second you leave, the combination of location and serious dedication to excellence on all matters concerning food make this course one of the best in the country. To continue studies, the NEIC offers a superb online selection of courses, which will be covered in the online section of our guide.

The Top International Weekend Cooking Trips

Learn to Cook in Paris or Cannes

At l’Ecole Lenôtre, the self proclaimed, “First gastronomy school in France” they are, “proud to fly the flag for French gastronomy at its finest. Lenotre courses are also available to non-professionals who want to discover chef’s secrets.” The world famous school offers a course on French cuisine in the heart of Paris, at the Pavillon Elysée Lenôtre on the Champs Elysées or at the Café Lenôtre Rue d’Antibes in Cannes. They offer a wide range of subjects, with schedules posted to their websites well in advance to permit travel arrangements and bookings. Courses with titles such as, “The A-Z of Chocolate,” promise to be a culinary adventure to remember.

The Villas Bali Hotel & Spa

For the cooking trip of a lifetime, consider visiting this resort specializing in spicy Balinese cooking courses. Features include a field trip to the local markets for produce and are conducted in a traditional kitchen at the hotel. The private estate surrounding your hotel also has spa facilities for the ultimate luxury of relaxing under the skilled hands of their famous masseurs after a busy day in class.

Learn Italian Cooking in Tuscany

At the Hotel Della Velia in Tuscany you will learn the secrets of its region delicacies from professional chefs. Learn how they make those superb sauces and wonderful mouthwatering pasta dishes, right from the folks who invented them. The school is located within an historic hotel, in easy reach of the beautiful countryside so beloved by artists of all ages. The Hotel Della Velia in Tuscany offers a very rich cultural experience by combining expert cooking tuition with a breathtaking location.

Advantages of Online Courses

If your appetite is whetted for some more study, but time is an issue, online cooking schools such as the prestigious New England Culinary Institute or NECI have the perfect solution. You can study Online at the NECI for subjects such as cooking theory, food science, nutritional theory and all kinds of cooking tutorials. Online cooking schools offer a range of online culinary courses to be completed in your own home kitchen, at your convenience, online courses suit busy cooks who would like to attend more classes and seminars outside their homes, but are unable to travel or spare the time.

Study in the Comfort of your own Home

Advanced technologies have really given online schools such valuable tools like the ability of students to log into virtual classrooms, communicated directly with teachers over the internet and see media presentations of their study modules, the old disadvantages that used to limit distance learning are much reduced. In fact, the advantages of online classes are fast becoming apparent to all who wish to study subjects, but are subject to timetables and schedules which limit their ability to attend actual classes. Your tutorial will always be ready to teach you, since you will never be late for another class, when studying at home. If your busy day only permits you free time at 10 pm in the evenings, then your next lesson will be awaiting you at that time.

Variety of Online Courses for Cooking

The online cooking course choices are as wide as or wider than those offered at physical bricks and mortar colleges, because once a course is designed and tested, it is always available. Since new courses are added, each year, a library of courses is built up, offering a very comprehensive coverage of the all subjects related to cooking.