Cooking Class in Paris-La Cuisine cooking school

While in Paris, we were interested in trying a cooking class, but were looking for one taught in English. The cooking would be challenge enough-we didn't need to add French translation issues to it!  After a bit of searching, I found La Cuisine cooking school on the Quai l'Hôtel de Ville. The location was perfect for us and they had several glowing Trip Advisor reviews. They offered a wide variety of classes, but unfortunately, many were booked for our week.  Next time, I will book much earlier!  Luckily, there was a class with four spaces available on a day we could go that focused on making the classic French cookie-the macaron.  Having sampled many, many macarons from Pierre Hermé, Ladurée, and the Bon Marché food hall, I was eager to try baking some myself.

The teaching kitchen was an incredibly well organized space.  Our class had eight participants, working in four teams of two.  I think the classes often have a few more students, but there was plenty of room for a larger group.  Our class consisted of the four of us (Americans), a Canadian mother and daughter pair, and a young couple from Mexico. We all enjoyed laughing about our own ineptitudes and taking each others' pictures as we attempted the many steps involved in making macarons. Chef Guillaume was a great teacher.  As a teacher myself, I appreciated how well he taught the technical aspects of baking and cooking, but his sense of humor and funny comments really won us over.  He was absolutely hilarious!

We learned to make two types of meringue for the cookie base-Swiss and Italian, then each team made a different filling.  The fillings were fruit jam, chocolate, pistachio, and a vanilla cream. Assembling the cookies took some time, but at the end we got to sample four different macarons-all delicious!  Everyone left the class with a box of cookies to enjoy over the next few days.  The lady at the front desk of our hotel graciously stored ours in the fridge of the lobby bar-and was happy to taste some as a thank you!

I would definitely recommend trying a class at La Cuisine.  It was fun for first time visitors to Paris, as well as a fresh experience for return visitors.  They offer a bread making class that I would love to try!

More information:
To register for a class at La Cuisine
lacuisineparis.com/
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My favorite macarons...even better than the ones I made!  Ask the young ladies behind the counter what the current special flavors are.  
www.pierreherme.com/

Another famous source of macarons...Ladurée...you'll recognize the box!
www.laduree.com/en_int/