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Learn the Art of French Cuisine in Paris, France
Published by Spencer Spellman, Writer
Country: France 
The Experience
If there's one thing that we know and understand about France, above all else, it's that not only do they love their food and wine, but they're great at making it. The soft touch of freshly baked bread for an evening meal, the mouth-watering taste of Crème Brûlée and the smell of freshly cooked chocolate Crêpes, all awaken the senses to what's becoming a universal love for French food.
As French chefs have taken their cooking beyond French borders to extend to countries around the world, the taste of French cuisine now comes closer to home for many people. You no longer have to travel to the back country roads and small towns of France to enjoy authentic French dishes. In fact, with the rise of the information age it's now easy to find a nearby French restaurant, and also give French cooking a spin yourself. As the popular movie Julie and Julia depicted, cooking your first French meal is just a cookbook away.
The truly ambitious look beyond the cookbook and take a cooking class in France itself.
French cooking vacations are becoming popular experiences for travelers. The upside to these are that if you don't know the language, then you don't have to worry about being the only one who doesn't speak it. Many tour operators offer group cooking classes that make it both as fun and comfortable as possible. These cooking classes are becoming more like a culinary adventure, as it immerses travelers deep in their culture, while learning step by step how to become your own French cook.
Given the new demand for foodie travel activities, you're now able to take cooking courses from more than two dozen operators in Paris alone. Schools typically offer half-day, full-day and multi-day cooking classes. You can be a pupil of a super chef, specialize in the organic or simply chocolate, partner with other industry professionals or even take a class with parents and children.
As French chefs have taken their cooking beyond French borders to extend to countries around the world, the taste of French cuisine now comes closer to home for many people. You no longer have to travel to the back country roads and small towns of France to enjoy authentic French dishes. In fact, with the rise of the information age it's now easy to find a nearby French restaurant, and also give French cooking a spin yourself. As the popular movie Julie and Julia depicted, cooking your first French meal is just a cookbook away.
The truly ambitious look beyond the cookbook and take a cooking class in France itself.
French cooking vacations are becoming popular experiences for travelers. The upside to these are that if you don't know the language, then you don't have to worry about being the only one who doesn't speak it. Many tour operators offer group cooking classes that make it both as fun and comfortable as possible. These cooking classes are becoming more like a culinary adventure, as it immerses travelers deep in their culture, while learning step by step how to become your own French cook.
Given the new demand for foodie travel activities, you're now able to take cooking courses from more than two dozen operators in Paris alone. Schools typically offer half-day, full-day and multi-day cooking classes. You can be a pupil of a super chef, specialize in the organic or simply chocolate, partner with other industry professionals or even take a class with parents and children.
When to Go to Paris Cooking Class
Since fall and spring are generally regarded as the best times to visit France as a whole, this is also the most popular time for visitors to book a cooking tour or vacation in Paris.
Many cooking classes will take you outside to the vineyards and gardens to actually touch and smell the ingredients you're using. If this is a major appeal to you, summer and fall are the best time to visit as the fruits and vegetables have matured.
Many cooking classes will take you outside to the vineyards and gardens to actually touch and smell the ingredients you're using. If this is a major appeal to you, summer and fall are the best time to visit as the fruits and vegetables have matured.
Odds n' Ends
Although when taking group cooking classes in France many of the people and instructors teach in English, it wouldn't be a bad idea to take a French language dictionary or phrase book. Not only helpful in the classroom, this will also prove helpful as you dive more into the French culture.
Cost for French cooking classes depend on a number of factors, including length of stay, type of class and so on. Typically culinary classes coupled with a vacation package start at $1,500 and go up from there. For individual classes, organized independently, you may expect to pay around 150 euros.
Cost for French cooking classes depend on a number of factors, including length of stay, type of class and so on. Typically culinary classes coupled with a vacation package start at $1,500 and go up from there. For individual classes, organized independently, you may expect to pay around 150 euros.
Want a Guide?
- Frosch
- A full service tour operator, Frosch offers a variety of tours around the world. These tours are geared toward the adventurer in all of us. Frosch includes many culinary and wine tours to International destinations.
Places to Stay Nearby
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Carpe Diem! Book to do this experience now!
Enquire now
Market, evening, baking, desserts, Macaron, cake decorating and private lessons available.
Starting from $125.00 per person.
Starting from $125.00 per person.
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Books and DVDs
- Cooking Up a Provence Vacation: A Guide to Weeklong Cooking Classes
- Williams-Sonoma Collection: French
- Beautiful full-color photographs of each dish help you decide which one to prepare, and each recipe contains a photographic side note with additional information on key ingredients and techniques.
- The Country Cooking of France
- More than 250 recipes range from the time-honored La Truffade, with its crispy potatoes and melted cheese, to the Languedoc specialty Cassoulet de Toulouse, a bean casserole of duck confit, sausage, and lamb.
- Mastering the Art of French Cooking (2 Volume Set)
- The perfect gift for any follower of Julia Child—and any lover of French food. This boxed set brings together Mastering the Art of French Cooking, first published in 1961, and its sequel, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume Two, published in 1970.
Elsewhere on the Web
- Cooking Classes for the Culinary Traveler in Paris
- Here are some classes and tours available for the traveling foodie in Paris.
- Paris Cooking Class: Mastering the Macaron
- I’m here at Paris cooking school Cook’n With Class in our neighbourhood of Montmartre, having a private class organized by our friends at Viator. It’s a combination of a pastry-making course (which normally includes ice-cream, biscuits, fresh pastry, and tarte tatin) and a macaron-making course.
- Paris Cooking Classes, Schools, and Wine Tastings
- Many folks coming to Paris have asked about cooking classes on the non-professional level. Here's a list of cooking programs offered around town. Some offer professional-level classes lasting a week or several months, while others are for dedicated home cooks where you can prepare a meal with a local cook in their Parisian kitchen and perhaps visit a market.
Media References
- Learning to Cook, With Time Left to See Paris (newspaper)
- SERIOUS cooks know they can go off to France and take immersion courses, but until recently, I hadn’t realized that it is possible to take quickie cooking classes: a few hours, a half day or a day.
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Language Guides
French 
,
Italian
,
Lao
,
Portugese
,
Spanish
,
Turkish
,
Vietnamese
are some of the languages spoken in France. If you know of a freely available phrase book or podcast for one of the missing languages, let us know!
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