Epicurean School of Culinary Arts

Some of the best teachers around… thanks TINA!

This place deserves 0 stars.
Reasons why?
–They don’t EVER pick up their phone, nor return calls
–They rarely respond to emails
–They cancel with little prior notice
–Instructors are no shows
My friend and I have been trying to attend a class since May and since then we’ve tried about 3 times I agree with some of the other reviewers on initially doing more research on this place before purchasing the Groupons

I would give this place no stars. My best friend gave me a class for my birthday. When we arrived at the class on Sunday morning, after driving down to Anaheim to take the class that I wanted we were greeted by 5 other students and a locked door. The instructor never showed up. The only response we got after calling and sending them an email to complain was a follow up email the next day asking us how we enjoyed the class. They didn’t even know their instructor never showed up and obviously did not read their emails or listen to their voicemail. I actually can’t even believe this place is still operating considering how out of touch they are with their daily practices.

I am really glad I didn’t have to use my Groupon at this place. Mostly because it was impossible to sign up for a friggin’ class. No one responds to e-​mails ever, I couldn’t even get a person on the phone, nor could I leave a voice mail because their mail box was too full. I’m surprised that anyone had the opportunity to redeem their Groupon.

So I completely agree with Sandra, Marissa, and the many others who have left reviews below. What a joke! This place completely ruined the gift that I gave to my girlfriend… play by play below:
I should have also done some research before buying the groupon for this place, but oh well, I jumped in too quick. Hard to reserve a space, but my girlfriend managed to get a confirmation reply through email for a class for TONIGHT August 27^th.
We arrived early and a few other students were waiting outside, so we just decided to hang out front and wait, and wait, and wait some more. Doors never opened, no one was inside. We waited 30 minutes and an instructor never turned up. All the other students there were disappointed, and tried to call the number and the mailbox was still full. We tried calling a few days before just to confirm as we arre always on top of everything and the mailbox was full at that time as well.
If I could give them a 0 out of 5, I would! At least have the decency to at least email everyone if the class if it’s cancelled. Now, like everyone else, I have to call groupon for a refund for this scam. Not only did it waste my Saturday night, but it ruined my gift that I gave to my girlfriend!
If anyone reads this, you’re listen to what everyone else has to say, there are other cooking classes that are held elsewhere in the area, this isn’t just it and you don’t want to have to rely on this scam of a place.
First 1 star I’ve EVER given… says a lot…

These people suck. It is comforting, yet disappointing, to see I am not alone. I too bought a Groupon. Since the Epicurean online reservation system does not allow you to apply a groupon, you must be able to correspond with a human over there. And that turned out to be impossible. I left 3 very nice voicemail messages and sent 2 polite emails. Nothing. Nada. Zip. Crickets. I tried calling again and their mailbox was full. So I ended up contacting Groupon to get a credit. At this point, I don’t even want to take their class. Food never turns out well with a resentful chef.
They suck.

I WISH I could give you all a review on the class. But Epicurean prevented me from giving them a fair chance. So I have to rate it 1 star.
I should have done some research before buying the groupon for this place, but oh well, I jumped in too quick. Hard to reserve a space, but I managed to get a confirmation reply through email in June, for a class for August 19^th, a sushi making class.
I arrived early and a few students were waiting outside, so I grabbed a drink down the street at Urth Café. Came back, waited, and waited. Doors never opened, no one seemed to be inside, a few days of mail had been gathering inside the glass doors. I waited 20 minutes and an instructor never turned up. All the other students there were disappointed, and tried to call the number — mailbox full.
Have the decency to at least email everyone if the class is cancelled… or a simple sign on the door! Now I have to bug groupon for a refund for this scammy place. What a waste of my Friday night — took me forever to drive back home in crowded Friday traffic.

RUDE and Completely unprofessional. I have the same complaint as those before me… no communication. I emailed them about 5 times and left voicemails to redeem my groupon since you can’t do it online. During this time I asked my co=-worker to take the class with me, assuming I would get in since there were 9 spaces available. She didn’t have a Groupon so she booked it online and then the spaces went down from 9 to 8. OK, so I email again to make sure they got my email and call to follow up. NO RESPONSE. Now I have my co-​worker who has paid full price for a class that we are going to take together that I invited her to! Finally the day before the class I write — I am confirming that I am enrolled in this class. My response. «The class is not available» WHAT!!! That is just not true. I have never done this, but I am calling Groupon to get my money back because I just couldn’t get into a class.
I got another Groupon for private in home classes from Pink Sparrow Catering — AMAZING!!! She came to my house, tailored the menu and really gave me a great lesson. WAY Better option for a cooking class!

My biggest gripe is what a lot of other reviewers complained about — lack of communication. A small group of my friends and I purchased a Groupon to take a class here. Be warned that they have a smaller selection of classes to choose from and with less frequency than other cooking schools. It was difficult to find one fit our schedules and had enough openings (possibly due to the popularity of the Groupon). My friend and I both emailed separately to enroll in the class and heard nothing for days. I wrote them again and got a generic response stating that someone would get back to me. No one ever did. My friend wrote again and threatened to complain to Groupon for a refund and someone finally wrote him back asking him for the Groupon info for his group. He then wrote back with all our names and Groupon numbers and never got a confirmation. So he, yet again, had to resort to emailing them again to let them know he would be asking Groupon for a refund and then finally got a response. JEEZ. Seriously unprofessional and horrible communication.
Anyway, the class itself, which was a dinner for two class, was fun but hard work. I think it took a few hours for my friends to make the Cesar Salad and dressing! It also gets REALLY hot inside as there is no air conditioning. I’ve taken several classes at other schools, and I did not find the place dirty at all. You’re able to bring your own wine, which we did. The instructor went over a few tips for the first 30 min or so of class and then we separated into groups of two to tackle different recipes. I liked that most all the ingredients we used were fresh or homemade. For example, we used freshly ground pepper and cut our own sage. Even our pasta was handmade by another group as was the Cesar Salad Dressing! At the end, those who had brought wine sat down to a nice dinner. The food was pretty good, though what we cooked was vastly different from what was listed on the online course! In face, I’d say the dishes listed online would have been slightly preferable to what we cooked. We were supposed to have made a risotto and chocolate soufflé, for example, but instead we made some tomato/​mozarella crostinis and chocolate brownie.
Also, we had 14 people in our class, which I think was too big for one instructor. We spend half the time waiting for her while she helped out the different groups. We also did not learn much about technique, which is what I had hoped to learn. It would also help if they wrote what types equipment we should use on the recipe handouts — one couple tried frying chicken in a nonstick pan, which the instructor later saw and corrected, letting them know to cook it in a larger pan that was not nonstick (metal) in order to get pieces of burnt meat. I wouldn’t have known to do that either! Anyway, overall, my friends and I had a good time cooking and eating together despite everything, so that’s what counts, right? We also got a leftover brownie to take home with us. Yum!

What kind of crappy place is this?! I’ve been trying for WEEKS to enroll in a class because I was given a Groupon as a birthday present. I’ve been calling. I’ve been emailing. NO RESPONSE WHATSOEVER. What kind of establishment is this where they don’t respond? What a pain in the a$$. If I could, I would give ZERO stars.

I got a groupon for this to take a class and have found similar problems that others have mentioned. You cannot sign up online with groupon, they do not answer the phone or email easily, they signed me up for a pasta class that was supposed to be tonight and when I called to make sure, they said it had been postponed. I had changed my schedule to go to this class. They are disorganized, under staffed and un-​business like. Not even sure I will bother with them, it is not worth the grief.

My partner and I had a very great experience with the Epicurean school. The hardest part is getting placed in an available class. We ended up taking the Sushi making class. Our instructor Nikki Gilbert «the sushi Girl» was amazing
. She was very knowledge patient and thorough. The class was 3 hours long and we really feel we an make sushi on our own now. This class was definitely a fun date night and learning experience, and worth the money.

Chicken 101 — The most fun I’ve had in a long time.
We used a Groupon, worth every penny.
Chef Lisa was so awesome. She had everyone’s back throughout the evening. She was fun and kept everyone motivated and at ease.
I learned a lot and will use it in my everyday cooking. Chef Lisa gave us great tips that make cooking so much easier. I finally learned the proper way to use a knife and chop an onion.
Sassy side-​kick Ben was very helpful as well (nuff said).
Everyone’s dishes were exceptional.
We plan on taking more classes here.
Highly recommended!

so, here’s my update now that I’ve taken the class.
I had fun, but I’m kind of glad I didnt pay full price. (groupon) for the same full price I can take a class at another place that I much more preferred. If I had never taken a cooking class somewhere else, I might have thought better about it.
the kitchen was pretty shabby and looked grungy to me. I had to prop a chair up to an oven door to keep it closed.
the instructor was great — she was full of energy and had great tips, making her way around the class as we all worked on our choice of cupcake.
I think some of the recipes had issues. a few frostings didnt work out — and we followed the recipe and mixing instructions to a T. an assistant couldnt even figure out what to do. 2 dozen cupcakes then became «muffins». I am not sure they actually tested the recipes first… not to mention the cupcake flavors mentioned on the website were not the ones in our packet. (a few were, but not all)
we got to take about 6 cupcakes home and the recipes as well, but I’m not sure I’ll use the frosting recipes at all.
I have one more groupon to use here. I’ll update once again afterwards.

This place is almost impossible to book a class with– I have now tried 6 times over the last 3 – 4 months, and they are always full. When I asked how far ahead classes usually book, they answered «A couple weeks».
Today I tried for classes out a month, month and a half in advance and was told «April 29 is still open»!!!
I am another Groupon purchaser; obviously, they oversold even though they don’t have capacity. Ugh I want my money back

I read the negative review about this place, and I don’t think it’s shady, I just think it may be understaffed to manage the day to day operations. I had a Groupon for a class, and I could see why some people would not be happy with them. It did take a few phone calls and emails to get a new schedule, but they were really responsive when it seemed they were staffed up. My review, however, is 4 stars because I am judging the actual class itself. I do think that the class may be somewhat dependent on the instructor. My instructor was awesome. and of course her name now slips my mind because I kept on calling her «Chef» during class.
I took the sauce class, which was very eye opening and interesting. I realized I will give major props to anyone who makes it from scratch, but will probably opt to just getting it at restaurants because it’s hard to make. In 3 hours I learned a lot about sauces and cooking in general. The place was well equipped, well organized and just a fun class in general. Everyone that was taking the class were all Groupon folks as well and fun to cook with. There were 19 people and so we were 3 teams of 4 and 1 team that was of 5 people. I would say that I also had a positive experience because my teammates were fun folks. We were all rookies at cooking, so we didn’t take anything seriously– but somehow our food came out great at the end. The best part of the class was that you didn’t have to be neat or clean up after yourself.
So the class breakdown was:
30 minutes of instruction
20 minutes of demonstration
1 hour 40 minutes of cooking
30 minutes of tasting the food and hanging out
I would definitely pay full price to take another class from them.

Yet another example of Groupon shadiness. Tried to buy the groupon and got the message «Unavailable»
Merchants, groupon is not just a free advertisement for you. You should be ready to have people buy in and be ready to honor the coupons. Getting your name out there via this site and then canceling the deal is decidedly not cool.

This place is possible one of the most shady «businesses» I’ve ever dealt with. My friends and I purchased a Groupon for a cooking class at Epicurean in August 2010. I should have realized at that time, by looking at the website and seeing the listings for classes that had taken place months before, that purchasing this Groupon would be a mistake. I tried to register for a class in October 2010 and was told it was full. I asked what classes had openings and the woman said a new schedule would be posted soon (non-​responsive). When the new schedule went up, I tried to register my group of 4 for another class. I was told that class was not occurring on the date listed and would be rescheduled. For another month that course was still listed as taking place on the original date. Oh yeah — I mentioned I had a Groupon in my first email to Epicurean. That may have been my mistake.
To fast-​forward a bit, its January 2011 and neither myself nor any of my friends have been able to use our Groupons. Half of the time we try to call no one answers. Emails are bounced back because the inbox is full. I’m not sure if Epicurean is just a terrible business or if they are punishing Groupon users (because that is the first question my friend was asked the one occasion she actually got a human being on the phone). I find it strange that classes are «full» as soon as the word Groupon is uttered. Maybe the classes here are wonderful. Maybe they don’t exist at all. I’m so disgusted by the complete lack of customer service this place has I don’t really care to find out.

Today I took «Cupcakes Couture III» at the West Hollywood location with a groupon that I purchased last week for $ 42 (normally, the class is $ 85).
The class had 11 students and 2 chefs (main pastry chef and her assistant Harley, who was awesome). We were given printouts of about 6 – 7 recipes, which we went over together with Chef explaining some of the steps, the science behind the ingredients & technique. Then we all chose our recipes, broke out to our stations in groups of 2 and just went at it. Chef & Harley walked around helping out and occasionally reminding us how to execute some of the steps.
The recipes we covered were of various levels of difficulty. My friend and I made an easy one (Chocolate cherry cupcakes) and a difficult one (Coconut key lime meringue cupcakes filled with key lime curd).
I found it very valuable to have a pastry chef demonstrate how to whisk curd over a double boiler, what types of peaks meringue should have, how to fold batter without over mixing… etc.
At the end, we sampled all the cupcakes, discussed changes to the recipes, and then got to fill up our own pink pastry box with some of every batch to take home.
If you have a particular recipe, you could probably bring the recipe and make it there under the guidance of a Chef! But bring with you whatever unusual ingredients it might call for just in case they don’t have it on hand.
Overall, very informative and a lot of fun for the casual home baker! I brought home 13 cupcakes. So, if you value that at roughly $ 40 ($ 3/​ea), then you will have paid $ 45 for the instruction and use of facilities. Pretty good, I’d say, for 3.5hrs. AND no messy clean up at home!

I just finished the 24 class Pro Chef 1 class. It’s quite an investment and here are my notes:
1) this class is really what you make of it. Instructor quality has a lot to do with it. I had Rachael Narins of Chicks with Knives and the instruction was GREAT. Usually 1 hour of lecture 2 – 2.5 hours of cooking, and then .5−1 hour of eating/​drinking/​socializing. But seriously, if you stand in the back not asking questions and cook quietly at your station, you’re going to be disappointed. The class really requires you to engage– but I learned a lot, and I also gained the confidence to cook/​try recipes on my own.
2) Class coordination is pretty poor. On several occasions, classes were cancelled and I wasn’t notified. Some people had difficulty getting reciepts that they paid. The coordinator was extremely difficult to get ahold of, by e-​mail or by phone. The poor instructor was often short on ingredients or recipe packets. The dishwasher didn’t show up the last few classes. Food quality can be a little shotty and so is the equipment, but hey, we’re beginners, we don’t need $ 500 knives. But some improvement would definitely be appreciated.
Overall, it’s difficult for me to recommend this school without caveats and reservations. But it’s one of the few schools in LA that offers something for the working professional (ie, after normal business hours) and has an entire cooking program (rather than just a short series or some stand alone classes). If you’re flexible and outgoing and willing to make the best of a situation, I think you’ll be delighted. There will be some disappointments, but if you can work through them, you’ll make some good friends and good food. If you’re expecting something rigorous, formal, and that will equip you with skills to really go professional (rather than just enhance your home cooking), you’ll probably want to look elsewhere.