Asheville Mountain Kitchen

Asheville Mountain Kitchen is a small cooking school in a relaxed home setting that looks out over the Smoky Mountains. The founder holds a master's in urban design from Harvard and moved from architecture into food and nutrition. The menus lean Mediterranean, drawing on Israel, Morocco, Spain, southern Italy and Lebanon, with dishes from travels in India, Thailand and China.

Public classes run about three hours and cover five or six dishes from a set menu. There are no individual stations. Everyone helps with every dish, you snack as you go, and the class ends with a shared meal. Drinks, aprons and appetizers are included, and you take the recipes home. In some seasons, classes move out to the deck.

Recent menus include Dumplings from around the world, a Moroccan tagine class, Tortellini 3 ways and Country French, at $80 to $85 each. Dates do sell out. The school also runs private group classes, corporate team building and a summer cooking and baking camp for ages 9 to 14.