Pauline L.
Yelp
I have always wanted to take a class at Whisk but never took the dive till I got the opportunity to take the Paella class thanks to Yelp!* Yesterday, we took the 6:30 pm Paella class taught by Yary who was such a lovable and fun character! She is originally from Basque so imparted us with some insight into the culture and flavors of that region of Spain. The owners Ana and Aaron were there prepping and supporting throughout the entire class. They were absolutely fantastic. They run an amazing, smooth, clean, well-taught, and fun operation here.
Check in was super easy and as we waited for final prep to finish, the store presented a lot of opportunity to kill time looking at an amazing assortment of kitchen items. Books, cookware, silverware, platters, and all sorts of tools and appliances. Very tempting for the home cook.
I didn't know we were cooking not just paella, but flan too! We were also offered fresh sangria, a very nice red blend, and/or a chardonnay to enjoy during the class. At the beginning, Yary provided us with 3 types of tapas that were delectable: tortilla espanola with seafood (Spanish quiche), grated tomato and garlic bruschetta, and patatas bravas with aioli. Fantastic!
We were separated into groups of 4 to handle cooking. Each one had a packet of instructions on how to make each dish, but it was better to listen to Yary's instructions instead. First we made the flan. All ingredients are portioned out so you can just throw things in when needed. Vegetables are whole so you can practice chopping with their super high-end knives. Proteins like chicken, shrimp, and mussels were very fresh and high quality too. The mussels and clams were still alive!
Though I admittedly didn't do that much cooking during the class (most of the time socialized and sipped wine happily while watching my team's meat master did most of the work lol), I learned a lot and had a lot of fun. After all the food was cooked, the Whisk team cleaned the cooking area and set out beautiful dinnerware and we all sat and enjoyed what we cooked. It was spectacular. Even better than any paella I had in Barcelona or US restaurants. We even got a mini whisk to take home.
Super highly recommended!
*full disclosure, I got to take the Paella class free through a Yelp Elite perk, but the class itself was by no means altered from what Whisk does normally. All opinions are honest and I believe very representative of Whisk as anyone would experience them.*