Tani Cooking Class

I was under the impression that we would be cooking and then eating, but apparently this is only for lunch or earlier in the day. We had a 7pm reservation, and when we got there, he told us it was too late to cook, so it was just going to be dinner, which was fine for everyone, but there was definitely some miscommunication. Typically, it’s $ 39 for instruction, hands on cooking with all the prep done for you, and a 3 course meal. Ours was just the 3 course meal, but given that it’s BYOB, it wasn’t a bad price.
The place is hard to find since it’s around the corner and on the left/​back side of the plaza with Bed, Bath, Beyond and Chromatic coffee. It has 2 long folding tables with tablecloths on them (not the cleanest looking) and a nice open kitchen. It would have been nice to eat along the counter facing the kitchen.
Even though he’s Japanese, he is trained in French cuisine, so the food is basically European/​California style. The food is self serve: go to the kitchen to retrieve your own food, clear your own dishes.
1. Course 1: a plate of nicely composed small bites:
— Pork rilltette on a butter cracker: the rillette was really good in flavor, and the texture reminded me a bit of a thick hummus
— House made pork jerky: a little reminiscent of the Golden Island one from Costco, but his is less sugary sweet, and it had good flavor and good texture
— Toast with beet cream cheese: the toast was pounded out and arranged into a rose shape with different layers with the cream cheese in the center; I don’t love cream cheese, but the presentation on this was nice
— Smoked salmon
— Duck liver mousse: a pretty looking pyramid on crostini — a little too gamey for me
2. Course 2: poached boneless skinless chicken breast topped with a chopped mushroom sauce, yellow rice, and green beans. The chicken was tender, and the mushrooms on top added so much flavor. It was densely covered, and I could have used even more of the mushrooms for the rice
3. Course 3: Strawberry and raspberry shortcake — fresh raspberries and strawberries in syrup with a thin layer of shortcake and then fresh whipped cream. The cream was a bit much for me, but the tower-​like arrangement was really nice, and I enjoyed the rest of it.
Tips:
— Reserve by emailing chef Tani
— If you want to do the cooking /​instruction part, the reservation has to be earlier in the day
— I paid in cash. not sure if he takes credit card
— BYOB — he has wine glasses and a corkscrew. We offered him some, but I guess he doesn’t drink
It’s an interesting concept for a place, and I’m not sure how he makes money to cover his overhead. He’s a nice guy, and it wasn’t quite what we expected, but it was a fun dinner nonetheless (it sort of felt like we were in someone’s home with a private chef).

I just had my third cooking class with Chef Tani today with a different group of friends and everyone enjoyed the experience and yummy foods. We had Duck Confit for appetizer, Paella as entrée (just as delicious as last time when I had it at the class with another group of friends) and Fondant Chocolate as dessert (yes, even though it’s more of a cold weather dessert). We even learned how to vacuum pack without a vacuum pack machine and how to cook duck and other meats at a certain temperature so their flavor is preserved and they don’t shrink. The surface of the duck was so crispy and the duck meat melt in your mouth… We brought a bottle of red wine and it was great to go with our appetizer and even the entrée… The Fondant Chocolate was sooo good with the cake being extremely moist and the chocolate just flew out of the center when you ate. We had strawberry and mint leave as decoration with freshly whipped cream to go with it. As usual, Chef Tani was so generous with his portions that we all had enough to take home to share with our other half… We booked another session with Chef Tani as everyone enjoyed so much the learning experience, the fun and the delicious menu…

It was a fun and very yummy learning experience I had at Chef Tani’s yesterday. I was introduced by a good friend who had already attended a previous session and loved it. Not a recipe follower myself but capable of making decent food, I did liked the class very much.
The class was reserved last month (his calendar filled up quickly), we came to finalize the menu a week ago by picking from the many pictures posted on the wall. The menu: appetizer — crab avocado stack, main dish — Paella! and dessert pear tart. On the day of class, seven of us arrived at 10am with our aprons, rubber gloves (for clean up), containers for leftovers and our own drink (hot tea is provided by chef). He provided all of the ingredients, we helped with some simple cutting and pealing of vegetables and fruits.
We started by making the dessert because it needed time to be baked. After watching his preparation, the fancy looking pear tart became less intimidating. Then all of us made our own appetizer stacking creamed rice, avocado mouse and crab using a small tomato paste can as the ring. We were creative with the decoration by using fresh dill, cherry tomatoes, other vegetables and flavored mayo in a pipe. All of our appetizers looked great and tasted delicious too.
Chef Tani had very generous portions of paella ingredients; in a huge pan we watched him adding fish, cuttlefish, scallops, chicken, clams, shrimps, mussels and etc when the rice cooked in a saffron /​seafood broth was almost done. Each one of us had a generous serving of the Paella, there were enough leftover for all of us to take some home. The pear tart was delicious and very professional looking; although not a dessert lover myself I will definitely try to make it. Hubby had the take home food for dinner and gave them thumbs up; he thought the pear tart was better then store bought.
Chef Tani joined us in the lunch but he always requested to have the smallest serving. Although his English is limited, he was very friendly, personable and eager to share his skills and ways to maximize the ingredients. I’d highly recommend chef Tani’s class to anyone who enjoys cooking and/​or eating with a group of friends.

I’ve lived in this area for long time but never knew about the chef until recently. He doesn’t advertise at all so you get to know about him only through word of mouth or Unilocal!
The fee couldn’t be better. $ 39 which he wants to mean thank you by San (3) Kyuu (9) in Japanese. How cute and generous of him!
We had 9 of us and our menu was cheese soufflet, fish bonne-​femme and blancmange with raspberry sauce. All delicious.
He has a twin brother who is a famous chef for his air tight cooking method. You get to learn it with this chef Tani too.
The teaching is mainly in Japanese so if you have a Japanese speaker or two in your group, that’d be even better.

Here are the basic things to know if you would like to host a private event with Chef Tani:
1) $ 39 per person
2) bring your own beverage and music (he has wine glasses)
3) his store front is just around the corner of the UPS store.
I hosted a private corporate team building for the ten of us and we had a lot of fun. We brought our own beverages and music. The ambience is cozy and feels like you are just chatting away at a friends house while dashing in and out of the kitchen.
Chef Tani is Japanese who specialize in French techniques. While speaking to him over the phone we had trouble understanding one another, we had no problem in person.
I did 4 – 5 pricing quotes around the southbay area and no one comes close to chef tani’s 39 dollars per person price. You need to schedule an appointment with him, and pick out what you want to cook for your appetizer, main entrée and dessert. We had crab and avocado stack, roasted wild rice stuffed Cornish hen, and blancmanger. Chef Tani has done all the prep work so we just came so for the «fun» part. Everything was delicious and we had a blast team building, learning and just chatting away. I would come back to chef Tani again for another team building exercise or any of his private cooking lessons.