Taste Buds Kitchen - Kansas City - Leawood — Local services in Leawood

Wifi was out, but that was an area wide outage. We arrived and physically wrote our names down. We were told where to sit and briefly where to get water, wash hands, find bathrooms. We got aprons on, and we're excited to learn how to make pasta. The head chef was about a few minutes in and started to cut an onion when all of a sudden she said, "onion", and left the room never to return. This left the staff scrambling to put another cook at the demonstration table. They said they didn't have a printout of the recipes but knew how to cook, and took over, but they were telling us to add lemon zest and half lemon in the red pepper sauce that wasn't supposed to be in it. The lemon was supposed to be in the 2nd pesto sauce recipe. My guest happened to bring a printout of the recipes we were supposed to make. At our own table there were several times we had to go hunt for a pitcher, spatula, pasta cutter, attachment for the pasta machine, as well as try to find a pasta drying rack. It was just very, very disorganized instructions. At one point they said use pasta setting 1,1, 3, 6, 8....then showed us how to run pasta through the machine and said 1,1,3,5, then 7.?? We asked which set of numbers since she contradicted herself. Not the first for the night. Also, we were asked to crowd around for demonstrations multiple times, but instead of the chef doing these at the center of their table, they were on one far end. We were on the opposite side and could not see her techniques on how to create bootie pasta shapes, or she was instructing so quickly that it was hard to keep straight what to do. They would ramble several steps all together, which made it confusing. At no point did they come by to check on us at our tables to offer a helpful tip when we were struggling. This was not a relaxing, fun class. By the time we all had our two pasta dishes ready, the class was already 2 hours in, but started 15 minutes late, so we had less than 15 minutes to eat when they were asking the whole class to remove our aprons. We weren't even done eating. Another thing is at $70 per person, if I include a rough tax, we were given water and pasta with no protein. This was a complete cluster. I would NOT recommend this to anyone. I have done cooking classes elsewhere and this was the worst experience and I wouldn't give it even one star rating. I paid a similar price at a competitor who provided a few drink tickets, appetizer, and a pasta dish with chicken. I paid $216 for 3 people and could have had a head over heels meal at Lydia's. We still don't have a clue what happened to the original chef. Overall this was an odd an...

My wife and I visited the Taste Buds Kitchen for the first time this past weekend. My wife loves to create and cook new things in the kitchen, so I felt this might be an excellent way for us to do something together that she was bound to enjoy.

Set up for the class was easy online. I do have to admit that classes are limited. After speaking to the owners this past weekend after the class, it appears COVID restrictions have kept them from continuing growth and restricted classes. I don't feel this is a downfall, just something to note. If you want to try this, you need to plan ahead.

The kitchen is located inside a strip mall and has a large sign out front so you can't miss it. When you first walk, your greeted by several team members from the kitchen and invited into the warm, colorful kitchen. The area is large and can easily fit large groups, but the Taste Buds team did a great job limiting class sizes for the COVID restrictions. The kitchen is full of fun decorations and colorful utensils and equipment.

You are divided into groups based on class size and then given a table to prepare and eat your meal. You are greeted by the chef (one of the owners), and he explains the class and how things will work. Afterward, you gather around a large space near the prep kitchen, and he explains in more detail how the initial part of the meal will be cook, cut, prepared, and even eaten. You do this several times over the class to make sure you understand the meals. While you are cooking, the entire Taste Buds team darts around the area, helping anyone with questions. The best part (lol) is that they clean up during your cooking. Holly smokes; as you finished whisking, they have picked up your bowl and dropped off you're next needed items. They keep the tables and all the surrounding areas very well maintained.

After the meal is prepared and needs to be cooked, they pick it up at your table and pop it in the ovens near the pre kitchen. While you wait, they come around and answer questions to help you when it's time for you to make the meal again.

My wife and I had a blast in this class, and I would recommend it to anyone that just wants to do something fun with friends, family, or even your kids. We absolutely will be coming back again and have already booked our next class.

I can only hope that Taste Buds builds a location closer to us! Keep up...

My 10 year old daughter attended the French Patisserie class. I was ver impressed with it (she wasn’t comfortable having me leave for the whole class). The kitchen/classroom was spacious, clean, and well appointed. The tables at which the kids cooked were the perfect height, the class was organized in such a way that everyone participated in all aspects of the cooking yet were able to interact and have fun as small groups, and the instructors struck a perfect balance between offering help when needed and being hands-off so it was actually the kids who did the work. Not only did the instructors tell the kids what to do, they also explained why they were doing each thing, and how to tell when the ingredients came together properly. In total, the group of kids made a tart from scratch (pie dough, pastry cream, and fruit topping) as well as cream puffs. There were no ingredients that were bad for your health either—no margarine, Crisco, etc. the only downside was I wanted to eat it all and had to share with the rest of the family. Absolutely best pie crust I have ever had—store, restaurant, home made. I will be signing my daughter up for more classes. And she...