Find
businesses offering goods & services to the traveling public
Visit
our video library featuring scenes from "The Land of Enchantment"
New Mexico’s Recreational Cooking Schools
Now You’re Cooking! Savor the flavors of New Mexico during your visit, and learn how to recreate those remarkable dishes in a local cooking class. Entertaining as well as educational, classes offered by the state’s cooking schools provide inspiration for cooks of all abilities. In fact, it’s not even necessary to be a cook to enjoy learning more about food and New Mexico’s culinary heritage. Some schools sit near major landmarks in their communities, others present the opportunity for a drive into scenic countryside. Try one and you may find it to be one of your most lasting New Mexico impressions.
Numerous markets, restaurants, nonprofit organizations, and individuals offer occasional culinary classes, and several vocational schools and colleges offer training to professionals. The schools listed here operate a full schedule of recreational classes and devote a significant portion of their schedule to classes featuring New Mexican or Southwestern cuisine. In most cases, classes run 2 to 3 hours and include a sampling or meal of the specialties taught in class. Among their offerings are corporate training and teambuilding sessions, private classes, catering, and facilities for events. Reservations are always suggested and in many cases, necessary.
Albuquerque
Jane Butel’s Cooking School
www.janebutelcooking.com, 505-243-2622, 800-473-8226 toll-free
P O Box 2162, Corrales, NM 87048
Cookbook author and TV personality Jane Butel championed Southwest cuisine long before its current popularity, and has been offering cooking classes in New Mexico for more than 25 years. She teaches award-winning weekend and weeklong classes from her home kitchen in the lovely village of Corrales. Jane’s new live tele-seminars even let you take a class prior to visiting and anyone can sign up for her new monthly subscription “Cooking with Jane” cooking club. She offers branded spices and products through her website too.
Embudo
Comida de Campos
www.comidadecampos.com, 505-852-0017
P.O. Box 115 Embudo, NM 87531
Attend a cooking class at this working farm, owned by the Campos family for more than half a century. Tucked on a lovely sliver of land along the Rio Grande, the farm provides the ingredients for classes conducted by passionate home cook Margaret Campos. Her mother Eremita leads you around the farm. Taste the freshness of its chemical-free crops, then cook and eat local foods with the seasons. Many classes feature meats, corn, and other items baked in the traditional clay horno oven. Desserts always feature berries or fruit from the property too.
Mesilla (Las Cruces area)
Las Cosas Kitchen Shoppe and Cooking School
www.lascosascooking.com, 575-541-9735
1740 Calle de Mercado, Suite A Mesilla, NM 88046
Affiliated with Mike and Karen Walker’s kitchen and cookware shop of the same name in Santa Fe, an eclectic array of hands-on classes is offered evenings and weekends, often by Chef John Vollertson. The school is relatively new but usually fills its dozen seats for classes. Just three blocks from the quaint Mesilla Plaza in the heart of the Doña Ana Valley, the school makes prodigious use of the region’s famed red and green chiles. Expect a light-hearted approach that is fun for all.
Ruidoso
Savories
www.savories.net, 575-257-0204
421 Brady Canyon Drive Ruidoso, NM 88345 (By appointment only)
Personal chef Bonnie Snyder conducts classes at the Savories Culinary Studio nestled up in the tall pines not far from downtown Ruidoso. Her goal is to make the art of cooking a celebration. Up to 30 participants can fit in the classroom, which is in a New Mexico-style building with a turquoise pitched roof and a lovely patio.
Santa Fe
Santa Fe School of Cooking
www.santafeschoolofcooking.com, 505-983-4511, 800-982-4688 toll-free
116 West San Francisco Street (Upper Level, Plaza Mercado) Santa Fe, NM 87501
For 20 years, the Curtis family’s Santa Fe School of Cooking has focused on traditional and contemporary cooking of New Mexico and the Southwest. The School, just off the Plaza, operates a market, open daily, stocked with New Mexico food products and books to use back at home. Instruction, which may be either hands-on or demonstration, is conducted by Culinary Program Director Rocky Durham and a rotating schedule of other resident chefs. Specialty classes include walking tours highlighting downtown Santa Fe culinary landmarks, and a day tour of northern New Mexico’s culinary bounty.
Las Cosas Kitchen Shoppe and Cooking School
www.lascosascooking.com, 877-229-7184 toll-free
181 Paseo de Peralta (De Vargas Center) Santa Fe, NM 87501
Affiliated with Las Cosas in Mesilla, the hands-on participation classes at this school are offered by chef and culinary program director John Vollertson, known affectionately as Chef Johnny Vee, and guest chefs and cookbook authors, mostly from the Santa Fe area. Occasional classes provide demos of cookware featured in the shop. The kitchen seats about a dozen students for its classes that run 52 weeks a year, 3 times per week. Expect a light-hearted approach that is fun for all.
Taos
Taos School of Cooking
www.taosschoolofcooking.com, 575-770-5226
119 Manzanares Street Taos, NM 87571
Two blocks from the Taos Plaza, chef-owner Jo Ann Carolla-Polt and guest chefs tea
ch both hands-on and demonstration classes. The school facilities, tucked behind a dragon fountain, reflect the relaxed charm and comfort of Taos. In addition to Southwestern classes, Jo Ann offers a rotating series of basic kitchen skills classes.
Cooking Studio Taos
www.cookingstudiotaos.com, 575-776-2665 or 575-613-3321
P.O. Box 750 Arroyo Seco, NM 87514
Chef Chris Maher teaches all classes at his Arroyo Seco home, not far from the Taos Ski Valley. The kitchen was built for instruction and can easily hold 14 to 16 students. Chris received six consecutive Mobil 4-Diamond ratings when he owned the popular Momentitos de la VIDA restaurant. He has offered cooking classes since 1991 and approaches cooking as an art and baking as a science. Classes are always full participation and include wine with all meals. In addition to Southwestern cuisine, Chris’s classes reflect his interests in French, Italian, Mediterranean, and Cajun cooking.
