The 10 Best Cooking Classes to Take in Vancouver

The Dirty Apron may be the most well-known cooking school in Vancouver. Husband-and-wife team Chef David and Sara Robertson own this school, delicatessen, and catering company. Each year, they teach an average of 10,000 students how to cook. The Dirty Apron has different cooking classes nearly every day of the week in summer, including The Best Brunch Class, The Ultimate Grilling Class, a seafood class, The Original Italian Class, Carnivore Classics, a Take on Thai Cuisine, and Gourmet Vegetarian Fare. Each hands-on class includes completing a three-course meal, which students enjoy afterward while the staff does the dishes!
The Dirty Apron Cooking School, Delicatessen & Catering, 540 Beatty Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada, +1 604 879 8588

The Northwest Culinary Academy of Vancouver is a chef-owned, designed, and operated cooking school (one of only a few in the world). They offer a fantastic student-to-teacher ratio, with “serious amateur” cooking classes open to the public. Their intensive, hands-on courses include Basics I and II, plus Artisan I and II, which focus on either vegetables, grains, and legumes, or whole meats. The academy offers boot camps and master camps in the spring and summer too.

Save On Meats is quite an institution in Vancouver, serving cheap and delicious meals and always working to give back to the community. It houses a diner, full-service butcher, catering department, and community commissary kitchen. As Save On Meats makes most of their products in house, they decided to open up about their techniques and share them with the public through cooking classes. Options include Poultry Butchery, Sausage Making (with regional sausage tasting), Canning and Preserving, and Bacon Makin’ 101 (featuring the world of charcuterie).

The Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts is Vancouver’s premier culinary center. Fortunately, classes are not just for students. Each Saturday, the school hosts hands-on technique classes, which are taught by professional chef instructors. The culinary class takes place over eight Saturdays, where you learn everything from knife skills to flavor enhancers to the science of dough. The baking and pastry class has a similar structure, but it will teach you how to make bread, muffins, custards, pies, tarts, and cakes.

Well Seasoned is a food store and cooking school located in Langley in the Greater Vancouver Area. They have two different types of cooking classes: demo, where the chef does the cooking, or hands-on, classes that are more interactive. They have many cooking classes to choose from, where you can learn to cook summertime salads, the best burgers, sushi, chocolate and pastry treats, Southern-style barbecue, seafood, simple suppers, and cuisines from around the world.

El Comal is both a deli and shop and the home of Mexican food in Vancouver. People can pick up everything at El Comal to make traditional Mexican food at home; some of the ingredients available include tortillas, corn chips, tamales, salsas, and even cheese! There’s also the option to dine-in and takeout, or you can learn to make the food yourself in their cooking classes. The team at El Comal discuss the history behind the food and drinks, before teaching you the methods to make the traditional Mexican food yourself at home.

With classes in downtown Victoria on Vancouver Island, and in North Vancouver, Cook Culture is a well-known cooking school in the region. They do kid and teen cooking boot camps, as well as many different adult cooking classes. In the summertime, these include Central Thai, Perfect Pie (including sweet and savory pie dishes), BBQ Around the Globe, West Coast Summer Brunch, and Tasty Taqueria Soul Food. Renowned Vancouver chefs teach all the classes.

French Made Baking is a bakery in Vancouver, where every product is made from scratch by the team of French (from France) pâtissiers. They’ve been doing cooking classes for five years now, where you can learn to make cream puffs and éclairs, macarons, or croissants. In the macaron class, you will go home with the 18 macarons you bake yourself, as well as an extra six, plus the recipe and supplies needed to make another batch at home. The croissant class is slightly less hands-on, but each participant will still learn how to bake plain, chocolate, and almond croissants.

Located in nearby Port Moody, Eden West Fine Food and Gifts is predominantly a store selling everything from baking products, crackers and gift baskets to condiments and hot chocolate. They are well-known for their cooking classes for kids, which include making pasta, cake, chocolate, barbecue favorites, and homemade bread. For the adults, Chef Robert hosts a popular traditional Provencal cooking class, where you can learn to make dishes such as Provencal bourride and frangipane tart with seasonal fruit.