Bed and Breakfast and Cooking Classes:
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The Chaney Manor Bed and Breakfast, located in Mount Vernon, Ohio, is one of the most unusual bed and breakfast properties in the state. Situated on six acres of landscaped hills and valleys, the 1823 manor house has three huge suites with private baths, including a Roman Jacuzzi. Guests may enjoy the Chopin Music Room, and use the instruments available including a baby grand piano, a cello, and violin. The Music Room is also used for dining. Several tables surround a working fireplace. A marble-topped bar offers the finishing pub touch. This B&B Inn offers gourmet breakfasts and dinners cooked by Freda Chaney who holds a gourmet cooking and catering certificate. Those who are familiar with Freda’s cooking, will be excited to know that she is now offering Artisan Bread Baking (easy lessons) with a minimum 2-day stay. She is licensed to bake, and sells her bakery products regionally. To date, the favorite is the Incredibun (http://www.incredibun.com/ . Join her in The Chaney Manor B&B colonial kitchen with fireplace, open beam ceiling, built-in cupboards, and loads of ambience! (See cookbook #3 in I Love Inns storefront).
SOUTH CAROLINA
Housed in a pillared, two-story 1905 mansion in Florence, South Carolina, Abingdon Manor offers the only AAA Four Diamond restaurant in South Carolina outside Charleston, Kiawah and Hilton Head. We’re not just talking wonderful breakfasts: Abingdon Manor also hosts six-course prix fixe (fixed priced) dinners at intimately-lit tables for two; complete with fresh flowers, settings of silver, china and crystal. Some details: Abington Manor was originally built as an opulent private residence. It is situated on three acres in Florence’s historic district, and its bedrooms feature an abundance of pampering amenities. Best yet: Abingdon Manor’s chefs teach guests how to prepare truly gourmet food, in a relaxed yet elegant setting.
AUSTIN, TEXAS
Cooking School at Blair House is a hands-on experience where learning technique is paramount. Our goal is to build your confidence in the kitchen by teaching you principles and techniques from how to purchase and store the freshest seasonal foods, to preparation and presentation. Once you understand the principles of the chemistry of what you are doing, you are ready to be creative in your own right. You'll go home with a manual filled with information on principles and techniques and many recipes and ideas to help stimulate your creativity in the kitchen. We have a lot of fun and tap into everyone's creative energy. Be sure to wear comfortable shoes, casual clothes, and bring your appetite!
New Hampshire
A Taste of the Mountains Cooking School has been a popular weekend cooking school for nearly 25 years. It is a weekend event offered twice a year, in early spring and late fall. Look on the inn's website for an article from Heart of New Hampshire that explains the weekend in detail.
VIRGINIA
“The Inn at Meander Plantation offers a rare opportunity to experience the charm and elegance of country living at its best. This 80-acre historic plantation, which dates to 1766, allows guests to return to an earlier, more romantic time, when hospitality was a matter of pride and fine living was an art practiced in restful surroundings. The stately Colonial mansion offers grand parlors for pleasant conversation or private nooks for quiet contemplation. Eight sun-drenched bedrooms welcome you with warmth and comfort. Each is tastefully appointed and furnished with antiques and period reproductions.”
“Two-day courses are held on Mondays and Tuesdays throughout the year. Both days are packed with cooking facts, and fun-filled classroom instruction and participation. Chef Blanchard and Chef Deigl bring humor and panache to every topic they teach. Each day features at least two classes as time permits. Classes are held in the kitchen and in the library. We try to leave time for a bit of local exploring and shopping for those who choose!”
For more information about each inn, click on the name of the inn.
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Many of the properties listed above are also in the best-selling bed and breakfast guidebook Bed & Breakfasts and Country Inns with Buy-One-Night-Get-One-Night-Free Certificate.
Ramekins' Bed & Breakfast
SONOMA
Ramekins' Bed & Breakfast Inn in Sonoma, California is a bit different: Rather than offering a cooking school within a B&B, this is a B&B that is housed within a cooking school! All six rooms feature luxurious comfy beds and tasteful appointments; perfect for relaxing in after a busy day in the kitchens below. Speaking of cooking, Ramekins’ classes (available in groups, one-on-one, or online) are held in two teaching kitchens. The first is a fully-equipped, 36-seat culinary demonstration kitchen-theater with mirrors and television monitors for easy viewing. The second is a complete restaurant kitchen used for full-participation hands-on classes. The International Association of Culinary Professionals recognized Ramekins’ teaching excellence with the IACP’s 2005 “School of the Year” award. Add a B&B and Ramekins’ location in California’s wine country, and the result is vacation perfection.
House on Bayou Road Inn
NEW ORLEANS
Few American cities are as famous for their food as New Orleans. For those wanting to master this cuisine – or at least get a good start on doing so – a stay at The Big Easy B&B ‘House on Bayou Road Inn’ is a must. Just a few blocks from the French Quarter, which survived Hurricane Katrina relatively unscathed, the House on Bayou Street Inn features luxurious period bedrooms in a restored, 18th-century plantation main house. This B&B also has two acres of land to enjoy, plus a swimming pool and hot tub.
Then there’s the cooking school, a.k.a. the New Orleans Cooking Experience. Whether you take half-day classes, series classes or luxury cooking school vacations, you’ll learn traditional Creole and Cajun recipes as taught by noted New Orleans chefs. Among the teaching chefs are Frank Brigtsen, the James Beard Award-winning chef of New Orleans’ famed Brigtsen’s Restaurant; and Poppy Tooker, New Orleans’ “food diva” and member of the International Board of Governors for Slow Food. Talk about enjoying the Bed and breakfast lifestyle to its fullest!
Golden Pheasant Bed & Breakfast
The historic Golden Pheasant Inn is well established as a wonderful, gourmet restaurant but it is also home to six restored guestrooms decorated by Barbara Faure. The fieldstone inn was built as a mule barge stop for travelers on the Delaware Canal. The five acre grounds resemble a French country estate and guests can enjoy the lush surroundings in a canal side Solarium dining room. There are two other dining rooms, including the original Tavern Room with pointed stone walls, exposed beams, deep window sills, decorative copper pots and Quimper pottery from Brittany, France. The restaurant's French cuisine, prepared by Chef Michel Faure, is outstanding. One might start off with Michel's pheasant pate, followed by a savory onion soup baked with three cheeses. Mesclun greens dressed in vinaigrette cleanse the palate before one samples roast duck with a luxurious apricot, ginger and rum sauce or perhaps a sirloin steak flamed in cognac. Looking to create your own masterpiece? Then look no further, as Chef Michel Faure offers cooking classes for a nominal fee which includes demonstration and tasting.
