Food Lab — Local services in Boulder

First off, I'll say my husband and I had fun at this class - the staff was super nice and the venue was very clean and pretty. My complaints are more on the side of the setup of the course.

We took a Vietnamese cooking class a month or two ago. The chef started off by saying he was mostly into and trained on Italian/Mediterranean cooking and didn't have much Asian experience. A lot of the things I actually wanted to learn how to cook (the sauces, prepping the items, etc) were done before we got there to save time, so we didn't get to really do much there.

The chef also hadn't practiced the recipes and was reading off the sheets to cook - when something went wrong (as happens with cooking) he tried to fix it on another round but it was disappointing to know that he hadn't even looked at the menu or steps beforehand.

We were also put into groups of 4, so we weren't doing all of the work that would give us experience to recreate at home. In previous cooking classes at other venues, I've been able to do either by myself or with one other person so we could really get our hands dirty on each dish. It took a lot away to have to navigate the items with strangers (heat level, cuts, amount of ingredients, etc) that could have been avoided if it was by the groupings of people who signed up together.

I probably won't be back, but think these courses would be good for someone just looking into getting started in cooking or being introduced to...

When someone has a great concept such as Food Lab, poor business skills can negate the whole experience. That is our experience with Dave at Food Lab. This is what happened: Excited to celebrate my birthday week with my 2 boys by taking a taco class together, I registered for the Plant based taco class a month ago, The registration form asks for food allergies, which I filled out diligently, since my son has a severe allergy to cashews. We arrived tonight to the class only to find out that cashews were featured in the evening's recipes!!! Dave, someone should have let me know ASAP after I registered and paid so that I could choose another class! Do you realize how disappointing it was to find this out on the spot and to have to exclude my son?? What a ridiculous position you put me in having my ONE son LEAVE Food lab and not offering a refund. If you had actually read my registration, you would have seen I INDICATED a CASHEW ALLERGY and you SHOULD have called me. It is SO unprofessional of you to not be diligent about the form AND THEN NOT allow me to register the three of us for another class 'because you already bought the food"!!!!

Also, beware that they offer wine, and then tell you AFTER you've eaten and imbibed, that the wine is extra. Share that information up front. It's...

We were disappointed by our dim sum class. Our chef was great, absolutely no complaints there, but Food Lab did her a disservice. There were only 7 people total, but we split into 2 teams to cook everything together, and then each couple shared a cutting board. So each person pays full price to participate about 25% of the time -- all prepping, making dumplings, and cooking was shared. This also made it really hard to accommodate someone with diet restrictions because we had to figure out how to split things up and differentiate her food. Just let her have her own cooking station? The veggies were also unwashed, old, wilted, and a number of flies landed on the prepared stuff before we got to it. All of the dumpling shells/dough were premade, and they were too dry or big to fold dumplings effectively. Didn't get to learn how to make those shells or any dipping sauces. We also didn't get to eat as we went -- they made us wait until the end (9pm) when everything except the last dumpling was cold and soggy. It was also not enough food to be a full dinner. We have taken cooking classes at 3 other venues and this was by far the most stingy and uninformative. Again, this is nothing against the lovely chef, assistant, and other participants, but squarely a complaint against the...