Hello Everyone, 

• Thanks for checking us out at Chocolates and Tomatoes Farm

• Remaining classes for 2024 are now posted (check back in mid-January for 2025 classes.

  • Click the "Register" link below to get directly to the classes.

• See text below and the blog links here to learn more about our approach to classes:

  
  

  • https://www.chocolatesandtomatoes.com/post/cooking-fun-friendship-in-year-1-of-the-learning-kitchen-at-chocolates-and-tomatoes-farm

    
    

Feel free to reach out with questions at chocolatesandtomatoes@gmail.com.

REGISTER HERE FOR COOKING CLASSES!

Or purchase a gift certificate

TASTE WHAT WE GROW ON THE FARM and LEARN HOW TO COOK IT (or expand your recipes and have fun doing it)! Discover your inner chef!

• Some current veggie-forward classes are:

  • Broths and Soups for Life

  • Pickling and Quickaling

  • Root Veggie Variations

  • Cooking with Winter Squash

  Explore your inner pastry chef with these sweet treat classes (and more):

  • Making Chocolates Snap and Shine

  • Making Rolled Chocolate Truffles

    
    

• Sometimes we also have Chef's Inspiration Tasting Dinner where we serve small plates or "tastes" of a variety of sweet and savory dishes -- Whatever Chef Mark is thinking about at the moment

  • Check back periodically -- we expect to have one of these each season

The Learning Kitchen at Chocolates and Tomatoes Farm launched on January 28, 2023. The Learning Kitchen is a dream come true for Chef Mark. He loves to share with others his passion for food, creativity and artistry, and to help others discover their inner creative chef. Register Here

• Chef Mark has a pastry arts degree from L'Academie de Cuisine, and has been cooking professionally for 30+ years.

• He has been making and selling his handcrafted chocolates since 2013.

• He routinely teaches adults as an instructor in the Frederick Community College Hospitality, Culinary, & Tourism program (since 2019). His classes include Advanced Bread Baking, Advanced Artistry, and Garde Manger (includes things like pickling, sausage-making, etc.).

The Learning Kitchen is a space for adults to find their inner chef (teens and tweens may participate with adult partners), learn about confectionary creation (sugar and chocolate), and expand their tastes for fresh, locally seasonal vegetables. Some classes will be for beginners who have never tried to make (and perhaps have never tasted) the featured item. Some classes will be for people who have been experimenting on their own and want to advance their skills.

• The number of people in each class depends on the learning activities, but you can generally expect 6-15 people.

• You will get to take home with you a recipe, list of needed cooking supplies, and a portion of the item made in the class.

• During the class, we will have free hot coffee and tea, and cold water for participants to drink while there. And, you will get to taste whatever is being made.

Class types include the following categories and examples:

• Chocolates and confections: tempering/creating the snap, melt-aways, rolled truffle, coloring and filling truffles, caramels and gummies

• Veggies: offerings are seasonal depending on what is reading for harvesting on the farm; examples are Seasonal Salads and Slaws; Pickling and Quickaling; Root Vegetable Variations; Cooking with Winter Squash; Salsa with the Pepper Rainbow

• Tastings: For all tastings, you will have the opportunity to sample several varieties of the same fruit or vegetable to learn about the range flavors. Chef Mark will demonstrate how to make beautiful, delicious dishes. We will help you sample and appreciate the rainbow of tomatoes (red, purple, orange, yellow, green) as harvests permit.

• Breads and Pastas: Pretzels, Sourdough, Pizza, and Pasta from scratch

• Desserts: Eclairs, Pies, Entremets, Gingerbread Houses

• Chef's Inspiration: Where Chef Mark shares his cooking talent through inspired dishes for you to enjoy

You can also contact Chef Mark if you would like to have a private, adults-only cooking class or gathering in The Learning Kitchen OR a family gathering with folks of all ages.

• Pricing will be determined based on the length of time, prices of ingredients, and number of people expected. We require a $200 minimum for 1.5-2 hours, more for additional time.

• Number of people is based on the activities requested, but 5 is generally the minimum and 20 is generally our maximum.