A French Quarter Class Where the Chef Cooks and You Just Eat
Two sittings a day, seven days a week, and the morning one is not the same class as the afternoon. What the chef cooks, how long you sit, and whether there is coffee all change with the slot you pick.
You sit down. A chef stands at a stove across from you, and for the next couple of hours the cooking happens in front of your seat, and your hands stay free. The listing is blunt about it: this is a demonstration class, with no hands-on training.
That turns out to be the point. Nobody is watching your knife work, so the chef can talk while the roux darkens and you can just listen. When the pans come off the heat, the same food is served to you as a full meal, with copies of the recipes to take home.
Classes run every day at 10:00 am and 2:00 pm from a building on St. Louis Street, deep in the French Quarter. Check-in is through the school's retail shop at street level, and the school asks for tickets fifteen minutes before class time. Your ticket is tied to the exact date and sitting you pick, so the slot matters more here than it usually does.
New Orleans Demonstration Cooking Class with MealA Creole meal cooked in front of you at 524 St. Louis Street, served with copies of the recipes, iced tea and a local beer. Two sittings daily, at 10:00 am and 2:00 pm.www.viator.comTwo Sittings a Day, and They Do Not Cook the Same Lunch
Most places would run the same class twice. This one does not. The school's own class page puts the morning sitting at 10:00 am to 12:30 pm with four food items, and the afternoon at 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm with three. The morning also gets coffee. The afternoon does not.
The listing goes further and publishes a separate menu for all fourteen dated sittings, one for each day at each time. Monday morning is gumbo, red beans and rice, and pecan pie. Thursday morning swaps in shrimp creole and bananas foster. Friday afternoon is back to gumbo and jambalaya. If there is one dish you came to Louisiana for, pick the day around it.
The two pages also quote the length differently. The booking page gives two hours for the class. The school's own page says two to two and a half hours, and the morning window is the longer of the two.
Every One of the Fourteen Menus Ends With Pralines
Read the fourteen menus side by side and one thing never moves. Pralines close every single sitting, morning and afternoon, all seven days. Everything else rotates.
The other desserts keep morning hours. Bread pudding appears on four of the morning menus, bananas foster on two and pecan pie on one, and none of the three shows up at 2:00 pm. That is what the four-item morning looks like in practice: a soup or a stew, something built on rice, a dessert, and then the pralines.
Bananas foster is the one people remember, and in a class built around watching, it gets made where you can see it happen. The listing puts it on Tuesday and Thursday mornings.
It Started With a Man Handing Out Flyers on Bourbon Street
Joe Cahn opened the school in 1980 on a simple idea: visitors should not go home from New Orleans with only photographs. Getting anyone through the door was the hard part. He walked Bourbon Street in a chef's coat passing out flyers, and by his own account he slept on the floor of the school that first year, ready to open up if someone outside looked like they might buy a cookbook.
What developed, in the school's telling, was something other than an ordinary cooking class. Teaching gumbo meant explaining where gumbo came from. Teaching a roux came with a story, a joke and a warning not to burn it. The school still calls the combination fun, food and folklore.
The address has moved twice. Conti Street first, then the Jax Brewery in 1984. Greg Leighton and a business partner bought the business in 1997 and moved it to St. Louis Street, where Greg and Suzanne Leighton turned it into the family operation it is now.
Settle These Before You Book
The school wants dietary restrictions forty-eight hours ahead. Same-day notice is too late. The substitutions are specific: gumbo z'herbes in place of the soup, creole z'herbes in place of the entree, covering gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan and vegetarian diets. The listing adds a USD 5 charge for the swap, payable at check-in.
Cancellation carries two numbers. The booking page gives a full refund up to twenty-four hours before your sitting. The school's own page asks for forty-eight. Cancel by the forty-eight hour mark and you are clear of both.
Two smaller things worth knowing. Your ticket is locked to the date and sitting you chose and cannot be moved to another one. And the school states that photographs taken during class belong to the school and may be used in its marketing.
The listing ticks wheelchair access, and the school's own FAQ never raises the subject, so call the school's reservations line before booking if that is what decides it for you.
There is no parking on site. The closest paid lot sits at the corner of Decatur and St. Louis, and there is metered parking around the building, though in this part of the Quarter walking is usually the easier call.
Check in through the shop at 524 St. Louis Street, past shelves of the school's own pantry goods, and someone will point you to your seat. The morning sitting lets out at 12:30 and the afternoon at 4:00. Either way you come back out onto St. Louis Street with a full plate behind you, a stack of recipe cards in your bag, and the rest of the French Quarter still open.