LEARN TO COOK
LIKE YOU.
MEAN IT.
Next cohort begins March 17, 2026. Eight weeks. Five techniques. One portfolio meal.
Organized.
Delicious.
Five steps from sign-up to portfolio meal. Every step visible before you spend a dollar.
Enroll & Complete Your Skills Audit
Before you set foot in the kitchen, you fill out a 12-question skills audit. We read it the same day.
Your answers shape your track placement — no generic curriculum. A chef coordinator calls within 24 hours to confirm your level and answer questions.
Choose Your Track
Three tracks. Each built around a different relationship with food.
Foundations (home cooks), Brigade Immersion (career-changers), or Team Build (corporate groups). Every track runs the same commercial kitchen, same instructors, different pace and depth.
Cook Under Supervision
Every session is live-fire. No watching videos. No passive note-taking.
An instructor stands at your station for the first 20 minutes of every technique. Corrections happen in real time. You leave each class with a dish you made, not a slide deck.
Build Your Portfolio Meal
Week eight is your final service. You plate three courses for a table of six.
Your instructor evaluates timing, seasoning, and presentation using the same rubric used in Michelin-starred kitchens. You leave with a written critique and a meal certificate.
Ready to enroll?
Three tracks. One kitchen. Zero guesswork.
Three tracks.
One kitchen.
Every track runs in the same commercial kitchen. The pace, depth, and goal differ. The rigor doesn't.
Foundations
Ambitious Home Cooks
Duration
8 weeks · 2 sessions/week
Investment
From $1,200
You can follow a recipe. This track teaches you to not need one. By week four you'll understand heat, fat, acid, and salt as a system — not a checklist.
Curriculum Outline
Most popular among home cooks
See Schedules & PricingBrigade Immersion
Career-Changers
Duration
12 weeks · 3 sessions/week
Investment
From $2,800
You want to work in a kitchen. This track runs like a real brigade — stations, timing, ticket flow, and the vocabulary of professional service. We don't pretend it's easy.
Curriculum Outline
83% of graduates report job placement within 6 months
See Schedules & PricingTeam Build
Corporate Groups
Duration
Half-day or full-day
Investment
From $180/person
Your team competes to build a three-course menu in four hours. An instructor runs the floor. The chaos is controlled. The food is real. The debrief is led by the chef.
Curriculum Outline
Minimum 8 / Maximum 24 participants
See Schedules & PricingThey ran hotel lines.
Then picked up a whiteboard marker.
Every instructor has brigade experience. No culinary school graduates teaching here — only working chefs who chose to teach.
Chef Marcus Delacroix
Head Instructor · Classical French technique, sauce work
"You don't learn to cook by watching. You learn by burning something, understanding why, and never burning it again."
Formerly: Sous Chef, The Peninsula Chicago · Chef de Partie, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, London
Chef Priya Nair
Foundations Instructor · Knife skills, vegetable cookery, flavor balance
"Most home cooks are afraid of their knives and their heat. We fix both in the first session."
Formerly: Line Cook, Alinea · Instructor, Illinois Restaurant Association
Chef James Okafor
Brigade Immersion Lead · Protein cookery, station management, ticket flow
"A brigade runs on communication and timing. Those are teachable skills. I've seen them transform careers."
Formerly: Tournant, Four Seasons Chicago · Executive Sous Chef, Nobu Chicago
Brigade Credits Include
Chicago, IL
West Loop Teaching Kitchen
6 a.m. clean.
Every single morning.
The kitchen is the teacher. A spotless station forces precision. Mise en place lined up before every session — not because we\'re tidy, because it\'s the only way to cook with intention.
6 Independent Stations
Each with its own induction range, prep surface, and mise en place setup
2,400 sq ft Teaching Floor
Certified commercial kitchen with full ventilation and HACCP compliance
Filmed Instruction Archive
Every technique session recorded — rewatch anything from your cohort
Professional Knife Kit
Provided for Foundations and Brigade tracks — yours to keep at graduation
Your portfolio meal
is eight weeks away.
No form on this page. The schedules page shows every open seat across all three tracks — with pricing, start dates, and a 15-minute call option if you have questions.
See Class Schedules & Pricing