Cooking schools abound these days: some offer serious culinary careers and others offer entertainment. Gourmet stores are often the first place consumers go to learn to have fun, making cooking more than just a daily chore. While cooking school programs help retailers reach out to their customers, for those running cooking classes in gourmet stores, the real benefit is in sales of product.

“The cooking classes are great for promoting stuff you want to sell,” said Dorothy McNett, cooking school instructor for Clementine’s Kitchen, in California. “The people sitting in the chairs are a captive audience.” It is a product placement strategy as subtle as a movie star holding a can of Coke during a riveting scene. McNett uses cooking classes to demonstrate everything from tableware and kitchenware to the specialty food sold in the store.

Vermont’s King Arthur Flour too, has baking classes that promote its line of bakeware and flours, and spokesperson PJ Hamel says all class attendees receive coupons for ten percent off any purchase after the class. “They’ll go and spend lots of money in the store,” she adds.

But offering cooking classes or a cooking school is not for everyone. Fante’s considered adding cooking classes to its location in downtown Philadelphia. “We thought it was a natural offshoot of the store, but it was complicated,” says Fante’s president Mariella Esposito. She lists challenges as additional advertising costs spent to promote the program; the store’s small size which meant only a few students could join each class; time spent enlisting the chefs to teach the classes; and a lack of store staff to handle all that extra work.

Stats: Cooking School Snapshot
Average additional product sales after each Clementine’s Kitchen cooking class: $500 to $1,000, based on a ten-person class. Average class price: $35
Time to prepare for a basic class: three hours, with two hours needed for clean-up duty. Hottest selling classes: Anything concerning food and wine pairings.

Cooking Class Hints:
• Be consistent. Hold classes every week.
• Require reservations.
• Don’t charge too much for classes: people will spend more on product if they aren’t already staggering from a big bill for the class.
• Consider the number of extra staff needed to pull off a good cooking class before committing to a cooking school program; from lining up chefs to cleanup, any level of cooking program requires a significant time commitment.
• Avoid cranky consumers: don’t let store customers eavesdrop for free on a cooking school class. Those who actually paid for the program won’t like it.

Viking makes even homework fun, with cooking classes that cover everyone from the beginner to the advanced cook, says president and chief executive officer Joe Sherman.

“Viking Cooking School strives to be the bridge between the professional chef and the home chef, providing the home chef with richer enjoyment and deeper confidence,” Sherman says. He adds that the cooking school program continues to expand, both through curriculum and training. It is a brand building strategy that helps to reinforce Viking's culinary authority in the marketplace, Sherman says.

It also helps that Viking Cooking Schools are outfitted with top-end Viking stoves, appliances, cutlery and cookware. The schools even offer “Viking Test Drive” classes that let home cooks try out the high end appliances. “Viking Cooking Schools offer the culinary enthusiast the latest in food, dining, and entertainment trends; as well as essential cooking techniques,” Sherman says.