CulinaryLab Cooking School | Pro Culinary & Pro Pastry School - Santa Ana, California

Song S.

Just finished home pastry class last Sunday. 😀 Now, I can bake and understand the recipe better. The class is small, and each of us has a station. The instructor chef is helpful and is ready to help me with all my questions from ingredients to techniques. The 10 weeks class give me confidence to bake at home kitchen. Tip: I bough crocs shoes from Amazon. I wear a cook hat to cover my hair. Also, you should buy a 10” cake container and two extra large boxes to carry pastries home every class.

Kevin J.

I received a Christmas gift last year to improve my baking and pastry skills. After searching online, there was nothing to chose from where I live in San Diego. CulinaryLab came up so I decided to give it a shot. I did the cake workshop last winter and had a great time.
After speaking with Sarah the relations manager who is super helpful and friendly, I decided to sign up for the 10 week beginner pastry series.
Chef Briana has been great. I have learned a lot during the course. She is very thorough in explaining various aspects of what is being covered that day.
I was not sure if I wanted to do the 3-4 hour commute every Sunday but am totally glad that I did 🙂
Big thank you to everyone at CulinaryLab!!!

Saad H.

Their 12-week home beginner course is one of the best decisions I've made to improve myself (and feed myself!). Culinary Lab's team is superb and even amid this 2020 pandemic, they made a wonderful effort to create a cooking environment that feels clean and safe (large monitor with a camera above the head chef's space to watch and learn their techniques, face covers offered for minimal cost, hands free washing station, etc.)

They've also been very accommodating. I missed two classes from the original course's run and almost 9 months after the course began, they are still offering me make-up classes at no additional cost. Pretty incredible that a business would honor that, and they've earned a major amount of respect in my eyes for even offering that.

The setting itself is great. Loved having a large workspace in the kitchen area with lots of equipment and supplies available. Best part about the beginner course is that some items were already pre-cut and measured for you, so no time was lost as we fit 4 cooked recipes into each week. There's also an edible garden surrounding their outdoor patio, which is neat to pull herbs and other garnishes from. Only small issue I had was that the cooking areas themselves (stoves, indoor grills) would get cramped and could not always allow everyone in the class to use it simultaneously. So sometimes I would fall behind others who just got to the stoves and grills first. But it didn't make much difference in the long run as we typically worked in groups of 2-4 anyway.

At first I was honestly a bit hesitant, as I was not that skilled and it looked intimidating to commit to a long course. But our instructor taught us a lot and focused more on skill rather than cuisine, which I honestly found to be much more useful and applicable as a beginner (turns out a good quality knife and techniques on how to use it can make a world of difference in the kitchen).

All in all, I don't think anyone would regret a course with Culinary Lab. They have treated me well and I expect them to treat anyone else similarly.

Elliot K.

I enrolled in the pro culinary program a few years and it was an amazing experience! Culinary Lab gave me the skillset i needed and trained me to be ready for the professional kitchens.
Currently I am enrolled in the new Entrepreneurship program and its been incredibly helpful with developing my business idea.
This school isn't your typical culinary school. Culinary Lab provides student resources during school and post graduation to ensure they succeed in the modern culinary industry.

Paulina O.

Just completed the Instant Pot + Sous Vide Boot Camp and not only did I have so much fun, but I learned so much. Chef Lauren was wonderful as well as all the staff at CulinaryLab. They were all so sweet and so helpful.

I don't consider myself a good cook and was nervous about keeping up in the class, but I was so comfortable and everything was demonstrated so well. It was such a great experience and I can't wait to return for their 12 week beginner's course.

Melanie R.

Whether you purchase home-cook classes or fully enroll for culinary/pastry school, coming here is worth every penny. The chef instructors are patient and absolutely awesome! The 12:1 student to teacher ratio makes it so you interact with the instructor more than attending culinary school at a college where you are easily lost among your peers. The resources this school utilizes to make sure you are successful are unreal, and the 0% financing is absolutely generous! They WANT you to succeed!

Don W.

Having taken classes at several other schools, including the Culinary Institute of America, my wife and I would rate the Culinary Lab at the top. It's not the CIA, nor is it trying to be. As a home cook who has now taken the first two home cook courses (beginner and intermediate), I can tell you that the Lab is a first rate school and that my own skills have improved immensely. The staff is warm, inviting and accessible to all levels of culinary ability. Invest in yourself and bone appetit.

Victoria V.

I recently came out to the school to watch some professional chef instructor demos and must say I was blown away from the moment I walked in! The space itself is gorgeous... super modern and aesthetically impressive. Any student would be excited to show up to study here on a daily basis. The methods and learning modalities used for cooking here were new and cutting edge. I learned so much just from watching a few short demos. The chefs were all articulate, patient experts in their respective crafts and you could tell they were excited about teaching and sharing their knowledge with others. True foodies. AND, one of the most impressive features of this school is their student apprenticeships program! I have never heard of a culinary school that sets their students up to work in top notch restaurants while they are learning... this alone is worth it's weight in gold. I can imagine many of those restaurants wanting to snatch up new and fresh talent after their Culinary Lab experience, talk about a win-win. Chef Wagner has truly outdone himself and created a culinary school like no other that will no doubt rise to the top and be extraordinarily successful!