The Civic Kitchen

Excellent staff; friendly, patient and helpful. The recipes were challenging, but their team knows how to adapt to novices and experts alike. The end product was delicious!

Recent private b-day party with widely varying aptitude by 30 guests for kitchen prep tasks - everyone gave 5 stars to CK and to their amazing, attentive staff. Graciously attended to each special request, incorporating any "can we do this for the guests" into their core, Civic Kitchen team cooking experience. We made a range of appetizers, enjoyed a remarkably easy, informal, gathering in a professionally equipped, professionally staffed Kitchen.

I can’t get enough of The Civic Kitchen. Not only you will learn one of the most important skills in life, but you will enjoy all the recipes, attention to details and warmth from the staff. The Learn to cook series was fabulous but the American Diner Brunch was perhaps my favorite class so far! Can’t wait to be back!

Wow, wow, wow. A beautiful space, excellent staff, fresh ingredients, action-packed classes, and a meal together at the end. You learn so much and gain so much confidence in the fundamentals in a short amount of time. You must check these folks out!!

Beautiful space with excellent cooking equipment. Amazing instructors and owner. Classes are a bit pricey but worth it. Chefs kiss!

The space is beautiful and the team a delight to work with! My company conducted investor product tastings at Civic Kitchen and worked with Jen and Chris; they were incredibly responsive, reliable, accommodating, and helpful plus delightful to work with. The space is absolutely gorgeous- a chef's dream to work in. Jen has thoughtfully equipped it with multiples of everything you could need; has given the space the best flow, impeccable organization, and designed every detail with incredible intentionality. She has an impressive display wall of cookbooks, impeccable taste (literally and figuratively! The fresh flowers every day in antique mint julep cups complete her vision!), and the attention to detail are very telling of the quality of their work and cooking classes. We are so grateful to have had such a wonderful space and team on our side during a very intense work week! Highly, highly recommend Civic Kitchen for your next event or class!

Fantastic experience at a birthday party. Learned to make a wonderful meal and got to interact with people in a new and engaging way without anyone on their phones.

This is a new cooking school. Chef Agustin Gaytan instructed the hands class I attended. We made 3 different kinds of tamales. Delicious food and salsas. I learned a few new techniques and some of the history behind the food. The owner says they are stil adding chefs and classes and they will have children's classes.

Wonderful staff, very organized and well run. Would definitely recommend. (nothing more to add but have to reach the character limit for them to post.)

I took a pie class at the Civic Kitchen cooking school with a few friends and our teenage kids. My son and I made a double crust apple, apple w/oat crumble, pecan, and pumpkin pie (using freshly roasted butternut squash instead of pumpkin, which I thought tasted even better!). The teachers were hands-on and came around to help everyone and answer questions. The space was spacious and well-designed, and we got a lovely homemade lunch of sandwiches/soup/salad. Owned by a local couple, the school offers in-person and virtual classes from Japanese Breakfast to Sourdough Bread. They also offer gift cards for their classes, which would make a great gift for cooks.

I cannot recommend the Learn to Cook series at Civic Kitchen more highly!!! I live right around the corner from Civic Kitchen and remember being skeptical about another business in our neighborhood that was out of my price range. For a few years I received their mailing list, looking at all the amazing cooking classes they offered and never took part thinking it was too much to spend on myself. Coming out of COVID, I decided to bite the bullet and enroll in the 6 week Learn to Cook I series. BEST DECISION EVER! While the overall price might seem scary, you get your money's worth and MORE! It truly is an investment in yourself that greatly benefits your loved ones as they reap the benefits of your new culinary skills!!! When you break it down, the culinary tips and tricks you get, intensive small group instruction, a gourmet dinner complete with wine and your new cooking friends, as well as the occasional left overs, it really is a steal. Walking in the door, the kitchen is absolutely stunning. It is so tastefully designed with local Heath Ceramics, natural wood, stainless steel, Le Creuset, and the most beautiful kitchen tools. It is a treat to learn and cook from this kitchen. They use only the highest quality ingredients and help you learn about great places to source produce and meat in the neighborhood. Each week they send you the recipes and techniques that will be covered. I highly recommend doing all the recipes again after class at home as "homework" to continue to refine your skills and have experience substituting when what you're looking for might not be available. I've said a lot about the value and space but let me tell you about the PEOPLE! A fine team of people run The Civic Kitchen. Jen Nurse and her husband Chris are the fantastic owners. Jen previously worked with the non-profit 18 Reasons and is highly committed to the community. The culinary director Carrie is great and comes around during class to provide support and helpful tips. Frances is the incredible cooking instructor that is just a joy to watch and learn from. They also have a rotating dishwasher who each week has been super nice and friendly. Truly a grade "A" team, trust me, I'm a teacher. The course starts out sitting at a long communal table with snacks and Frances going over the day's recipes and techniques. The rest of the class is a combination of observation and working hands on with a few other people at your station replicating the dishes. All skills welcome and no one is left behind. Jen, Frances, and Carrie all float around to check on your skills and provide support. The evening concludes feasting on the fruits of your labor with fantastic wine. It's the best night of the week. Disclaimer, I went a little overboard with the photos but the pictures speak for themselves. Overall, come for the food and stay for the people! I am wrapping up Learn to Cook I tonight and am already looking forward to part two of the series!!!

If I could build a dream kitchen this would be it. There was plenty of space, even with our large group. The kind of space that you can all gather around and be doing something rather than being stuck behind your buddy trying to see what is going on. Ann taught us how to make donuts and really went above and beyond explaining why and how she has modified her donut recipes over the years. We got the opportunity to make over 100 fried donuts and 100 cake donuts, needless to say we at as many as we could and took the rest home to show off to our friends :) I especially liked how we were hands on the whole time, we made the dough, we fried the dough, we decorated the donuts, and we broke apart the sprinkles. Additionally we got to learn how to make the icing in a more organic way, using foods for obtaining colors rather than food coloring. I especially enjoyed the fact that Ann sat down with us at the end and answered all of our questions that we had about cooking. What classes they offered, how the school got started, what books she recommended out of the immense library of books that they had on the shelf, how to improve your cooking skills, etc. You name it, Ann had an answer. I am really interested in seeing what else the school has to offer.

It takes passion, knowledge, enthusiasm and guts to keep a cooking school alive and fully operational in the midst of a pandemic... Jen Nurse and Chris Bonomo, founders of the Civic Kitchen, have pivoted brilliantly from running classes and events in their spacious, inviting SF Mission location to offering the same online. Having participated in cooking classes both in their Mission space and over Zoom, I can attest that their offerings are as generous and high quality remotely as they are in person. From Mexican cooking to a master class on using lemons in varied ways and another about cookbook writing - the Civic Kitchen has always over delivered and left me feeling better at the end of the session than I did before! Highly recommended! Looking forward to more.

Civic Kitchen SF was the absolute best place for us to enjoy our first annual corporate team holiday dinner! Instead of the regular "humdrum boring sit down dinner", 12 of us got busy in the kitchen creating a wonderful meal together. They had a special cocktail and light bites waiting for us when we arrived! When it was time to get started cooking, we had great instruction on what not to do for safety and what each station would be making. Our chef, Jackie Apple, created a menu appropriate for everyone, not only food-wise but cooking skill-wise as well. Nothing was too simple, or too difficult to make. We all learned something new, even those who love to cook! The best part: we were able to nosh and mingle and cook our dinner together as we visited with each other instead of being stuck at a table in a crowded restaurant. When it was time to sit down and serve the meal, those who prepared the dish, got up and plated, then served their course to everyone else. We enjoyed a 4 course dinner with delightful wine and beer pairings. The owners, Chris and Jen, have built an amazing space, thoughtfully designed with everything needed for cooking in a class or an intimate dinner party. They are doing it right!

Even though I'm quite comfortable in the kitchen, I wanted to take a few classes to better understand the science of baking. I took the Learn to Bake series (4 classes) and the Tartine-style Bread Making course. Each time I went to The Civic Kitchen, I learned a ton, made and ate delicious food, and had a blast. I took a cooking series at another cooking school in SF, but I enjoyed the Civic Kitchen experience so much more. A few reasons why: * The instructors - Sasha, Jen, and Deirdre - were all amazing and knowledgeable. But what set them apart from other teachers is that they were able to teach and communicate effectively so all students (regardless of level) were able to follow along easily and make delicious food. They were also just fun to be around. *The student to teacher ratio is great - I got lots of personal attention and was able to get my questions answered. * The recipes and the quality of ingredients were top-notch. Everything I learned to make was delicious - all things I have continued to make for loved ones. And the ingredients provided were the best quality - all organic, locally sourced, fresh. * The kitchen is beautiful and well-equipped, but rather than feel like a restaurant-style kitchen, it feels like a kitchen in a home. Just bigger and with more awesome tools than most home cooks would have. * After you cook/bake, you get to enjoy delicious food with the other students and teachers. Since all my classes were baking sessions, the instructors made us delicious savory food to enjoy with our breads, cakes, cookies, tarts. And provided red and white wine to enjoy. * It's clear that the owners Jen and Chris put a lot of thought into creating and building this school. Everything - the instructors, the design of the kitchen, the courses, the menus, the ingredients - are put together in a way that make it a 5-star experience for any one hoping to learn or improve their cooking or baking skills. I can't say enough good things about The Civic Kitchen. I've already recommended it to friends who have taken classes and loved their experiences. If you are considering taking a class - do it. You'll love it too!

I attended a private event at Civic Kitchen and it was a blast! The team at Civic Kitchen was fantastic and did a great job running the event. I will definitely take classes at Civic Kitchen and would love to host an event there as well!

My 15-year old son took a cooking class designed for teenagers at The Civic Kitchen a week ago. There were only 10 kids in the class and my son was surprised and happy to see some familiar faces in the group. The kitchen itself is open and inviting, extremely well laid out, brightly lit, sparkling clean and has a festive atmosphere. Plus it's in a very cool part of the Mission. My son learned the basics of sautéing, baking and roasting, how to properly handle knives, cut and cook vegetables, and he made (and ate) a delicious risotto meal and cleaned up. And he had fun! If you want your kids to do more than microwave when they leave the nest, send them to this class.

I worked with Civic Kitchen for two work events. I work for a major tech company in Silicon Valley and my teams needed fun events. Since it is 2020, these events were both virtual. I reached out and let them know what I was interested in, and we set up a phone call the next day! Chris was communicative and easy to scheduled time with both for the phone call and then also for the classes. The classes are affordable and very user friendly, even for a beginner. My teams chose to bake Holiday Tarts, a chocolate tart and a cranberry tart. Civic Kitchen offered a standard recipe, a gluten free and a vegan option! They shipped the ingredients and a tart pan to each participant so that everyone was ready to start by the event date. The virtual class was wonderful. They had camera angles set up so we could see what the pastry chef, Jen, was doing from the front and from above which was great! The tarts are delicious and both the teams had a lot of fun! It was good team bonding to create something together, even over a video call. 10/10 will use this company again! Thank you Civic Kitchen!!

The Civic Kitchen cooking school is a fantastic addition to the Mission district! The space is invitingly beautiful and the kitchen is fully equipped to meet any cook's needs. One can't help but want to start cooking right away to make meals that match the lovely space :) I love the variety of classes on offer that cater to different culinary interests. Whether you want to go more in-depth about a specific ingredient, learn how to make dishes from a cuisine you're unfamiliar with, or want to take a whole series on baking - there is something for everyone. I think that speaks to what this school is about - to make the art of cooking accessible and fun for anyone who comes in! The owners, Jen and Chris, take great care in what they do and it's evident that they're passionate about the school's purpose.

What a find! I had to plan a teambuilding event and found Civic Kitchen through a google search for cooking schools in the city. From the start, Chris was super responsive and helpful. He worked with me to design a fun and unique evening that met several dietary restrictions for 10 people, yet was super hands on, delicious, and unforgettable. We went with the Japanese Nabe dinner w a knife skills class, resulting in 3 different Nabes to share paired w delicious wine and Sake...and finished by the most incredible fudge we have ever tasted. Chris and Jen were gracious hosts and Jen was super hands on to demonstrate the art of knife handling and terrific insights about how to prep our food. Greg, our chef, was incredibly knowledgeable about Japanese cuisine and walked us thru each step of our food prep, tabletop cooking, and 2 course experience as our initial broth became the vessel for our feast and ultimately the best hearty rice and egg soups we could imagine. They even packaged up some of the leftovers for us to take home and enjoy. These folks have only been open for a year but are pros in hospitality and culinary mastery. Oh and the space is beautiful...well designed, modern, warm, and intimate. I'm already looking at classes for my husband and I to take. Highly recommend. Tremendous value for the $ and a fun group experience not to be forgotten. Bravo!

The Civic Kitchen is a beautiful place: warm, inviting, unpretentious, immaculate, and a perfect spot to gather with friends and family around food. I hosted an evening for a close circle of family and friends a few months ago, and it was a huge hit. The very patient Jenn and her exceptional staff were able to herd 14 of us (both adults and kids) into cooking a delicious meal -- a vibrant menu drawing on the best of the season. Everyone had a great time. I highly recommend the Civic Kitchen for private events/special occasions and can't wait to try the cooking classes!