Cooking in Paris

One thing that’s become increasingly popular this decade is the cooking class. From high-end grocery stores to small restaurants, cooking classes are a favorite for couples, aspiring gourmands and bachelors tired of eating hamburger helper.

They’re also popular with travelers. Viator.com offers cooking classes in Italy and France, two European countries famous for their cuisine and devotion to culinary excellence. In Paris, for example, you can take a small-group cooking class (a max of 8 people!) where a local chef guides you in the preparation of a 3-course meal in a Parisian apartment. Like the ones in Rome and Tuscany, these courses begin with a tour of local markets for ingredients, followed by a couple hours of a hands-on cooking experience.

Another Parisian cooking course is one in which you learn to make delicate pastries and other desserts. Most interesting to me about this course: part of it involves making ice cream, and the flavor is seasonal, which could mean you flavor your scoops with geranium, lavender OR something exotic such as chocolate. And, in case you have to ask, you definitely get to sample your handiwork, which is probably the best part. After all, if you’ve made geranium ice cream, you’re kind of obligated to find out what it tastes like.