Workshops

Join Chef Anthony Sestito of Pastaio for a fun, hands-on class exploring a selection of traditional egg-based pastas and shapes typical of central and Northern Italy. You'll ease into the class with a beautiful spread of antipasto on arrival, and then dive into learning how to make a simple and versatile fresh egg pasta dough from scratch, with an emphasis on choosing the right flours and the importance of resting the dough. Then Chef Anthony will walk you through some simple, yet significant shapes and styles of pasta made with minimal tools, focusing on classic handmade pasta shapes such as fettuccine, pappardelle, farfalle, garganelli, and soppressine. There will be a discussion of the pairing of different shapes and sizes with their traditional sauces. The class culminates in a light meal of Tagliatelle al Funghi, a delicious creamy mushroom and parmesan dish. Any extra pasta made in class can be taken home, along with PDF recipes and new skills to impress your friends!

Maple sap starts to run in mid-February, so what better way to celebrate this quintessentially Canadian milestone than two delicious maple recipes: Maple Butter Tarts and Maple Scones. Let 20-year cookie biz veteran Alan Zelcovitch walk you through creating delicious maple syrup butter tarts — they are so much easier to make than you might imagine — and you may never want to buy another butter tart again! You will learn the secrets of a beautifully flaky crust, and exactly how to make the perfect maple filling as well. As a bonus, you'll  be shown a great trick to easily remove them from the pan. Building on these pastry skills, you'll also get other make some fabulous Maple Scones as well. These flakey, layered scones can be frozen in raw, and baked off as you need them, so you are always ready to enjoy freshest scones, warm from the oven.

Join artisanal baker Leo Baduria for a full-day, in-depth exploration of the fundamentals of Viennoiserie, the magical butter-laminated pastry that is at the heart of croissants and many other classic European pastries from France to Denmark. Creating croissants from scratch is a somewhat complex, multi-day process, but Leo has expertly constructed a full-day workshop that will cover the all the steps so that you can begin making them at home. You’ll learn how to make your own brioche dough, and the processes of mixing, kneading, rolling, rising, laminating and shaping required to make Croissants, Pain au chocolat, Pain aux raisins, Kouign aman, Chaussons aux pommes, Palmiers and Brioches.

In this fun, hand-on class Heather Kilner will introduce you to the fundamentals of home canning through and two delicious winter condiments: savoury-sweet red onion jam, perfect for a cheese plate and amazing on a burger, and tangy pickled red onions that will add zing to any taco or salad. Everyone will leave the class with a basic understanding of safe canning practices, along with copies of the recipe and a jar of any the goodies made in class. You will take home an understanding of the mechanics of safe canning and the confidence to preserve your favourite foods at home.

For this fun, family-friendly workshop Alissa Kondogiannis will show participants how to make the Vanilla sugar cookie dough which is then rolled, cut and shaped into a triangles before being stuffed with jam, or poppyseed (mohn), or chocolate (Nutella) filling. After being baked the Hamantaschen can be drizzled, dipped, and decorated in a variety of ways. There will be fresh-baked Hamantaschen to share in class, and each participant goes home with several unbaked pastries to bake at home.

Knowing how to choose, use and care for knives is one of the most essential parts of any cook’s skill set. Join Chef Sonya Gammal for a solid primer on knife skills and kitchen fundamentals. In addition to learning about the knives themselves, participants will get ample opportunity to practice a range of different hands-on knife skills as part of the preparation of a delicious meal. Chef Sonya will guide you through foundational skills such as: selecting, storing and handling knives, sharpening and honing, knife safety and tips, techniques for dealing with common ingredients like onions & garlic, classic vegetable and herb cuts such as julienne, brunoise, and chiffonade, and the easiest way to break down a whole chicken into 8 standard cuts.

Maple sap starts to run in mid-February, so what better way to celebrate this quintessentially Canadian milestone than two delicious maple recipes: Maple Butter Tarts and Maple Scones. Let 20-year cookie biz veteran Alan Zelcovitch walk you through creating delicious maple syrup butter tarts — they are so much easier to make than you might imagine — and you may never want to buy another butter tart again! You will learn the secrets of a beautifully flaky crust, and exactly how to make the perfect maple filling as well. As a bonus, you'll  be shown a great trick to easily remove them from the pan. Building on these pastry skills, you'll also get other make some fabulous Maple Scones as well. These flakey, layered scones can be frozen in raw, and baked off as you need them, so you are always ready to enjoy freshest scones, warm from the oven.

Join artisanal baker Leo Baduria for a full-day, in-depth exploration of the fundamentals of great bread. You’ll learn how to make your own sourdough starter, and how to prepare different types of dough, using various grains and flours. There will be hands-on practice of the techniques to folding, kneading and shaping dough to make focaccia/fougasse, baguettes, boules, batards and brioches, including challah braids.