Private Culinary Experience

You pick the food. We build the day around it.

There is no set menu, because the menu is yours. Name the dish you have been fighting with, the technique you have never dared, or the meal you want to put on your own table — and we close the restaurant, hand you the kitchen, and spend five hours getting you there. Bring one guest and you cook it side by side.

There is no set menu. You write it.

Every other cooking class hands you a menu and hopes it’s the one you wanted. This one starts with a questionnaire and a blank page. You tell us what you’ve been trying and failing to get right — the crab cake that falls apart, the risotto that seizes, the whole fish you’ve never had the nerve to buy — and that becomes the day. Not something close to it. That.

It happens on the same line that feeds Montgomery County every night — except that day the restaurant is closed. No lunch service, no takeout tickets, no other orders firing. Real equipment, real product, real heat, and none of it shared with anyone else. Chef Tony has been running kitchens for thirty-nine years and this one since 2007; for five hours all of it points at you.

Bring one guest and you cook the same menu side by side. Shoot all the photos and video you want — nobody else is in the building. And we can only do a handful of these a season, because every one of them costs us a day of service.

Personal Instruction

Five hours of a chef's whole attention — not a demo you watch from a stool. Your hands, your knife, corrections the moment you need them. Bring one guest and you cook the same menu side by side.

Custom Recipes

A questionnaire comes to you first — what you cook now, what you have been fighting with, what you want to walk out with. The menu and the recipes get built off your answers, then printed and handed to you at the end of the day.

The Run of the House

The restaurant is closed around you. No lunch service, no takeout tickets, no other orders firing. The kitchen, the dining room and the chef are yours for the whole five hours.

Lunch & Follow-Up

You sit down to what you made. Wine is available if you want it, and table service if you would rather be waited on. Afterward, a line back to Tony for the questions that only show up the first time you cook it alone.

How the day runs.

Five hours, start to finish — and the last one is spent sitting down.

1
The questionnaire
Before anything is scheduled, a questionnaire comes to you. What you cook now, what you've failed at twice, what you want to be able to put on a table by yourself. The menu gets built backwards from your answers.
2
The house is yours
You arrive to a restaurant that is closed to everyone else. No lunch service, no takeout tickets, nobody else on the line. Your station is set — mise en place done, knives out, product ordered in for your menu.
3
Hands on the food
You do the work, and your guest works beside you on the same menu. Break down the whole fish, pull the pasta, build the sauce from nothing. Tony fixes it while your hands are still on it — the thing no video can do.
4
Lunch at the table
Aprons off. You sit down in the dining room to what you just made, plated the way it leaves our pass. Wine is available, and table service if you would rather be waited on than serve yourselves.
5
What you take home
Your printed recipes, every photo and video you shot along the way — shoot as much as you want, this is your day — and a line back to the chef for the next time you cook it.

Your Menu, Not Ours

Name it, and that’s what we cook.

Everything below is an example, not an option list. The questionnaire comes first, the menu is written off your answers, and the product gets ordered in for it. If Tony can cook it, he can teach it to you.

Crab Cakes

All jumbo lump, no filler. The fold that keeps the meat whole, the binder ratio that holds without bread, and the sear that finishes it.

Whole Fish, Broken Down

Head to fillet with your own knife — the thing most home cooks never attempt — then cooked two ways and served.

Pasta From Scratch

Hand-rolled dough and a sauce built from nothing but time. The way Tony’s family did it, and the way almost nobody does it anymore.

Risotto & Italian Paella

The two dishes people are most afraid of at home. Stock, patience, and knowing exactly when to stop.

Stocks, Fumets & Pan Sauces

The unglamorous half of restaurant cooking, and the reason restaurant food tastes like restaurant food.

Or Anything You Name

The family recipe that died with the person who made it. The four courses you already promised to serve in three weeks. The dish off our own menu you can't reverse-engineer at home. Name it and that is the day.

Not sure what to ask for yet? Put it roughly on the form and Tony will come back with a menu worth spending the day on.

$1,0005 hours · you + one guest · the house to yourselves

Request a Date

Covers both of you. Wine and optional table-service gratuity are separate. Limited availability — the restaurant closes for it, so only a handful of dates a season. Or call (301) 770-7888.

Good to know.

How many people can come?

Two. The day is built for you, and you can bring one guest to cook it with you — same menu, same station, same instruction. It is not a class you sit and watch; you both work.

Is the restaurant open while this happens?

No. You have the run of the facility. No lunch service, no takeout orders, nobody else on the line — the kitchen and the dining room are yours for the five hours. That is the reason we can only do a handful of these.

How do you decide what we cook?

A questionnaire goes out before we set a date — what you cook now, what has gone wrong when you have tried it, and what you want to walk out able to make. The menu and the recipes are written off your answers.

Can we take pictures and video?

Please do. Shoot as much as you want, anywhere in the building. It is your day and nobody else is in the room.

What does the $1,000 cover?

The five hours of instruction for both of you, the pre-day questionnaire and the custom recipes written off it, the ingredients we order in for your menu, the run of the facility, lunch, and the follow-up after.

What costs extra?

Wine is available at the table and billed separately. If you would like full table service at lunch rather than serving yourselves, a gratuity is added for the staff working it.

Do I need to already know how to cook?

No. The questionnaire exists so the day meets you where you are. Some people arrive having never broken down a fish; some run their own dinner parties and want one specific thing fixed.

When does it run?

Around the restaurant’s service calendar — closing the building for a day is why availability is limited. Tell us the weeks that work for you and we’ll come back with the dates we can hold.

Can I give it as a gift?

Yes — it's one of the better answers we know for the person who already has everything. Say so on the form or call us, and we'll set it up so they pick the date and fill out the questionnaire themselves.

What should I bring?

Yourselves, closed-toe shoes, and a phone with room on it. Aprons, knives, stations and everything else is here waiting at 12307 Wilkins Avenue, Rockville.

Tell us what you want to master.

Tony reads these himself. You’ll hear back with the dates we can hold and a first pass at what the day would look like.

Prefer to talk it through? Call (301) 770-7888. Looking for a group instead? See the cooking classes.