Sydney's best cooking schools

1. Fratelli Fresh Cooking Classes

Sydney's fresh produce mecca brings you a cooking class so popular you have to book a month in advance. You usually only learn one recipe, but by God it's always a good one. Classes are held roughly three times a week on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. The emphasis here is on simple recipes, prepared well using fresh produce. The added bonus is that you can precede a class with a killer lunch upstairs, and visit the downstairs providore afterwards for ingredients to make the dishes at home.

2. Sydney Seafood School

With some of the best seafood smack-bang on our shores, the SSS gives lessons on how to cook everything from pipis to octopus, and in every dang style you'll ever want. With cameo appearances from Sydney's best foodies, regulars including Matt Moran (Aria) and Guillaume Brahimi (Guillaume), and with complimentary wine tastings, you'll be cooking up a storm in no time.

More than 12,000 people now attend Sydney Seafood School classes each year, and not just for the famous chefs. There's the opportunity to learn how to knock up a winning seafood paella, prepare a cracker chilli crab, or throw another shrimp on the barbie in a manner that would make Paul Hogan proud.

The new-look school is courtesy of interior designer Michael McCann (he also did the stunning fit-out for boutique butcher Victor Churchill). And it's a far cry from the old school. "It's very beautiful now, as well as being very functional," says Muir. Fish leather covers the auditorium walls, made from tanned Atlantic salmon skins bought from a family in Sauðárkrókur (say that three times fast) on Iceland's north coast. Cameras send a live feed to wall-mounted televisions so you can watch the presenter's every slice, scale and fillet. The hands-on kitchen features a striking mural by Joy Godley of every fish imaginable rendered in white on a black background.

"To date the guest chefs have been real sports to come in and cook with electric frypans and electric woks," continues Muir. "But I'm just really excited that now we can give them a top-notch domestic kitchen. We want to show people what they can do in their own home."

And that's what makes the Sydney Seafood School great – everything you learn is totally achievable. "We just want to show people that seafood is so easy to cook at home. A pan-fried fillet of fish with a squeeze of lemon and some good sea salt... that's about as good as it gets."

3. Greekalicious

If you prefer cooking as a spectator sport, this one is for you. Maria Bernardis, formerly a chef at Neil Perry's XO, shows you how to do it Greek style, and where possible, with organic ingredients. Our favourite part is the sit-down Greek feast that follows each class. 

4. Council of Italian Restaurants in Australia Cooking Classes

Some of Sydney's best Italian chefs, from restaurants such as Otto and Buon Ricordo, lend their skills here to make you a better cook from the home of pasta, Casa Barilla– and to teach you some geography while you're at it. The school prides itself on teaching you how to differentiate cuisines such as Puglian and Ligurian. 

5. Boys Can Cook

Note that the name of this course identifies "boys," not "men," which may be why sport is screened during the classes at Blanco Showroom in Bondi. But with recipes as delicious sounding as Italian vegetable and sausage soup, we don't really care about the visuals.

6. Accoutrement Cooking School

Many of Australia's best chefs run demonstrations of their culinary magic at Accoutrement. Classes take place on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday at 6.30pm, and the odd weekend class on a Saturday afternoon. Their online brochure lays out the calendar year's classes, so you can book your favourite chef well in advance. Most classes are demonstration only. They also run excursions to destinations such as Sardinia, Morocco and Périgord (around $6,000 per person: those truffles don't come cheap).

7. Cucina Italiana

Overseen by Luciana Sampogna, Cucina Italiana was established in 2002 to keep the traditions of Italian home cooking alive. Through a variety of hands-on classes you'll learn to throw together simple, fresh ingredients to create traditional Italian dishes, including making your own pasta and bread. At the end you get a delicious meal made from whatever you created.

8. He Cooks

It's hands-on tuition at He Cooks, whether you want to do a one-off $120 specialty lesson (such as Perfect Pasta, Delicious Desserts or the Ultimate Roast) or sign up to a course. And you get to eat and take home what you make and have a beer or a glass of wine while you're making it. Once you've passed the six-lesson He Cooks course ($615) you can graduate to the advanced level and work in a professional kitchen with paying customers (your own family and friends) for five consecutive Monday nights at Pink Salt in Double Bay.

9. Sailors Thai

Mastering the basics of Asian cooking really isn't all that hard, and the skills can be adapted to spice up your everyday cooking. Put yourself in the capable hands of Ty Bellingham, Pacharin Jantrakool and Krongthong Akkichitto from the famous Sailors Thai. During the three-hour class they will teach you how to prepare a four-course meal, including a salad, curry, stir fry and dessert. You get to scoff your creation at the end with a selection of wines in the main restaurant.

10. Simon Johnson's Talk Eat Drink

Talk Eat Drink classes started in 1994 in a makeshift space in the providore Simon Johnson Pyrmont store's loading dock as a chance to have an informal, intimate demo session with top chefs. Today, the roll of presenters still reads like a Sydney dining wish list: Sean Connolly (Astral), Brent Savage (Bentley), Justin North (Bécasse), Greg Doyle (Pier), Mark Best (Marque) and so on. The two-hour sessions involve a presenter talking and cooking (with the help of a few game volunteers) while you watch, eat and drink.

Book cookings classes through Time Out

More festivals, fairs and large events in Sydney? Sign up to our weekly newsletter