The South Florida hotel has opened a culinary school for guests, including groups.Creating an interactive guest experience, the Biltmore Hotel has opened a cooking school. The Biltmore Culinary Academy offers hands-on classes for beginners through advanced cooks. All classes—taught by Biltmore chefs in a new state-of-the art kitchen—focus on cooking techniques and seasonal ingredients.
Among the menu of classes are two for groups. There's a three-hour team-building program in which up to 20 meeting or incentive attendees create several hors d'oeuvres; at a cost of $65 per person, the class includes an open bar. Another class, where six to 10 people create a meal, has welcome hors d'oeuvres and beverages, for $110 per person.
Visitors can choose from various classes, like ethnic, skill-building, and ingredient-based classes.
An elite three-day Master Chef Series exposes students to cuisine-specific techniques in Italian and French preparations and concludes with a course on chocolate, taught by a pastry chef.
The Culinary Academy is overseen by director Lourdes Castro. She holds a bachelor's degree in nutrition and food from New York University and a master's degree in nutrition from Columbia University. A former associate of the James Beard Foundation, Castro is active in the foundation and is a member of Les Dames d'Escoffier.
She is writing two books, a Mexican cookbook and a Spanish-English culinary dictionary, due out this spring and fall, respectively.
For more information, contact the Culinary Academy at
[email protected] or at 1-305-445-1926.
Originally published April 20, 2009