Dedicated Team of Cooks
Welcome to Cooks Cucina, a partnership with the FreeStore Food Bank / Cincinnati Cooks and Flavors of the Queen City . We offer a full array of hands-on cooking classes, cooking demonstrations, and celebrity chefs to educate and inspire our patrons.
Classes are taught by our own in-house chefs and respected experts in the culinary field. The hands-on cooking classes will showcase local farms, knife skill techniques, and different cooking styles. We will also have local vendors talking about wine pairings, using their wine in food to create magical sauces.
Olive oil experts will give tasting of certain vinegars, olive oil, and other ingredients to make your cooking experience “something to remember.”
Cooking should be fun! It does not need to be expensive, stressful, or overly complicated. Our class will be 3 hours of fun, good food, wine pairings in certain Classes and making new friends. The culinary classes will range in price from $69.00 – $99.00 depending on the chefs’ menu selection.
So, join us and choose your culinary adventure. Did I forget to mention to our friends that we are also available for special events, cooking parties, and corporate team building.
If you have any questions about our cooking classes, call Mike Van Oflen from Flavors of the Queen City at 513-703-0880. Join our cooking class today.
Evening in Paris With Chef Marcus
Menu:
Knife skills: We will introduce you to basic knife skills and techniques. How to take care of them, so they will cut almost anything. These knife skills will make you more confident in the kitchen. The chefs at Cooks Cucina feel that this is the quickest route in enjoying cooking. All of our vegetables that we will be cutting will magically appear in our French potage soup.
- French vegetable soup with celery fall vegetables
- Will make two appetizers of the Chef’s choice
- Sauté Chicken Au Poise with garlic brandy cream sauce
- Gratineed red potatoes with chives
- Grilled asparagus
- Fabulous wine tasting from Corkopolis
Description:
- Classes are three hours long
- You will work in groups of two
- Hands-on classes are limited to 12 students
- Our chef will walk you through classic French cooking techniques as well as introducing you to a few mother sauces
- Sample a few French wines from our expert from Corkopolis, Steven King
- This class will fill up quickly
Perfect Chicken in Five Different Ways.
Chef, John Tschofen, will take you on a culinary journey to demystify the concept of different cooking methods, temperatures, and seasonings, so you make your chicken irresistible to family and friends. In the process of this journey, you will become an expert on how to cut a chicken into eight parts
You will also learn from chef, Tschofen, the French techniques on making of sauce, quick sauce by using the fond of the chicken, using fresh herbs with mushrooms to create a wonderful home-style mushroom sauce. The list of ways to cook chicken from sautéing to fried will make you the hit in the kitchen with your family
Menu:
- Knife skills: We will introduce you to basic knife skills and techniques. How to take care of them, so they will cut almost anything. These knife skills, that you will learn, will make you more confident in the kitchen and the chefs at Cooks Cucina feel that this is the quickest route in enjoying cooking
- Sauté, Grill, Pan Fried, Baked, and Stuffed
- Three sauces
- How to debone a chicken in eight parts
- String potatoes from our knife skills class
- Poached carrots (were trying to be healthy with our vegetables)
Description:
- Classes are three hours long
- You will work in groups of two
- Hands-on classes are limited to 12 students
- Our chef will walk you through the five ways to cook chicken
- All cooking levels
- Book now! Classes will fill up quickly
Miss Jessicas Kitchen.
Over the course of your lifetime, you will spend several years preparing meals. Whether or not that time in the kitchen is joyful…or dreadful…is up to you. Now is a great time to reboot your relationship with cooking and take your skills to a new level! Join us for a hands on vegetarian cooking experience with Jessica Daniels the Chef at “WE Olive” and Miss Jessica’s Kitchen.
You will learn how to make stuffed winter squash for our entree, vegan green bean casserole (I love casseroles) and a classic dairy free vegan cheese cake with fruit compote for dessert.
Description:
- Simple demonstration to Knife skills and techniques
- Classes will be three hours long
- You will work in groups of two
- Our chef will walk you through the techniques and shortcuts of cooking our entree, side and dessert
- All cooking levels
- Book now! Classes will fil up quickly
Make Pasta Like Your “Nonna”
I know you like Italian food. Want to cook pasta like a real “Nonna?” In our Cooks Cucina class, you will learn to knead, roll, and cut pasta into Pappardelle and make ravioli with a sausage and fresh ricotta filling. Did we forget sauces for our pasta? Butter mushroom sauce and our “Nonna” Italian sauce. Olive oil expert, Leah Jones, from “We Olive” will be on hand to give a demonstration on how to use olive oil in our sauces and using this little fruit in our everyday cooking.
Menu:
- Knife skills: We will introduce you to basic knife skills and techniques. How to take care of them, so they will cut almost anything. These knife skills, we want you to use as home cooks, the chefs at Cooks Cucina feel that this is the quickest route in enjoying cooking
- Pasta making 101
- Making two sauces
- Olive oil tasting
- Simple salad from vegetables from our knife skills
Description:
- Classes are three hours long
- You will work in groups of two
- Hands on classes are limited to 12 students
- Out chef will walk you through pasta making techniques, sauces, and knife skills
- All cooking levels
- Book now! Classes will fill up quickly
No Excuse Appetizers
Head Chef at Cincinnati Cooks John Tschofen will “wow you” with our hands-on holiday appetizers cooking class. We want to create appetizers that will make your party guests say “OMG” “WOW”. With this class, you will come away with new ideas, new flavors, and different ways of presenting fabulous appetizers. You will experience and evening with us working in a state-of-art commercial kitchen and learning “some tricks of the trade” from one of our outstanding teaching Chefs…John Tschofen
Menu:
- You will do a short knife skills program with a brief sanitation lesson
- Stuffed sausage mushrooms with cheese
- Beer sliders
- Rustic Italian meatballs with chicken and pork
- Latin fusion salsa dish
Description:
- classes are three hours long
- You will work in groups of two
- hands on classes are limited to 12 students
- Our chef will walk you through the entire cooking process, also making and knife skills
- All cooking levels
*Book now! Classes will fill up quickly
Cooking with Beer
Break out the wheat, Stouts, Lagers and Ale…..
We are excited to bring to you our next cooking class “Cooking with Beer”……The menu will have seasonal ingredients and recipes will incorporate local craft beers, one in each dish.
We will cooking authentic German Bier Goulash or as it is called in Germany :Biergulasch”, Pumpkin beer soup, sweet and sour IPA slaw and a Graters beer soda ….Just throwing beer in your goulash, vegtables or dessert is not what we are trying accomplish.
Our garage Biermeister, Julie Wagner who started brewing her fabolous stouts and lagers in her basement and garage will give us taste recommendations to incorporate different beers that pair well with different foods. So it is important to learn the taste differences before you start pouring beer into your recipe. Chef John Tschofen will be our chef for the evening…
Menu:
Knife skills: We will introduce you to basic knife skills and techniques. How to take care of them, so they will cut almost anything.
These knife skills will make you more confident in the kitchen. The Chefs at Cooks Cucina feel that this is the quickest route in
enjoying cooking. All of our vegtables that we will be cutting will magically appear in our recipes.
- Bier Goulash
- Pumpking Beer soup
- Sweet and Sour Slaw
- Graters Ice Cream Beer Soda
Description:
- Classes are three hours long
- You will work in groups of two
- Hands-on classes are limited to 12 students
- Our chef will walk through cooking techniques related to our recipes
- Don’t hesitate to book this class…. This class will fill up quickly
Pan Seared Diver Scallops
Spend an evening with us and explore a variety of different cuisines from the diver scallops Italiano to an American classic of chocolate stuffed French toast. Are you looking to improve your skills in the kitchen? Need something “cool and exciting” to create for that dinner? This is the class to take! We will also have olive oil expert, Leah Jones, from We Olive to talk to you about olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and other olive-related ingredients in your cooking. “With all the buzz” about olive oil, the chefs at Cooks Cucina wanted to include this in your class to make your cooking experience something to remember.
Menu:
Knife skills: We will introduce you to basic knife skills and techniques. How to take care of them, so they will cut almost anything. These knife skills, that you will learn, will make you more confident in the kitchen and the chefs at Cooks Cucina feel that this is the quickest route in enjoying cooking. All of our vegetables that we will be cutting will be used in either a simple salad or for Kids Café the next morning.
- Simple salad
- Risotto
- Prosciutto wrap scallops
- Italian dark chocolate stuffed French toast
Description:
- Classes are three hours long
- You will work in groups of two
- Hands-on classes are limited to 12 students
- Out chef will walk you through culinary techniques in the cooking process
- All cooking levels
- This class will fill up quickly
Christmas in Canada
After almost twenty-five years working in corporate, Marlene decided to leave it all behind to pursue her dream job of baking in the kitchen. She is a graduate of Cincinnati Cooks and a native Torontonian and has lived in Norther Kentucky since 2003.Marlene is lead baker at Belterra Casino resorts and volunteers as a baking instructor with Cincinnati Cooks.
- Mini Tourtieres are a meat pie originating in Quebec, It is a traditional dish served at Christmas and New Year’s Eve celebrations.
- Nanaimo bars is a quintessential Canadian cookie from the heart of Nanaimo B.C.
- Scottish Petticoat tails dates to the 18th century and references the shape of the cookie-which resembles a lady’s spread-out petticoat. These cookies are very popular in Canada during the holidays.
Description:
- Classes are three hours long.
- You will work in groups of two
- Hands-on classes are limited to 12 students
- Our chef will walk you through the steps to make these wonderful desserts
- We will have a tomato red pepper bisque with rustic bread to calm your appetite during the break
- This class with Chef Marlene will fill up quickly
Christmas Cookie Story
pies, cheese cake bites, and the science behind meringue cookies for the holidays. Using the Flavors of the season, we’ll show you how to make these amazing desserts for the holidays.
Amy Hyde who is our in-house Pastry Chef has been a finalist in many cooking contests including the Pillsbury Bake off. Her award winning recipe was published in 100 “Bake Off” finalist recipes. Additionally, Amy authored a cookbook titled “Saints at the Dinner Table” which features delicious recipes inspired by the lives of Saints
- Hand Pie Dough
- Cheesecake bites
- Apple hand pies
- Butterscotch cheesecake cookies
- Chocolate pecan bites
- Meringue cookies
Description:
- Classes are three hours long
- You will work in groups of two
- Hands on classes are limited to 12 students
- Our Chef will walk you through the steps in making these wonderful desserts
- All cooking levels
- Book now! These classes will fill up quickly