Philly’s Interactive Food Experiences & Workshops

From the mind of James Beard-winning restaurateur Ellen Yin, La sala del pan delivers on doughy vibes. Make a summer pie or galette. Be a pizzaiolo for the day. Learn how to make a sourdough starter. Bake fresh focaccia or baguettes. 

The rotating lineup offers plenty of creative experiences for home bakers and kitchen connoisseurs alike. For an even deeper dive, check out the Visiting Chef Series, featuring drop-ins from the city’s elite cooking talent.

Little treat culture is sweeping the country, and this might be the best way to jump on the foodie trend. Owner and head baker Stephanie Lawrence turns decorated cakes and fancy cupcakes into your personal art canvas.

Learn all about the delicate art of pastry bag piping and fondant making while making desserts from scratch. Best of all? Your freshly decorated creation doubles as a work of art and a pretty sweet reward. 

Este dumpling-folding studio en Chinatown offers hands-on classes and live cooking shows built for small groups and corporate events. Instructor Yin also pops up throughout the city, including near Parque Fairmount y en Reading Terminal Market. 

Dim sum preparation is also offered, meaning plenty of chances to fold, cook and — the most important part — eat your handiwork. Make it a family day and bring the kiddos! 

Take a tour of Northwest Argentina during these popular empanada-making classes at Jezabel’s in Spruce Hill. 

On top of learning the secrets behind Chef Jezabel Careaga’s olive oil empanadas, classes include an Argentine lunch — or happy-hour tapas — featuring desserts, soft drinks and plenty of empanadas to tuck into.

Bonus: The class is BYOB. Keep an eye out for alfajores-making workshops (traditional dulce de leche-filled sandwich cookies) as well. 

Experiencia joie de vivre by immersing yourself in traditional French baking techniques in a laid-back Manayunk studio where butter and lamination reign. 

Come ready to work the dough, sharpen your baking skills and add a little French flair to your repertoire. Before you know it, you’ll be properly constructing croissants, baguettes, macarons, caneles, sourdough and — for an American crossover — the French-style Pop-Tart. 

Chris DiPiazza’s neighborhood bakery turns into a create-and-connect workshop for deep dives on bread-making and pastry-building. Classes vary month to month (offering plenty of reasons to come back), but you can always expect libations throughout the experience: Mighty Bread brews its own beer. 

They also offer take-home souvenirs, like your very own sourdough starter. Which, if we’re being honest, is truly the gift that keeps on giving. 

Top Chef alum and Sisterly Love Collective co-chair Jennifer Carroll hosts an intimate five-course tasting dinner at her Fishtown studio.

Watch Chef Carroll (sometimes joined by her chef-husband, Billy Riddle) stamp your culinary passport, featuring mouth-watering recipes from Lisbon, New Orleans, Rome and more. The intimate setup immerses you in global cuisine, while each course takes your taste buds somewhere new. 

Also, check out her seasonal Food Journeys walking tours.

Looking for a creative date night? This interactive studio en Northern Liberties tailors specific hands-on cooking classes while accounting for various skill levels. 

Make rich, brothy paella and sweet, sugary churros with Chef Ally Hudak. Or book the Chef’s Competition, where two chefs face off Iron Chef-style during a four-course battle. Whether you’re doing the cooking or judging the contest, expect plenty of action — and plenty to eat. 

Guided by Philly chef and Broadway performer Natalia Lepore Hagan, Midnight Pasta brings the kitchen traditions of her Italian American grandfather to life — and then sprinkles in a little late-night dinner party fun. Guests can hand-roll two pasta shapes before sitting down to a family-style feast inside BLDG39 at The Arsenal. 

Put your hands in the dough, then enjoy the fruits of your labor — capped off with a warming shot of limoncello. 

Tell a story and bring people together through the magic of cheese. 

Established in 2020 by Julia Fox-Birnbaum, Philly Escuela del Queso — operating out of a South Philly classroom in the Calle 9 Sur Italian Market — offers a bevy of classes, including high-low pairings like potato chips and cheese, in addition to more traditional ones.

Philly Cheese School makes cheese education playful and approachable, whether you’re a full-on fromage fanatic or just along for the snacks. 

Didn’t think the dining experience at chef Chris D’Ambro’s cozy, innovative Italian spot couldn’t get any more intimate? Think again. 

Pull up a chair to The Chef’s Counter. You’ll find yourself — and one to three of your closest friends — at the heart of the restaurant, with a front-row seat to the fun and hardworking team of chefs. Over the three-and-a-half hours, your new friends personally guide you through the seasonal — and elaborate — tasting menu, complete with multiple courses and wine pairings.

Pro-tip: Be sure to libro well in advance, ideally more than a month. 

There are walking food tours, and then there are Tiny Table Tours. 

These intimate neighborhood jaunts, curated by food journalist Maddy Sweitzer-Lammé, put you in front of the best chefs in the city — with a special Fishtown Wine + Drinks edition that stops at burgeoning local producers like Mural City Cellars, Pray Tell Wines and Ploughman Ciders. 

Each Tiny Table Tour offers a closer look at the people, places and flavors that help shape Philly’s ever-growing food scene.

Trendy Rittenhouse Square restaurante Más salvaje, sets the table for some of the best bookish conversations, inviting renowned authors to sit at the head for its ongoing literary dinner series. 

Claim your seat at the dinner party for an intimate moderated conversation with the author about their work and creative process. Ask all your burning questions during Q&A and keep the conversation going over an inspired five-course dinner, featuring nods to the featured book. Past guests of honor have included Jo Piazza and Liz Moore.

This old-timey candy shop talks the talk and walks the walk, donning soda jerk hats and crisp white aprons. 

Confitería Shane, established in 1863, offers behind-the-scenes tours of America’s oldest continuously operating confectionery store, adding one-off classes on candy making, like caramel and toffee workshops. Get hands-on with confectionery traditions at a shop that’s been satisfying Philly’s collective sweet tooth for generations. 

Want to really mix things up? Experience a two-hour cocktail-making class where top mixologists share tricks of the trade. Get educated on tequilas, like blanco frente a reposado, while learning how to batch cocktails and make sour mix and exotic bitters. 

Classes happen Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, with special theme nights mixed in. By the end, you’ll have the kind of cocktail know-how that’ll leave your friends shaken (or stirred). 

En Bar de vinos Jet, underappreciated organic, natural and Ancient World wines from around the globe take center stage. Shaped by owner Jill Weber’s travels and background in archeology, this distinct wine list is unlike any other in the city, telling stories from Syria, Turkey, Iraq and Italy. 

Monthly gatherings centered around wine producers, varietals and festive themes are the perfect excuse for Weber to share those stories. Zeus Juice, a Greek wine tasting, and Cleopatra’s Cup, celebrating the queens of the desert, are just a couple of recent examples of the singular tastings Weber curates. 

If food is a gateway to one’s heart, then Dope Botanicals is holding the door open.

Herbalists Nakia and Taahirah Stith are wellness experts who bring 30-plus years of combined experience in holistic and plant-based healing.

Here, they teach herbal crafting by showing you how to make practical remedies: tea blends and tonics to support everything from gut health to stress relief, fully customizable for private groups.