Taste Buds Kitchen - NYC - Chelsea — Local services in New York

My 12 yo son has been attending the cooking class there for over a year. He really enjoyed it last year, however, this year his experience was different. They were working in a group of 2-3 kids last year and the classes were fun, engaging and the recipes were great. He was very enthusiastic about starting this year. But they now the group size increased to 5-6 kids, and there were several groups at the same session. The session became boring, and it was hard to remain focused. His friends left the classes after 2-3 sessions in September. I convince him to stay, but he was complaining about the classes. He has been self-dismissed from the session for over year (last year and this year)- we live only 3 blocks away. No one ever emailed or called me from the Taste Buds Kitchen about the issued with his dismissal. Last Tuesday (a school day off) he came to a class. It was also his best friend's birthday, so his friends were waiting downstairs. Melinda - n office manager- refused to self- dismissed him, she for the first time! tried calling me at my office but I could not speak with her . After hearing a tonn of screaming and threats to call the police, he managed to escape to join his friends. I had a pleasure speaking with Melinda at the end of my day when I saw her message. Then only thing I can say is I deeply regret supporting this place and not letting my son quit as soon as I heard his first complaint, this is especially sad as he loves to cook. And another message for Melinda- I do not think you should work with the kids, honey. If there is a problem- please reach out to the parents in advance. I strongly DO NOT recommend this...

Lapin and I came here for the BYOB pasta making class. We were the first to arrive and the employees were generous enough to let us sit in the back while the tidy and prep the room for the class to begin. We made marinara sauce, 2 types of raviolis (sweet potato and ricotta with spinach, if I am not mistaken) and fettuccine. They also had olive oil and a bit of pita chips to snack on when the class started. They also ask you to wash your hands before the class starts and they do keep bottles of hand sanitizer around which is cool.

At first, we thought we would have our own table and be able to make our own meal. But, you share the table, food and equipment with another couple or if you are really unlucky with 2 other couples. It could be a fun way to bond with other people, but sometimes, you just want to be silly with your partner. Overall, we did have fun and the cooking class was a bit more hands on than others, (they prep most of the ingredients - but you actually do get to run the pasta through a KitchenAid Mixer and create the pasta sauce from scratch) but we might look into taking other classes elsewhere to mix...

Brought my boyfriend here for his birthday and was icked out by the experience. We were paired with another couple (no problem with us) and in the description it says you'll be sharing tools and ingredients. I definitely don't mind sharing utensils and ingredients, however nowhere did it say if you're paired up with others they will be handling and preparing the food you will eat. One of the people in the couple we were paired with had an open sore on his finger. We each handled and cooked the same food. They should provide gloves for people. When I emailed them to explain the situation they didn't address this issue and never replied back. As a nurse I really unsettled. And no, I did not want to say something to our instructor because I didn't want to embarrass the couple.

re: In response to TasteBuds reply - you replied to me on 2/4 @4:48 which I replied to on 2/4 at 5:07 and never heard back after that. Regardless of hand washing it was a gross experience. The options are to pay extra to book your own private table or for strangers to help prepare your food...