Cooking Class - Vibrant Holiday Tamales - Carlsbad

Refined Italian Classics for Beginners Review Photo from Cooking Class in San Diego 2

Matthew D. 12/03/2025

Booked the class Refined Italian Classics for Beginners with Chef Donna in Carlsbad

We cooked Tuscan garlic shrimp and cannoli from scratch. The chef's were great, everybody had fun, and the food turned out awesome.

Pastries for Fall Review Photo from Cooking Class in San Diego

Pastries for Fall Review Photo from Cooking Class in San Diego 2

Pam W. 11/14/2025

Booked the class Pastries for Fall with Chef Donna in Carlsbad

This was a great class. 6 students learned 3 different pastry bakes. So many unknown baking lessons. Mary, the chef, was wonderful. She made us feel so comfortable and welcome. I would definitely take another class from her.

Dim Sum Oasis Review Photo from Cooking Class in San Diego

Dim Sum Oasis Review Photo from Cooking Class in San Diego 2

Melissa C. 08/14/2025

Booked the class Dim Sum Oasis with Chef Donna in Carlsbad

So fun and easy! Definitely looking to take another class at this location with friends. Thank you!!

Eugene L. 08/10/2026

Booked the class Make a Comforting Thai Spread with Chef Donna in Carlsbad

A wonderful experience. Have not received the recipe yet.

Lori S. 07/16/2026

Booked the class Cook a Satisfying Tex-Mex Feast - Family Fun with Chef Donna in Carlsbad

Our resident chef Ty was friendly and well organized. I enjoyed our Tex- Mex meal- especially the marinated chicken and lime sorbet.

Zach G. 07/04/2026

Booked the class Rustic Italian Outdoor Classics with Chef Donna in Carlsbad

Great class!! Very good for learning to cook risotto

Monica W. 05/03/2026

Booked the class Simple Spring Menu with Chef Donna in Carlsbad

Spring menu. I think I needed to cook the chicken and artichoke longer. Other than that it was a great experience!

Grace S. 04/26/2026

Booked the class The Magic of French Pastries with Chef Donna in Carlsbad

Fantastic! So much fun!

Sande L. 04/19/2026

Booked the class Wholesome Spring Bakes with Chef Donna in Carlsbad

Babka, hot cross buns, and quiche

Robert C. 04/13/2026

Booked the class Authentic Thai Menu with Chef Donna in Carlsbad

The Thai cooking class last night was very informative & enjoyable. Robert

David E. 04/03/2026

Booked the class Authentic Naples Pizza From Scratch with Chef Donna in Carlsbad

Pizza. Meatballs

Robert C. 03/27/2026

Booked the class Authentic Naples Pizza From Scratch with Chef Donna in Carlsbad

I attended the Naples menu class. Chef Ty was very enjoyable to work with on the menu items.

Joanne A. 03/14/2026

Booked the class Flavorful Hibachi Cooking with Chef Donna in Carlsbad

Hibachi Japanese class was very good! The chef was very knowledgeable and interacted well with the group. I felt I could make the dishes at home after his instruction. I would recommend the class to friends and family.

Robert C. 03/04/2026

Booked the class Exploring Chinese Flavors With Professional Tips with Chef Donna in Carlsbad

I enjoyed this class very much. I am already signed up for other classes. The chef was great. I asked about receiving the recipes & she said they would be emailed . I have not received them. I even checked my spam file. I would really like to have those recipes so I can transition them to vegan for my wife & I. Thank you, Robert Chavez

Donna E. 02/19/2026

Booked the class Indulge in Classic French Flavors with Chef Donna in Carlsbad

We made steak, potatoes, green salad and soufflés. It was all excellent. Please send out the recipes for the class. Thanks Donna Evans

Cathy G. 01/31/2026

Booked the class Craft Classic Macarons with Chef Donna in Carlsbad

This macaron class was EXCELLENT!!! The teacher was extremely knowledgeable. I learned so much...beyond just making macarons. She gave us step by step instructions, lots of individual attention, and many baking tips that were, in themself, worth the price of admission! Icing on the cake, was coming home with our production and sharing them with the family. Just terrific!

Lauren F. 01/18/2026

Booked the class Warm Treats for Winter Evenings with Chef Donna in Carlsbad

We made the best fanciest banana bread I have ever had in my life. Everything was great! Loved it.

Alicia C. 01/10/2026

Booked the class Flaky Creative Croissants with Chef Donna in Carlsbad

Mary was spectacular! We had some much fun, learned a ton, and the croissants were amazing. I will definitely take another class with her.

Emily H. 12/15/2025

Booked the class Forged by Food with Chef Donna in Carlsbad

This was the perfect team building activity. The entire staff were accommodating, knowledgeable and fun. Thank you!

Sara V. 12/09/2025

Booked the class Treasures of Tuscany with Chef Donna in Carlsbad

We had a great time learning to make gnocchi, steak, and panna cotta in our Tuscany cooking class. I loved learning about the Chef's experience training in Japan and love of asian fusion food. I liked that the class was hands on with plenty of demonstration as well. Thanks!

ryan a. 10/11/2025

Booked the class Pasta Essentials for Home Cooks with Chef Donna in Carlsbad

Excellent chef, excellent class, excellent date night

AJ F. 07/29/2025

Booked the class Macaron Memories with Chef Donna in Carlsbad

Chef L. J was great. Making macarons is very complex, and while it was a bit rushed at times and hard to follow the instructions, we were still able to finish in about 3 hours.

Kate De Leon . 07/14/2025

Booked the class Southeast Asian Eats - Date Night with Chef Donna in Carlsbad

This class was very nice and fun! It was informative and very good & tasteful! The only thing is that we were told we were going to be sent the recipe and I have yet to receive it which is upsetting since I want to re make it! :)

Jennifer G. 06/16/2025

Booked the class Summertime Sweets with Chef Donna in Carlsbad

Chef Mario provides a wonderful experience. I had a lot of fun.

Michael M. 06/01/2025

Booked the class Master Pasta Making with Chef Donna in Carlsbad

A nice afternoon making pasta, good activity for a date or small group looking for something to do. Chef Dana was a good host who kept a nice energy level throughout. The food itself was pretty good, too, and it was nice that a lot of the stuff was prepped prior. All this said, it would have been nice to learn a bit more throughout the process so have more takeaways to apply in our own cooking. The other not so great thing was that 4 people had to share each dish as far as prepping/cooking it. We enjoyed working with the other couple, but it would've been nice to make our own dishes ourself instead of taking turns kneading dough for "4 turns" and then letting someone else jump in. Lastly, Chef Dana mentioned she would send the recipes, but we haven't received them yet, if someone could please share those. The ricotta filling for the tortellini was especially tasty.

CHRISTIANA K. 04/26/2025

Booked the class Rich Thai Flavors with Chef Donna in Carlsbad

Informative class and the chef demonstrated things for the class very well

SARAH C. 08/04/2024

Booked the class Dessert Dreams - Family Fun with Chef Donna in Carlsbad

It was so great!! The chef was so kind and professional.

Linda E. 07/10/2024

Booked the class Summertime Dining Delights - Family Fun with Chef Donna in Carlsbad

It was very great, but sometimes he ran thru the instructions too fast to comprehend.

BRIGHTON H. 05/03/2024

Booked the class Italian Deliciousness - Date Night with Chef Donna in Carlsbad

Very fun. Chef was fantastic with explaining procedure and etiquette

Elisa Frederick . 03/20/2024

Booked the class Mastering French Cooking Techniques with Chef Donna in Carlsbad

Food was delicious and staff were friendly and helpful. Wish had option of adding wine.

Markeeta W. 03/20/2024

Booked the class Mastering French Cooking Techniques with Chef Donna in Carlsbad

We loved it!!!!

Ron Ingram . 02/16/2024

Booked the class Elevated Pasta From Scratch with Chef Donna in Carlsbad

Chef Donna did an excellent job orchestrating the group through the preparation and cooking process for the Pasta from Scratch class. She was engaging, fun and clearly very knowledgeable.

PRECIOUS B. 01/27/2024

Booked the class Mediterranean Delicacies - Date Night with Chef Donna in Carlsbad

Loved the experience! Very professional and fun!

Alison C. 12/07/2023

Booked the class Favorites From a Bistro in France with Chef Donna in Carlsbad

Fun and informative! Nice chefs and guests, good recipes and a couple of general techniques too!

Monica L. 09/11/2026

Booked the class Bake Classic Global Breads with Chef Donna in Carlsbad

I recently took this baking class hoping for a practical, hands-on learning experience, but I left disappointed with the overall format and structure. Rather than each participant mixing and kneading their own dough, the chef prepared one flatbread dough at the front while three of us simply watched. The remaining two doughs were already premade and proofing before class started, meaning our hands-on participation was limited to about two minutes of shaping before waiting for them to bake. While I understand that baking requires proofing time and time constraints are a factor, a much better setup would be to have participants mix their own dough from scratch to learn the feel and technique, while using pre-made doughs solely as back-ups for baking during the session. Additionally, when one of the focaccias didn't turn out as expected, the instructor became overly focused on the issue, which shifted the energy of the room away from teaching. If you are looking for a true "get your hands dirty" baking workshop where you practice mixing, kneading, and dough development yourself, this class as currently structured may not be the right fit.

Mari A. 08/28/2026

Booked the class Explore Flavorful Spanish Tapas with Chef Donna in Carlsbad

The class was cancelled several months ago.

Kathleen G. 08/24/2026

Booked the class Discover Classic Wok Cooking with Chef Donna in Carlsbad

This was terrible. Do not book with “Chef Michael.” Our chef was a frantic women who had “owned ten restaurants” in the past. The class was extremely disorganized and we learned very little. My husband and I kept joking that we were at Montessori school because our only job was to pour undisclosed ingredients into different containers and stir them. We had no access to the recipe throughout the class and when we asked for it again at the end, she said it would be emailed to us. The chef however, referred to her private paper copy whenever she needed. I had expected by the class description that we would be learning techniques for how to use/handle a wok, there was nothing the sort. The wok sat stationary on the burner the whole time with no instruction on how to properly handle it. We just mixed with a spatula. I had also imagined this to be a date night with my husband but we were paired up with an older women (who was wonderful btw) into a small group then all shared the food. You will be put into small groups of up to four people which is important to know. We then just stood around the table we prepped the food at the end to eat, it was honestly awkward. To top it all off, everyone’s chicken was undercooked at the end. We didn’t used any kind of thermometer to check the temperature of the chicken or the oil, and no timing to make sure it had cooked long enough. Just random direction from the chef on when to take it out from her eyeballing it. We were extra frustrated at this because we even expressed our concern that it wasn’t cooked at the way through and she was very condescending and said it was time because now it was burning on the outside (so it must be done in the middle!) idiot. Chef Michael is a scam. He will just sell off the entire class to private equity bullshit.

Michelle K. 04/26/2026

Booked the class Traditional French Bistro Dinner with Chef Donna in Carlsbad

Food was good. Did not receive recipes. Should have had them to follow along during class.

Parwin M. 03/29/2026

Booked the class Chianti Delicacies - Date Night with Chef Donna in Carlsbad

I learned how to make steak. The most fun was making the gnocchi shapes.

Daniela Morfin . 02/02/2026

Booked the class Tuscan Flavors Date Night with Chef Donna in Carlsbad

As far as I know, the description didn’t say couples would be cooking in pairs. Felt cheap.

Kate L. 12/11/2025

Booked the class Make Flavorful Holiday Treats with Chef Donna in Carlsbad

I did the holiday baking class. I feel like cozy meal misrepresented this experience. There was no chef Michael. It was team work and not at all appropriate for a single person. Basically no cooking took place just a lot of melting different things. That you took turns in your group assembling. I would have liked to know ahead of time that it was a group activity and not an individual cooking experience. Would definitely not do this again or recommend. The people that hosted were great. But not what o had in mind when I signed up.

Lora Crocker . 09/08/2025

Booked the class Sweet Bakery Classics - Family Fun with Chef Donna in Carlsbad

We felt the overall class went well. My only complain would be for the price we paid per person, I was surprised we had to work as teams of 4. The cost of class was enough to cover ingredients for each person and not have to share with three other people.

Christine M. 06/29/2025

Booked the class Exploring Korean Barbecue with Chef Donna in Carlsbad

Bought the class for my mom and I. We had to cook in a group with 2 other people which means we had to share a cutting board and knives so half the time at least 2 people were just standing around waiting. We also had to share all the food we made between the 4 of us and they didn't give us much food. The scallion pancake recipe was horrible. It ended up like scrambled eggs, and that was because of the recipe and instruction, not the execution (happened to everyone's). There was supposed to be coffee and tea but all that was out was water. They didn't provide any recipes or written instruction so we could follow along with the instructor. The instructor didn't know the answer to most of the questions people asked. The other 3 things we made turned out pretty good but it isn't worth the cost.

Chuck Yoneda . 06/08/2025

Booked the class Paella in a Pan with Chef Donna in Carlsbad

Class was cancelled just before leaving to go to the paella cooking class. They told my wife the chef was sick and offered to reschedule but half of our group of six is visiting from out-of-town. Could not be helped, but still disappointed.

Jocelyn Sin . 04/10/2025

Booked the class Szechuan Spice with Chef Donna in Carlsbad

Nice guy, terrible “class”.

Roberto F. 07/09/2024

Booked the class Pie Baking Fun with Chef Donna in Carlsbad

The Pie baking experience didn’t really live up to my, very beginner, pie making expectations. Chef Mike was a nice guy but he was very open about the fact that he was a savory chef not a pastry chef. He didn’t have much to add to the process of baking other than to say he wasn’t into measuring very much. This was evident in the prep for the class. We made one full size pie of peaches and blueberries. After getting things mixed, we pored the filling into the crust and it was about 1/3 the amount it should have been. Not a huge deal but it doesn’t show any attention to basic prep. When doing the lattice on the pie the sous chef (who claimed to be a pastry chef) didn’t know the process for weaving the lattice. She instructed us one way and was corrected by, I’m guessing, the manager of (the store where the class held. The kicker was that the ovens apparently weren’t baking our pies as fast as they should have been. So, our pie came out almost baked by the end of the class. The chef instructed the sous chef to take it out of the pie tin and put it in a cake box, for us to take home and finish baking. Well this assumes we have a pie tin at home and also assumes that we’ll be able to get a fully loaded pie, sitting in just the crust, off of a cardboard box and into a pie tin. Not easy for an experienced chef I’m sure, let alone a couple of novices. I would have guessed working ovens or better prep with timing would be a basic feature of a class like this. There was so much down time waiting for the pie to slowly bake that the chef started teaching us how to cut onions and mince garlic. Nothing wrong with that, just a lot of standing and waiting that seemingly shouldn’t have happened. The one thing everyone on staff seemed prepared to do was push sign-ups for their other classes and products in the store (for which we were given a 10% off coupon). All in all, I was disappointed. This was supposed to be a nice gift for my wife’s birthday but it turned out to be a big let down. I would not recommend the Cozy Meal classes.

Patricia W. 04/24/2024

Booked the class The Magic of French Pastries with Chef Donna in Carlsbad

The class was interesting with good information. The 2 1/2 hr. class turned out to be 3 1/2 hours long. Standing in pretty much one spot on a ceramic tile floor, for 3 1/2 hrs. was a killer for both me and my granddaughters . Stools would be nice. I also paid for 3 people and I believe that I didn't receive enough goodies in our box. That was disappointing. I think that each person should receive their own bus of goodies. I do want to add that our chef was knowledgeable, helpful and pleasant .