Rustico Cooking

I recently threw a 50^th Birthday party at Rustico. The experience from the first phone call to the end of the evening was fabulous! We are very picky when it comes to food and the owners were accommodating all the way. The 2 chefs were patient with us as many were «non-​cooks». We actually learned a lot along the way! All in all this was an overall positive experience and we wouldn’t hesitate to return…

Class was somewhat interesting but not worth the price point

Attended a corporate event here and it was fantastic! There were 20 people and we all had a great time. Our chefs broke us into two teams and they were so patient with us and taught us step by step the process of what we were cooking. We had custom aprons made which were amazing quality. The food was great and it helped that some of it was cooked off ahead of time to save on time. It was the perfect amount of hands on experience and team building. Micol was so helpful in the planning also! Looking forward to another event here in the future!

We had an office party for 25 people and all had a great time.
We did the option where we all just cooked the appetiser. And then had the main and dessert cooked for us. so in the beginning we were all involved in cooking and then we got to relax, drink wine and have a fantastic meal cooked for us.
The space isn’t huge, but we had plenty of room for our group size and I would say another 15 people would’ve fit in well.
The chefs were friendly and helpful and made it as enjoyable as possible.
Being the one who organised the evening for my company I can say that the people who helped organise and book things in the Rustico office were very helpful, patient and accommodating.
It’s a great option for a team bonding/​office party event

I came here for a corporate bonding event with around 40 people. The space is pretty tiny for a group this size and we were extremely hot due to the confined space and use of ovens. They split us into two groups — half of us would cook and the other half did trivia. The trivia was silly questions about food but was kind of neat to learn about. For food, we cooked chicken, smashed potatoes, homemade pasta and a chocolate molten cake.
Although I do not know the price since this was organized by my work, if we paid the same amount that others paid I just think this was really too pricey for what we got. The «appetizers» included small quiche squares, pieces of a quesadilla and chicken on toothpicks. We also had wine, but this was very minimal and also not good quality. We had a glass when we arrived but were not allowed to have any more for over an hour when we finally sat down to dinner. By the time we ate, I was definitely the sleepiest girl in the entire world (because wine has a way of doing that to me)
So I enjoyed making homemade pasta and appreciated the instruction there so that was enjoyable. The issue came when we sat down for dinner. It frankly was just not very good food and wasn’t a particularly enjoyable «party» as we felt like we were in an assembly line grabbing food. The chicken was dry, the smashed potatoes had a funky flavor that kind of tasted like they were dirty, and the pasta was super watery. And they were super stingy on the wine I mean come on — home girl didn’t have to get super drunk but home girl was def tryna get her drank on a bit. People legitimately were fighting over the wine so that they could have a second glass.
I think the issue with this was we came in to the event with such high expectations because we attended another venue last year and had an unbelievable experience. Maybe this place is good for the individual cooking lessons with a smaller group but for a corporate bonding event I have to say that this just doesn’t work.

We did a team event here in April 2015 and while the location and facilities are nice the price point doesn’t justify the experience and food quality. We paid $ 130 per person and alcohol was not included. For this price we received bland and boring Hors d’oeuvres which consisted of chicken pieces, frittata pieces and toast with a tiny amount of cheese on top. The team activity was to make gnocchi pasta, pasta sauce, chicken sauce and tiramisu. It was fun to do this as a team but overall the price point is high for a small amount of food and experience is average.

I took the Italian for beginners class. The class was great, I would definitly recommend this class. Michol was the instructor who runs the program and she was great respected everyone and welcomed questions while keeping an eye on everyone. We especially like how clean and hygenic the class was run since you are eating all of the food that is being prepared. Everyone gets involved in the process and at the end you get to eat a 3 course meal. The portions were very filling and the ragu sauce we made was one of the best sauces I have ever tasted. At the end they give you all of the recipes to take at home. I would def suggest taking the class with someone or with a group. We would go back for another class.

I have to disagree with some of the reviews here. I just had the pleasure of taking a «Tuscan Seafood» cooking class with my fiancé over the weekend and would recommend this place in a heart beat.
Their website clearly states that cooking classes are appropriate for all levels. If you are an expert already, maybe you should seek out an advanced class. They do cut and measure lots of ingredients beforehand since most people can figure that part out on their own (or take a knife skills class).
Mical is knowledgable, friendly, supportive, and an excellent teacher. Not only did she go into detail about each recipe, she gave examples of how you could swap ingredients or make it work in your own kitchen and every day life. In a room of 19 participants, she made sure everybody got a chance to work on something within each course.
So if you are looking to prep and fully execute an elaborate 3 course meal, this is not the class for you. If you are looking to work a bit on each course, learn about authentic Italian cooking, have some great wine and meet some great people, call Rustico.

My mother and I took a class in September and are returning in January! We made a delicious «Italian Fireplace Dinner.» It was such a delightful evening, we cooked, ate and drank with such pleasant strangers. Micol gave us excellent directions and made suggestions we could apply to our daily cooking at home. After the fresh pasta we made here, I don’t think any other pasta will ever be good enough again.
This is an excellent idea to have for a group event, or even with a buddy, date, or Mom! We just had a refreshingly nice evening. I’m not Ms. Moneybags, but the semi pricey cost was absolutely worth it!

I was taken here with a private party and had a lot of fun! I’m not sure what the cost was, but I see that it can be pricey. honestly worth it in my opinion! We got aprons (not sure if that comes with Rustico or not), and lots of wine. I agree with other Unilocalers that this place is a little beginner — although we did get to roll our own pasta, and absolutely everything was made from scratch! All the prep work was done — so no knives — but we cooked things on the stove, boiled pasta, baked polenta fries, and more. It’s a really fun time if you ever have a something you want to do with a big group of people! After cooking, you get to eat your creation, while feeling that great sense of accomplishment for actually cooking and not ordering delivery or take out.
The chef-​teachers were so nice, and were also great servers, pouring us wine while eating. They seemed to know when to leave us to our on conversations and when to come back in when we needed a little more guidance. Beautiful space!

Overall a nice class, but there were just too many students and definitely not enough wine and given the high price tag I would not go back. I just kind of felt like I was a «sucker» for paying so much for a cooking demonstration masquerading as a cooking class. However, a private class might be a great option if you have the money to pay for it.
Here is the breakdown:
PROs:
The class was 2 hours and taught by Chef Micol Negrin with the assistance of her husband Dino De Angelis. They both did a great job organizing everything and made sure the class went smoothly at all time
Despite the large class, the Chef did a good job of focusing on techniques so people would come away with a new skill and not just another recipe
The Chef was very intense about hygiene and made sure the kitchen was held to the highest standards of cleanliness
Food was pretty good
CONs:
Way too many people. I totally understand that this is a business, but the amount of people makes the experience much more of a cooking demonstration where you can volunteer to help, but there’s not a lot of prep work and you don’t get any «ownership» over your meal or over a course.
You can’t drink any wine while you are cooking, which I thought was pretty disappointing
When we ate the meal, we got like 1 – 2 glasses each with a small pour, max. And you kind of had to fight for second glass if you got one at all.
The whole think just felt like they were running you through an assembly line, not a great feeling.
ADDITONAL INFO.
Definitely a beginner class for people who, for example, who have never made tomato sauce before, so keep that in mind
Wear comfortable shoes

If you have any cooking experience, don’t waste your time and money here. The «chef teacher» seems to gear this class for people who need to learn how to boil water. Seriously.
She forgot shallots and said the flavor would be the same with scallions. Wow.
Lastly, all tastings were served using styrofoam and plastic forks. The kitchen had two dishwashers but the would rather use plastics. Thus chef needs to learn presentation counts, and also to advertise that the class is for novices.

RUSTICO COOKING BRINGS IT BACK OLD SCHOOL!
This all started back in December when my wife and I were exchanging Chanukah gifts. I got tickets to Dave Matthews Band at the IZOD Center for her and five of our closest friends. She got tickets for «Fresh Pasta for Beginners» at Rustico Cooking for the both of us.
She won. Her gift to me was totally the better gift of the two.
Our cooking class was scheduled from 12:00 — 3:00 PM and would be taught by Chef Micol Negrin with the assistance of her husband Dino De Angelis. Be forewarned that there are three flights of stairs to walk up, so bring a nice pair of comfortable shoes. You’ll also be on your feet for most of the next 3 hours, so high heels and golf cleats are both out of the question. We were greeted by Micol and Dino as they had pre-​printed name tags for the entire group. It was clear that had done this many times before and could handle a group this large. We were also greet by two platters of bite-​size appetizers that were pre-​cut and ready to eat.
Cheese-​Stuffed Focaccia from Recco
Crostini with Artichoke Paste
The crostini was more crisp that bruschetta and the artichoke paste was flavorful and slightly chunky. The focaccia was my favorite of the two. It was cut into triangles like a quesadilla and each one tasted divine. Their website has the recipe for this one, so I might just give it a try at home eventhough it was not covered in class.
Wash your hands!
Speaking of the class forum, a lot of people are hung up on how to classify what kind of cooking class this should be called. Some people have called it a «group prep» while others have called it a «cooking demonstration.» Call it whatever you want, but the finished product was meal that left everyone of us licking our plates. For 3 hours we were under the instructions of an accomplished chef and were able to eat the fruits of our labors. I highly doubt that we all would have enjoyed our pasta dishes as much if we all would have had to sweat through bringing our dishes to completion on our first try.
Basil-​Scented Tomato Sauce
Classic Two-​Meat Ragu
While the course was called «Pasta for Beginners,» I went into the class thinking that I might be a bit more advanced than classmates that think that a «Ragu» is a jarred sauce that you find in the supermarket. It wasn’t until I watched Micol make her Basil-​Scented Tomato Sauce from scratch that I realized how little I knew. She transformed fresh Campari tomatoes into a wonderful light tomato sauce within less than a half hour. Micol could give Rachael Ray a run for her money any day of the week! When it comes to making a «meat sauce» my wife is always a bit skittish. I think she is afraid that I’ll make it too meaty and not saucy enough. Yet again Micol took us to task to learn how to properly blend the beef and pork sausage into a balanced sauce that can be served over any pasta.
Fresh Tagliatelle
Three-​Cheese Ravioli
Wash your hands!
Speaking of pasta, I almost forgot the show’s star attraction: The Pasta! After all, don’t forget that this Cooking Class was called «Pasta for Beginners.» We made two kinds of pasta for our class and don’t let anyone tell you anything different, because every student in the class gets his or her hands dirty in the process. Some of us may have better at it than others, but all of the dough eventually came together to become part of the ravioli and tagilatelle that would be our meal.
Practice makes perfect, but walking out of here you may finally get the confidence to break out that Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer that you got as a wedding gift 4 years ago and start rigging up the pasta accessories that you were too fearful to use. I’ve had fresh pasta before, but never anything as fresh as this. It’s like a complete gain changer that has challenged all of my preconceived notions of what I thought was pasta before taking this class. The texture of dry pasta is so incomparable to fresh pasta that it makes the whole concept of ordering «al dente» a moot point as you are inevitably eating an inferior product no matter how much you over or undercook. From now on I’ll be sure to grab fresh pasta at every opportunity if I am unable to make it myself
Wash your hands!
We closed by sipping espresso from their machine that poured a perfect cup every time. I’d elaborate more on the process of making the Crunchy Almond Biscotti, but given my allergy to almonds i was sure to steer clear of the counter where they were working on our dessert. I will say that Micol was very mindful of cleanliness that she made sure that she would send off any people to the sink to wash their hands if they so much as scratched their face or touched their hand and then thought about touching the group’s ingredients. I was proud that I was one of the few not to get called out and self-​monitored myself for sanitizing.
A fantastic experience that I’d gladly repeat with friends and family. You’re sure to leave with a new appreciation of Italian cuisine!

Yeah, 3 stars, these reviews are accurate on here so please do read.
— more of group prep, not a cooking class, you don’t have your own area, you are not preparing all the food yourself but doing it as a team.
— food decent, nothing amazing
— staff very nice
— good overall experience/​fun time
— but no don’t come here to learn how to cook or get any amazing tips
— paid maybe 120 bucks so think of it as 40 bucks an hour so an interesting experience

I enjoyed my pasta class at Rustico. I learned how to make pasta and almond biscotti. We made sauces during the class but little attention was paid to these. The hands on pasta lesson was helpful as I have been able to make my own pasta at home now. As the other reviewers have said there are parts where you do not get to touch the food at all, but every person in the class got to work with pasta dough.
My one complaint was the size of the class. There were 40 some people split into two kitchens with 2 teachers in each kitchen. The two chefs in my kitchen were arguing over how to prepare the meal, and one of them was helpful but not the nicest teacher. I would take another class here, but I would want a smaller class.

I’ll have to echo everyone’s sentiments that this isn’t really a cooking class. You work with the very personable chefs and can volunteer to help, but other than that, there’s very little prep work involved, and you don’t get to see multiple courses all the way through.
Once you set your expectations, it’s a fun time for a work group activity. Google took us out here as a holiday party, and I must say, I really enjoyed it. We made some nice cheese gnocchi with pork sauce, mashed potatoes, and cheesecake.
The wine tasting was also quite a treat, as I didn’t know it was part of the night. Costas really knows his wine, and taught us a lot of basic techniques to keep with us for the rest of our wine-​drinking days (as well as some tips to fake it if we have to). The timing of the wine and the meals could’ve been better though, as we had to delay eating to finish the wine parts.
I can’t comment on the price, as it was a corporate event, but I don’t think I’d come back on my own.

Quite disappointed. It was fun but I can’t say I learned much of anything. Most importantly, it was not worth the price I paid.
Beginning — You walk in, put your name tag on and munch on appetizers paired with water. Then the group is split into two and the class starts.
I attended the pasta making class and it’s more of a group project. The reviews written are pretty accurate. The ingredients for the sauces were either precut or semi-​premade. We just had to mix it in the pan and heat it up. By «we» I mean there is only one pan and we take turns stirring.
Pasta time! This I guess was the fun part because everyone got to use the pasta machine. The instructor made the dough in front of us and answered any questions we had.
The end — Eating. We ate at the large dining table. They had bottles of red and white wine and water for us and in addition to the pasta we made, they gave us salad and dessert.
I’m vegan and the menu was not. But I was able to try one of the pasta dishes because we didn’t use egg in the mix. The instructor was willing to make me a separate dish with olive oil but luckily one of the sauces we made were vegan, tomato, so I was able to have pasta with tomato sauce. Def not worth $ 95. My non-​vegan friends enjoyed the pasta dishes though. Their fav was the gnocchi.
Overall — Pricey. If you want to learn and get hands on experience, I do not suggest coming here. This is more for socializing and eating.

First off, i would like to say that the instructors were very nice and helpful, the equipment is new and beautiful. The Space was big and the art work surrounding it was outstanding.
Regarding the class, Rustic Favorites — February 20 at 6PM, it was a big disappointment for me.
The menu for the evening was,
–Tagliatelle with Amatriciana Sauce (Pancetta, Onion, & Tomato)
–Fennel-​, Chili-​, and Rosemary-​Rubbed Filet Mignon in Red Wine Glaze Asparagus & Saffron Risotto
–Roasted String Beans with Sun-​dried Tomatoes & Thyme
–Miniature Apple Puff Pastry Pies with Almond Paste Crumble & Vanilla Bean Ice Cream
When i signed up for the class and noticed that for desert we would be doing Puff Pastry i was excited, and that was the main reason why i wanted to go.
I was expecting to learn how to make Puff Pastry. The fact of the matter was that, they told us that you can find it in any store and its easier for you to go out and buy it. it saves you time and its better that way.
I already now that much, i know that i can go to Citarella right now and buy some fresh ones, but i wanted to learn, i wanted to lose time trying and learning how to make it at home. Its a cooking class after all, Right???
The Positive experience regarding the class, was the pasta making. The instructor showed us step by step and even knowing i already now how to, its always good to go back to basics.
When it was time to cook something it was only one person and then they had a camera above the oven that was sending a signal to the TV, so that everyone could see how it was done.
I’m Sorry to say but i could do the same at home and turn on the cooking channel and not spend money doing it.
Me and my Partner have taken many Cooking classes before and always learned how to do everything by doing it from scratch.
Rustico was very disappointing for us, we walked out with no new techniques or new ideas for dishes.
I believe that a cooking class should inspire you in creating and perfecting the things you just learned, unfortunately that was not the case.
If you are new at cooking, or if you like to have someone do everything for you, then by all means Rustico is for you.
But it you already now the basics and like to be hands on, learn and improve new things i suggest you don’t go there, otherwise you will be very disappointed.
I think cooking classes should inspire and teach you new things, Rustico did not do that for me.

I love me some cooking classes! Whenever I found out this was where our company dinner was held, I was somewhat shocked, yet excited!
We were a group of 33 and the space was more than accommodating. After arriving, we were given some wine and finger foods to munch on while the kitchen staff finished their prep. The cooks introduced themselves, and gave a little background about the school and the class we would be involved in. There were four different tables, all making a part of the meal. They allowed you to pick your poison and create whatever you wanted.
The menu for the evening:
Homemade Cavatelli with Roasted Broccoli Garlic & Pecorino
First and foremost, we had made this pasta! What a cool experience, the machine used to create this beautiful little carb was also really fun to play with. This dish was put together perfectly, while extremely simple and basic, the roasted broc was really a stand out in my book. The extra touch of crushed red pepper added a nice balance of heat to the dish.
Chicken Scaloppine with Prosciutto & Provolone in a Marsala Glaze
Now most of the prep was done for this dish, the chicken had already been prepared and cooked. It was just a matter of putting the basil, mozz and prosciutto on top of the chicken before it went back into the oven. I did not have this dish but from looking around at everyones plate sitting nearby, it appeared to be a hit!
Roasted Vegetables in Tarragon Scented oil
This side dish was also prepped and basically completed. The veggies for the evening were eggplant, red and yellow pepper, and zucchini. Of course you all know I took part in helping prep this dish. I drizzled it with a little EVOO and we added some spices along with the tarragon. When served, sadly the veggies were cold and the tarragon flavor was not nearly as strong as I would have liked it to of been!
Savory Spinach & Artichoke Bread Pudding
This was another dish I took part in helping make … Again, everything was prepped and ready to go, the spinach, artichokes, and the four different cheese were already in a big bowl ready to be mixed. While we did that, the other half of the table prepped the, eggs, milk, heavy cream and spices. Again, I didn’t have this dish but it was the talk of the table!
Molten Chocolate Cakes with Strawberry Sauce & Vanilla Scented Whipped Cream
And finally dessert, I didn’t see much of the prep but I’m sure most of it was taken care of and the team came in to do the mixing and such. They were baked in little cake pans and plated ever so nicely.
As for me, they were kind enough to prep a veggie dish for me. It was the roasted veggies and then a bean dish. Which was extremely nice and delicious but I felt there could have been a little more creativity. I get there was only X amount of time to prep things and I’m happy that I was able to eat more than just veggies and the pasta but there just wasn’t anything memorable about my meal.
Again, the space is amazing and I would love for that to be my kitchen. The staff was helpful, fun and knowledgeable. I think classes go for $ 195 which I don’t think I could ever see myself spending. I’m sure with a smaller group and more time, the prep work wouldn’t have been done and we would have been able to do the slicing and the dicing!

This is not so much a «cooking class» as it is a social dinner party. I was expecting a class that would be hands on, and each person will have their own cooking area to prepare their food.
It’s not like this at all. Basically, about 15 people are all gathered around a large table watching someone mix a bowl for example, then the bowl gets passed around and each person gets a turn mixing. Next, everyone moves to another table where each person gets a turn kneading the same piece of dough.
Maybe this is good for people who are more into the social aspect of it all, but for someone who truly loves cooking and wants to learn new techniques and ideas by creating their own dishes at the instructions of a chef, this might not be the choice for you.