We had a wonderful evening with Chef Harold. Delicious ramen and dumplings prepared before us with…read moreexplanations on his methods and considerable technique. He shared interesting discussions about cooking in Boston at the prestigious kitchens where he worked. He was efficient and flexible- we had just put in an induction stove so he need to use our pots and still everything was delicious. We loved to repeat an evening focusing on his other specialties especially sushi where his classes are legendary. This was a terrific holiday present from our children which we will not forget!

Went to the natick location at la sur table and had the experience with Chef Jhailyn and Chef Scot…read more Awesome experience! They were funny, class was fun, educational and the food was

We did our department holiday event there this year and Chef Gary was awesome and so funny! Team…read moremade pizza, dessert, mozz balls and salad. So fun! Thank you!

I went to an italian date night class in Boston and loved the mix of pre-made food and hands-on…read morecooking. We got demos for everything that wasn't made by us but enjoyed the foods that our chef chose for us to make, such as the burrata! We had wine, cheese, meat, and focaccia when we got there and made our dessert, burrata, and pasta before assembling the whole meal. There was plenty of food to take home and we left stuffed! Our class happened at the start of a snow storm so only about 14-16 out of 20 people came which helped create a more intimate setting.

I prepaid for a class of 17 for a "Chocolate Truffle Making Class" in Atlanta, GA 6-8 weeks prior…read moreto the date of the class. I sent out invitations to some of my best customers. The night before the class was to take place, I received notification that there was a "time" change...to the next week. That is not a time change, that is a DATE change - which is something else entirely. Oh, and I don't live in Atlanta...I flew in for this event. Needless to say, the class was cancelled as they had nothing else to offer me as a substitute. Not using CLASSPOP ever again.

We attended Chef Harold's Sushi 101 course. This was a small group session that was held at Long…read moreLive Beerworks 152 Hampden Street Boston, MA 02119. Chef Harold was extremely informative and a great instructor. We really appreciated his time and attention to all of our questions. The only downside was initially. The music was pretty loud in the venue and it was hard to hear what the chef was saying. Eventually it was turned down and everything was so fun. I would recommend this to anyone. The venue was also very good with service at the counter. Their selection of brews was quite delightful!

When my husband and I first decided to find a personal chef we thought "maybe this will help, we…read morecan't keep eating out, it's killing us." Neither of us really knew what a personal chef service looked like. We love cooking but we didn't/don't have time during the week to cook. We hoped we'd get more vegetables into our diet at a minimum. That not eating out would mean less of the white devils (sugar, salt). I reached out to The Skinny Beet in a frenetic and desperate state last December. Since they've entered our lives the sun is shining, the clouds have parted and Mondays are happy (re: they are miracle workers). We have been a weekly client with The Skinny Beet for almost 3 months now. At the end of 1 month we reached out to them and shared a list of each positive benefit directly or indirectly related to hiring them as personal chefs. I would like to share this list with you (reader of my review): 1. My husband and I spend more time together. 2. We portion control better. 3. We work out more (have time to work out). 4. We feel better: less groggy, less irritable, more energy. 5. The food they make tastes flavorful, wholesome and satisfying. We get to eat our favorite cuisines with less of the sugar/salt and more grain/vegetable variety than what we know how to cook. 6. We waste less. 7. The brain space we wasted thinking about what to eat, what to cook, when to go pick things up, crap-I-forgot-an-ingredient --- Poof! Gone. Which, working full time while part time grad school, any and all brain space I can allocate to my work is priceless for me. From Week One: Flexibility with schedule and menu planning was made easy for us - We come home and our kitchen tools and pans lovingly (and somewhat expensively) acquired over time are clean - There are delicious dishes made with quality ingredients ready for devouring in the fridge. We are so grateful for the difference The Skinny Beet has made in our quality of life. Seriously, I wasn't kidding: Miracle Workers.

I hired Richard and Katie to come to my apt to give me an private cooking lesson. I didn't really…read moreknow what to expect, and when they asked me what I wanted to learn I told them I wanted to learn "some of the basics". Well in just a couple hours we were able to cover SO much ground. From making a delicious salsa and homemade chips, to a steak and a chicken, even farro with caramelized onions. Not only did I learn tons of REALLY helpful skills that I've already been implementing, but I had delicious food that lasted me for a handful of meals THAT I HELPED MAKE! They brought all their own ingredients and left my kitchen completely spotless (possibly cleaner than how they found it) I am so thankful to these two and I look forward to our next lessons.

Audrey was a delight! Boston Foodie Tour was a wonderful family morning during our time in Boston…read more Audrey's knowledge of the food and culture in the North End was amazing--and she seems to know everyone so walking around to each restaurant was a treat. The quantity of food is generous, to say the least...luckily we paced ourselves and didn't eat everything at the first few stops. After the tour, we went back to a few places and stocked up :). If you're looking for a food tour in Boston's North End, this is it!!

My friends and I had a total blast with Audrey on her 'Sip, Savor and Shop' tour! All the food we…read morehad was amazing and it was fun to be introduced to many of the great shops in the North End. Audrey is a true treasure of knowledge about food, the North End, empowering women and having fun!! Whether you are visiting Boston for the first time or you are local you won't regret spending time with and learning from Audrey!

Terrible experience and customer service -- stay away! I…read moreplaced an order and paid extra for 2-day shipping. Got a shipping notification a couple days later. Several days later, tracking showed UPS still hadn't received my order. Emailed customer service for an update. No response except a generic auto-reply. Several days later I tried to call the store and was told they don't handle online-shopping customer service; email is the only contact method. Two weeks after placing my order, since UPS still hadn't received my item, I emailed to cancel my order and get a refund. Still no response. Ultimately, I contacted my credit card to dispute the charge and, miraculously, within a couple hours Milk Street finally got back to let me know my order was canceled. I will never do business with Milk Street again.

Milk Street is the brainchild of Christopher Kimball. He is a publisher and chef both. He created…read morethis around 2017, and it's both a podcast and a magazine. The podcast is free, but pushes his subscription service, which has a wide variety of formats. You can subscribe to the paper copy, the electronic one, both etc. He also sells various spices and cooking utensils, all of which he reviews and gives ideas for using. His podcasts are easy tom listen to and engaging. He brings on a variety of guests, from chefs to recipe creators to book authors and more.

Invited to an impromptu event, and I had to come up with a memorable gift…read more Blackstone's of Beacon Hill to the rescue! Not only do they have a dizzying array of gifts small and large, they also stock anything you need as far as kitchen utensils, candles, greeting cards, charming and unique knick knacks and countless other items too numerous to mention here. Pair that with amazing customer service and salesmanship either by phone from Ms. Angela or in person from Ms. Arielle, the staff is top-notch. (apologies if I mispelled, Ms. Ari;-) Y'all definitely have to come and have a look around. I plan on coming back in the near future for a more leisurely browse through soon

Best selection of knives. Was really excited to discover this store, and see that they take knives…read moreseriously. In Downtown LA there is a fantastic store that has an insane number of knives... maybe too many. This store claims that they they have the biggest selection of knives in New England. I feel like they have enough good knives to have a varied enough selection for different preferences, but yet not overwhelming their customers with too many choices. I got a great bread knife that I'm really happy with recently. It's just the right weight (not to light) and has a really comfortable grip and an "elegant" length. It makes cutting breads really smooth and easy to cut very thin slices. It is apparently their best bread knife, and at $150, I think the price is right. Despite being on Beacon Hill, I don't feel that their prices are high or unreasonable, but just right. The store is fun to browse through for many other kitchen or cooking supplies or gifts. As a well-stocked mom and pop store it has that quality of surprise at finding something you never thought about. The personnel is also very helpful. I've been there a couple times and they seem to be knowledgeable and willing to help, to explain things and answer questions. They have personal experience with the things they sell.

I took the Beacon Hill Chocolate Tour and loved it so much I want to do all 3 of the other tours as…read morewell in the near future. The tour made its way down Charles Street and across the common to Park Street, stopping in several places for tastings and talks along the way. I don't want to give away all of their secrets but a few highlights were Beacon Hill Chocolates, a fabulously adorable little shop with amazing artisan chocolates, 75 Chestnut, where we were served a unique and superb toasted almond chocolate soup and the Melting Pot, where we got to try 4 different dessert fondues! A few people mentioned this tour was pricey, but I disagree. Good chocolate is pricey. If you went to Beacon Hill Chocolates on your own, a box of 4 chocolates would have cost you $10. We got to try 2 chocolates and a sample of gelato. A small fondue at the Melting Pot would run you $18. We got to sample 4 different types. And those are just two of the stops! I actually think it was a bargain! The founder actually joined us on the tour and it was apparent that this was his passion and a lot of time and effort went into finding the places to feature on these tours. I really had a great time and I left stuffed! But I can't wait to try another neighborhood for more amazing chocolate discoveries!

This review is for the Cupcake Crawl that Boston Chocolate Tours offers…read more My sister, Mom and I had been on the Back Bay chocolate tour through this company, and had a great time. Our guide was very personable, and each stop consisted of a worker at the shop discussing with us the history of the company, the chocolate they make, interesting facts, etc. Since then, we have gone back to several of the places we discovered on that tour, most notably Hotel Chocolat on Newbury Street. My sister and friends scheduled a private cupcake tour for my bachelorette, figuring it would be along the same caliber. It was not. 1. Not sure if this was the person coordinating the event or the guide, but we were told to park in the Boston Common garage and given the wrong address to the first location. This resulted in half our party having to take a cab to the correct address, and the rest of us doing a 15 min walk, past many other parking garages. We were then almost 20 minutes late meeting our guide. 2. Half our party showed up a few minutes after us since we had been split up, but the guide was hurried and wanted to get started right away without waiting for them, even though it was a PRIVATE tour. She didn't know it was a bachelorette, wasn't overly friendly, and gave us cupcakes from another bakery at Cakeology, but neglected to tell us that, so when I praised the girl working at Cakeology about the amazing chocolate cupcakes, she was completely confused. 3. Obviously cupcake/bakeries are a little more spread around than chocolate stops, but our tour consisted of us walking from Downtown Crossing, to Beacon Hill, to Newbury Street, to behind the Pru by the Christian Science building. We spent more time walking than we did in any of the actual bakeries, learning about the cupcakes, the establishments or even enjoying the actual tasting. At one point, at Georgetown Cupcakes (where we didn't even go inside or get greeted by anyone working there) our guide said let's walk and eat...down Newbury Street, on a busy Saturday afternoon. Not enjoyable. 4. One stop was totally random, at Johnny Cupcakes on Newbury. For those not in the area, it's a niche t-shirt shop, they don't sell cupcakes. They did have cupcakes from a bakery in Malden (why, I'm not sure...because nobody told us). We just kind of stood around in there while our guide chatted with her friends working there until she asked us if we were ready to leave. 5. This is the real annoying part - we walked all the way down Newbury, past the Pru and Hynnes, all the way around the corner and down towards the back of the Pru by the Christian Science Center for our last "stop" with the Kickass Cupcakes truck. They weren't there. I have no idea why our guide didn't think to call them to confirm their location before we started walking over there, but when we got there, she called, and they were at the corner of Clarendon and Newbury, where we had just been. She then offered to go back if we wanted to...we all declined. Tour had been billed as about 3 hours long. If it had started on time at 1:30, that would have put us around 4:30. Because of the address and parking issue, we really started at around 1:50ish, and we were done before 4pm. I can only attribute this to the fact that we didn't spend hardly any time in any of the bakeries before being shuttled off to our next destination, and then completely missing the last cupcake stop. I felt bad for my friends, because this was something special they planned for my bachelorette and paid extra for to have a private tour, and it was a total joke.

Chef Raphael provided his amazing services for a dinner party that I hosted in my home to celebrate…read moremy 30th birthday and I could not have been more impressed! When I first reached out I said my preferences and he used them to create a menu proposal. He was very communicative and I was able to provide feedback in order to make sure the menu was perfect. He was also helpful by providing insightful suggestions. He was flexible with providing alternatives with dietary restrictions for guests. On the day of, he arrived with all of the ingredients ready to go. He prepared the first course, a charcuterie board promptly and was ready when my guests arrived. It was also nice that he wasn't rushed and was willing to be flexible with the timing of the meal as well. It helped keep up a good flow for the dinner party. The second course was a delicious plate of scallops with a sweet corn sauce and roasted cauliflower. The scallops were perfectly seared and a generous portion. The third course was beef tenderloin, wild mushroom risotto and butternut squash purée. The entire dish was delicious! The last course were our very own chocolate fondant cake with vanilla ice cream. The chocolate syrup melted and blended perfectly with the ice cream. After dinner, he cleaned up and left everything spotless. I couldn't have been more pleased with the experience and look forward to more dinner parties with Chef Raphael in the future!

I have asked Chef Raphaël and Jérôme Bergere to provide the catering for my next private holiday…read moreevent. I had the best experience with both in the past. It feels so comfortable and reassuring when both work together, leaving me worry free as they both provide the best culinary and service experience. I never have to worry about something going wrong. Besides this holiday event, I will hire both again for an event I am planning in Boston in March 2023! www.gerardriveron.com