Willamette Valley Kitchen Co.

Willamette Valley Kitchen Co. is a kitchen store in downtown Salem, under the Chemeketa Parkade, with a cooking school at the back. It has taught Salem home cooks since 1980, when it opened as Carl's Cuisine. Chef Amy Church bought the store in 2014. She teaches alongside Chef Reba, and Chef Alisha is slated to lead baking and pastry classes in the future.

Most classes are demonstrations built around a full meal. They run as 11am to 1:30pm or 6:30 to 9pm sessions and cost $70. Menus change each season. This fall brought a Thai yellow curry dinner with Miang Kham and from-scratch tamales with avocado crema. The annual Holiday Appetizers class gives $5 of each fee to Salem Harvest. Basic Knife Skills is the hands-on staple and appears on every schedule. In Holiday Tamales you also mix the masa and wrap the husks yourself.

Classes fill quickly, so join the waitlist if your date is full. For $10, you can also cook along at home with Chef Amy's recorded virtual classes.