The Dirty Apron Cooking School Opens August 12
10. Jul, 2009 
2 Comments
Beatty Street’s next sensation from the people who brought you Chambar & Café Medina July 9, 2009, Vancouver, BC – Novices, foodies, and aspiring chefs will have a new place to learn the tricks of the trade at The Dirty Apron Cooking School, opening this summer at 540 Beatty Street. With a selection of classes that will vary from regional classics to ingredient driven basics and essential knife skills, The Dirty Apron Cooking School will be Vancouver’s most exciting culinary playground: a place for amateur cooks, the curious, and professionals alike to learn, explore, and unleash their inner chef.
The Dirty Apron Cooking School is a joint venture between Karri and Nico Schuermans and former Chambar Sous-Chef David Robertson. Robertson – who has a formidable background in classic French cuisines and who was on the Gold Medal winning team at the 1996 Culinary Olympics – will teach the majority of the classes, with guest and celebrity chef appearances peppered throughout the year. Instruction at The Dirty Apron Cooking School will focus on popular regional cuisines as well as basic skills for ingredient focused cooking. Students will use only the best tools of the trade thanks to partnerships with All Clad cookware, Wusthof knives, Wolf ranges, and Sub Zero fridges. Classes at The Dirty Apron Cooking School will be divided into two types: hands-on and demonstration. The hands-on class will last for four hours and will walk students through the steps of making a complete meal with appetizer, entrée and dessert. The cost for these classes per person will be $135 with a maximum class size of 22 people. The demonstration classes will be two hours in length and will offer students a chance to watch, follow along, and then taste the results with the chef for $80 per person. Both classes will be followed by a group dinner in the cooking school’s private dining room. In addition to individual classes, The Dirty Apron Cooking School will also offer corporate and group bookings; perfect for team building, corporate retreats, birthdays, anniversaries, special occasions, and staff parties. The Dirty Apron is now accepting bookings online at www.dirtyapron.com. For a limited time, all bookings for hands-on classes in August will receive a $50 gift card, and those who book a demonstration class will receive a $30 gift card. Gift cards will be redeemable at the Dirty Apron Cook Shop, which will carry indispensable kitchen supplies and high-end wares. Classes are set to begin August 12th. About David Robertson For over fifteen years Canadian born David Robertson has successfully commanded a career in the culinary industry from building a strong reputation as a passionate engaging chef, an outstanding food stylist, and an excellent inspiring tutor. David has a solid background in classical French fine dining and a passion for food. His wanderlust and zeal for new food and cooking styles have taken him to many top culinary destinations around Europe, the UK, Australia, and finally just outside of New York City, where he worked under renowned Thomas Henkelman at the Homestead Inn for two years. David also boasts numerous competition successes including being a part of the Gold winning team in the 1996 Culinary Olympics in Switzerland. In 2004 David became the Chef-de-Cuisine at Chambar. There, with chef/ owner Nico Schuermans, David was instrumental in creating one of the city’s most popular and highly celebrated restaurants. Throughout his career David has come to realize that not only does he love food, he loves teaching people about food. His infectious enthusiasm for the ingredients and products he uses combined with his patient nature make him the perfect chef to lead The Dirty Apron Cooking School.
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Hi,
I had a horrible experience at the dirty apron.
If you have allergies or food sensitivities – beware.
I have a gluten allergy and am very sensitive to vinegar and mushrooms and alcohol among other things.
The kitchen knew this ahead of time.
I went with a large group and once we were checked in and handed our menus – I noticed that I could not eat a single thing on the menu.
When I talked to the Chef he said ‘don’t worry – we will figure something out – it happens all the time. When discussing his off-the-cuff ‘options’ he proved that he wasn’t aware of my sensitivities.
The appetizer team made me a salad. I think all celiac and vegetarians will agree – salad is the biggest cop-out EVER. it was greens with some tomatoes and nuts on top – with lemon for dressing. I wasn’t going to get any of the goat cheese filling that everyone else got in their hand made pasta until a friend of mine interfered.
For the main course (which I was on the team of) Everyone else got herbed crepe with a medium-rare beef tenderloin medallion covered in herbed panko, green beans, and a mushroom red wine creme sauce.
I got the beans, a piece of painfully overdone meat and, some potatoes I had cooked. And was told to leave for later. Well, they had been forgotten about and were sitting in cold water. I had to microwave them and season them. They didn’t even tell me where the salt was.
And the pana-cotta dessert that a friend made for me?
It didn’t set.
Which isn’t really a surprise considering it was only given an hour to do so. restaurants usually let them set overnight to be certain. He told my poor friend who thought that she had messed up making my dessert that it just doesn’t set sometimes. – not true. If the recipe is right it will set – if given the time to do so.
And so they gave me ice cream. really good ice cream. (best thing by far that I ate that night) but i can’t eat more than a few spoons without my stomach revolting on me.
yes – another sensitivity.
So suffice to say I was an afterthought. It was insulting.
And at about $150/$200 I deserved more than greens, overcooked meat, microwaved potatoes and pre-made ice cream.
And to top it off they didn’t teach me anything. We ‘chopped’ our garlic with a garlic press, and he didn’t even show us how to hold our knives properly.
DO NOT come here with a large crowd ESPECIALLY if anyone has food sensitivities. They will be singled out and forgotten about – this is not a team-building exercise.
It was isolating and humiliating and I had to pretend to be happy as to not ruin everyone else’s good time.
We are very sorry to hear that you did not enjoy your experience at the Dirty Apron Cooking School. We take pride in continuing to exceed guest expectations and feel that we have let you down by not delivering the unique, hands-on experience the school strives to create.
Each member of our team does their utmost to accommodate dietary requirements in a sensitive and considerate manner. As you know, our chef personally meets every guest with food sensitivities prior to their class to discuss personalized menu options. It would have helped us to improve your experience had you alerted us at the time that you were not enjoying yourself and that you were unhappy with the options we presented. Unfortunately, throughout the evening and via the comment cards left after the teambuilding event, we only had great feedback from the rest of your team and thus were unable to detect that there was a problem until now. And by stating on your own comment stated that ”I would be very interested in returning,” it is unfortunate to hear that in hindsight, you would not recommend the school to others.
We would like to assure you that your feedback has not gone unnoticed and is greatly appreciated. We are always looking for ways to improve and evolve the experience we offer, and the best way to do so is by learning from our guests. We have emailed you directly to invite you back to the school in an effort to rectify your experience and to show you what we do best – provide a great evening of learning, cooking, eating, drinking and most of all, fun. We hope that we will have the chance to see you again soon!
All the best,
The team at the Dirty Apron Cooking School