Shannon Fraser

Review of The Chef Upstairs

My boyfriend and I did the Mediterranean grilling ...

My boyfriend and I did the Mediterranean grilling class and had a wonderful time. The chef, Pierre, was very knowledgeable and personable. The food was absolutely delicious and we were able to get involved in all steps of the meal - basically whatever we were interested in learning. I really liked that! The one criticism; there were 1-2 people in the 10 person class that had dietary restrictions (gluten-free and dairy-free). The chef decided to alter everyone's meals to be gluten & dairy free, rather than only modify the meals for the people with the restrictions. I was looking forward to feta cheese in my salad and homemade baklava, however, instead i received dairy-free cheese which tasted like cardboard and a different dessert entirely (which was still very delicious). Learning to make baklava was actually a big reason why we chose that class so it was very disappointing. I would definitely do another class, but I would suggest, going forward, you only modify the meals for the people with food restrictions as it ruins the experience a bit for everyone else. Overall we did have a great time.