• French Culinary Institute

  462 Broadway, 212-219-8890

  Most classes at this recently renovated school are geared to professional chefs, but the expansion is making room for a growing number of amateur classes. Essentials of Fine Cooking is eight four-hour sessions ($2,345), but you are kitted out with a toque and chef’s whites. You’ll learn to make mirepoix and fillet a fish, plus you walk away with a gleaming case of pro-level knives and implements—and more sympathy for that guy on Top Chef.

From the 2007 Best of New York issue of New York Magazine