10 Best Cooking Classes In Toronto

Reflective of Toronto’s diverse food scene and our commitment to promoting healthy living and wellness everyday, this list encompasses the best cooking classes in Toronto that focus on healthy eating.

Credit: Thinkstock – Greentellect_Studio

Toronto is home to a wide variety of cooking classes and schools where you can learn about everything from macrobiotic foods and the 100-mile diet, to indigenous root vegetables, gluten-free meals and local/seasonal ingredients. You can also learn to cook with celebrity chef instructors.

Here, in random order are Toronto’s Best Cooking classes:

1. MEGHAN TELPHNER 

When you join this entertaining “nutristionista” in her Toronto loft kitchen, you learn to cook healing and healthy foods that also taste really, really good. You will be welcomed into Meghan Telphner’s world with an in-studio prepared beverage like Chai tea or warm, raw apple cider. Once the class gets cooking, the delectables keep coming.

Open about her challenging journey to optimal health, Meghan genuinely wants to help others achieve their best possible wellness through food. In all of her cooking classes, workshops and longer-term programs, the focus is on healing and nutritional foods.

Meghan offers a wide range of classes including Raw Food Power and Smoothie Up, Juice It Down. You can learn to bake gluten-free treats and how to make edible beauty products or join a Fab Detox Program. However you participate, Meghan is happy to chat after class and help you find the ingredients you need in her small but well stocked health food store.

Class Size: 16 maximum
Focus/Specialty: Happy vibrant living through strong personal health
Unique Class: Online Uplift Detox Program
Specials: Points for return clients go towards discounts

More on Meghan Telphner

2. MASSIMO BRUNO 

Massimo Bruno doesn’t want you to simply cook Italian but to “think Italian in your cooking.”  To him this means sourcing the finest fresh ingredients and preparing them with passion.
Roast cherry tomatoes for your sauce, grill zucchini and prepare roasted pepper gratin salad using the cold pressed, traditionally made olive oil Massimo imports from Italy.  He will teach you how to cook like an Italian with balanced yet not overly complex flavours.
Monthly classes take place in his Toronto Kitchen Studio and fill up fast. Alternatively, you can book him to come to your kitchen for a private or family cooking class.

Class Size: 9
Focus/Specialty: Home style Italian from the Puglia region
Unique Class: Different Regions of Italy

More on Massimo Bruno

3. THE BIG CARROT  

Specializing in organically grown, Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) free and environmentally safe products, The Big Carrot is a retail store, dispensary and cooking school.

Concentrating on vegetarian cooking classes, The Big Carrot invites registered nutritional consultants, practitioners in holistic medicine and healing, (and others) into their studio kitchen to instruct single evening classes.

You can learn to prepare raw Thai dishes and desserts or spend an evening learning about quinoa or how to do a juice cleanse safely. There are classes geared to foods targeting specific physical conditions – anti-inflammatory foods, for instance, and what to eat to build better bones.

This Canadian, worker-owned co-operative also offers free Thursday evening lectures. Expect topics such as Naturopathic Eye Health and Health During Traditional Breast Cancer Treatments.

Class Size: Maximum 8 people
Focus/Specialty: Specific dietary needs
Unique Class: Everyday Flexitarian (semi-vegtarians)
Specials: Free Thursday evening lectures starting at 7:00 pm are held on a first come basis

More on The Big Carrot

4. MARNI WASSERMAN’S FOOD STUDIO & LIFESTYLE SHOP  

Marni Wasserman Food Studio & Lifestyle Shop offers organic vegetarian cooking classes, andwork shops in a sustainable space where people can not only learn to cook but host private parties with a focus on healthy cuisine. Certified nutritional practitioner, chef, author and food consultant, Marni Wasserman instructs using only natural foods with an emphasis on local and organic.

Here is on educating people on how eating in a sustainable, local, organic and plant-based diet can be both simple and delicious. 

Class Size: 4-8 people 3 hours
Focus/Specialty: Organic, seasonal & whole food recipes
Unique Class: Private Cooking Party

More on Marni Wasserman’ Food Studio & Lifestyle Shop

5. CIRILLO’S CULINARY ACADEMY 

Chef John Cirillo and Chef Instructor Terry Port are both chefs with reputable careers who are now sharing their skills with the public at Cirillo’s Culinary Academy.

Working in a modern, well-equipped kitchen, single classes and group cooking parties are available.

Learn how to work with vegetables, meats and fish using different knives in a Knife Skills class. Cook with your sweetie under the tutelage of a professional in Couples Cooking and tour the world focusing on one culinary style at a time with Ethnic Essentials. Kids are encouraged to cook at Cirillo’s in Kids Classes that include summer camp cooking programs.

Focus/Specialty: Culinary techniques and methods
Unique Class: Family Class 

More on Cirillo’s Culinary Academy

6. SPROUT RIGHT 

Sprout Right specializes in fertility, pregnancy and postnatal nutrition for women as well as for babies and children.  For those who need some ideas and help with nutritious meal planning for a growing family, Sprout Right has a lot of support choices.

You can organize a one on one consultation or join an online workshop with videos and menu plans. Mommy Chef classes are hosted at different venues across Ontario.

Class Size: Varies
Focus/Specialty: Family Health
Unique Class: Private nutritionist for expecting moms

7. CULINARIUM 

The motto of this Toronto gourmet food store is, All Ontario, All the Time. They remain true to this locavore spirit in all their services including their produce box and meat sharing programs and in their cooking classes.

Culinarium’s foodie instructors teach you how to cook through Ontario’s seasons in a  three-part cooking class. The first looks at the different varieties of produce, the second is the hands-on cooking class and finally– the meal at a communal table.
Winter Warmer Soups, Making Pasta 101, Jam Preserving 101 and Sensational Sausage are a few of their cooking class offerings.

Focus/Speciality: Ontario food products
Unique Class: Pickle Preserving Party

More on Culinarium

8. APONA HEALING ARTS 

Learn how to incorporate macrobiotic and healing foods into your daily diet with Lidia Kuleshnyk – a health and lifestyle consultant and member of the Macrobiotic Educators Association.

Hands on and demonstration classes work with ingredients like shiso leaves and chestnuts, burdock, kuzu and other root vegetables to create delicious healing and medicinal meals.
Classes are held at Lidia’s out-of-town farm and transportation can be arranged via car pool.

Class Size: Average class size 5
Focus/Specialty: Macrobiotics
Unique Class: Cooking with Herbs

More on Apona Healing Arts

9. ARIVINDA’S HEALTHY GOURMET INDIAN COOKING

At Arivinda’s Healthy Gourmet Indian Cooking, a mother-daughter team co-instruct classes focusing on the nutritional and philosophical properties of authentic, homestyle Indian cuisine. Hands on and demonstration classes focuses on a belief that what you eat is a reflection of your mental and spiritual self. Learn to make creamy butter chicken, Biryani, chicken korma, chickpea curry and a banana ginger chai dessert. Since we last listed Arivinda’s they have added a line of Indian spice blends available for purchase.

Class Size: 6 – 20, Private classes available
Focus/Specialty: Foods that represent purity, strength, joy and happiness
Unique Class: Food tour of Toronto’s Little India

10. ST LAWRENCE MARKET KITCHEN

Tucked above the north end of Toronto’s most popular food market is The Market Kitchen. Created in collaboration with the City of Toronto and equipped by Miele, this professional kitchen hosts cooking workshops that incorporate the fine foods found in the market below. There are free cooking demonstration events like the biscuit and scone workshop, interactive cooking classes with coursed meals led by executive chefs from Toronto restaurants, kitchen skills lessons and ongoing series such as The Making of A Chef: French Cuisine.

Unique Class: Raw Food Diet for Dogs
More on St. Lawrence Market Kitchen 


Researched and written by Nicole Crozier