Make Your Own Power Lunch

Sure, a long boozy lunch in a corner seat with a commanding view at the Four Seasons Restaurant is one of New York’s peak dining experiences. Now the ultimate power restaurant is offering another way to get deep inside access: a rare opportunity to go into the kitchen to cook with chefs Pecko Zantilaveevan and Richard Brower.

The restaurant kicked off the program last spring with its first cooking class, where I joined some 40 guests in the enormous kitchen and learned to make some of the restaurant’s most popular dishes and desserts. It’s a thrilling experience, and although standing by as an enthusiastic observer was deemed perfectly acceptable, we could also jump in and dice and sauté right alongside the chefs.

Following the class was a lengthy private lunch, during which owner Julian Niccolini opened some of his special reserve wines to share with his new friends. After a great response to that first session, the team developed a series of courses for early 2012, starting with a January 7 class featuring a “Park Avenue Soul Food” menu, which will include the restaurant’s signature Crisp Farmhouse Duck and Dover Sole; another is already scheduled for January 21.

Here’s a bonus: This time around, the Four Seasons is limiting enrollment to just 20 guests per class, so each student can get a true hands-on experience and leave with cooking tips from the pros. A three-hour course is $350 per person and includes a chef's jacket embroidered with your name and the Four Seasons logo. Oh, and a long, boozy lunch.

Four Seasons Restaurant: 99 East 52nd Street. Call 212.759.9008 or email Regina@FourSeasonsRestaurant.com for reservations.