It’s time again for the annual release of University School of Nashville’s popular series of evening classes for adults. For 2025, almost half of the 89 classes listed in the course catalog have a food and/or drink theme, so they should be right down Bites readers’ collective alleys. Registration kicks off today, Dec. 16, at 10 a.m., and some of the most popular classes will fill up in minutes. Fortunately there will be plenty of options in case you don’t get your first choices.
One admirable thing about the slate of culinary classes that the school puts together is that it focuses on local independent restaurants and food entrepreneurs. While it is incredibly generous for the chefs and purveyors to donate their time to help USN raise money to support financial aid for in-need students, the materials fees cover the instructors’ expenses so they don’t have to come out of pocket to share their knowledge and food. The class fees are the part of the “tuition” that goes to the scholarship fund to help the school offer admission to a wider selection of the community.
This is important, because it’s a tough time for smaller independent restaurants, as AVO owner Annie Choo shared in a strikingly open and honest plea on Instagram asking for local diners to support the restaurant during the slow months of December and January, when the healthy seasonal produce that the restaurant depends on might not be the most exciting. Despite this being a difficult season for plant-based restaurants, Choo and her chef James Ford have stepped up to offer a cooking class for USN, so let me make that the first highlight for you to consider for this year. Not only will students learn techniques and tricks for selecting and cooking a vegetarian meal, but everyone will sit down to a family-style feast at the end of the class. That’s a win-win!
In fact, one thing that struck me about this year’s slate of classes is that so many of them will focus on vegetarian and vegan cooking, along with alcohol-free cocktails. Considering that most of the classes are planned for February through April, these might be great ways to jumpstart a reset after the excesses of the holiday season.
Among the options to consider are Fresh Vietnamese Spring Rolls With Vui from beloved restaurateur Vui Hunt and Indian Vegetarian Cooking featuring Asha Rao, who will walk students through preparing a vegetarian feast using grains, lentils and vegetables. Speaking of walking through, Rao will also teach a class called Tour Nashville’s Indian Grocery Store With a Local, where she will lead students through a shopping trip at Patel Brothers on Nolensville Road and share her knowledge of the wealth of exotic fruits, vegetables and leafy greens along with aisles of snacks, dry goods, frozen treats and magical spices to be found within. After touring the aisles, students will retire to the cafe next door for light snacks and libations.
While not all the food at Butcher & Bee is necessarily vegetarian, chef Chris Dejesus and his kitchen staff are quite talented when it comes to cooking with fruits and vegetables. They’ll be sharing some of that knowledge in two classes: Mediterranean Dips and Mezzo With Butcher & Bee and Taste of Spring With Butcher & Bee. Any USN cooking class led by Deb Paquette sells out quickly, and I can speak from experience that not only are Deb's classes delicious — they’re totally a hoot! Chef Deb has offered classes on a wide range of topics over the years, and this year she’s going vegan. During the Deb Paquette Does Vegan class, she’ll be taking students on an international tour including a Spanish tart with beet sofrito, confit avocado, artichokes accompanied by three vegan sauces along with an Indian three mushroom stew, basmati, sauces and veggies. If that’s not enough, she’ll prepare a cornmeal sweet potato with Balinese tamarind banana sauce, smoked pineapple drizzle and Kebat butter along with a special vegan dessert. If you’re reading this after 10:30 a.m. Monday, it’s unfortunately probably too late to get into this class.
If a break from alcohol is in your plans for 2025, or you just want explore the many possibilities of the new landscape of NA beverages, take a peek at Intro to the World of Alcohol-Free Adult Beverages taught by Stephanie Styll, the owner of Killjoy, a booze-free beverage store on Fatherland in East Nashville. Students will get to taste eight samples and take home a worksheet of their notes for their next shopping trip.
Of course, there are definitely some class offerings that feature more decadent food and drink. Lockeland Table chef Hal Holden Bache and wine expert Phillip Patti are leading A Tour of Central and Northern Italy: Gnocchi and Wine with gnocchi prepared two ways paired with wines from Central and Northern Italy. Biscuit Love’s Karl Worley and I are teaching our Biscuits and Bourbon class again, which I promise has some educational elements, including a discussion of why the best hams and the best whiskey come from similar places and how both products are essentially born from methods of necessary agricultural preservation. (And they both happen to be delicious!)
My fellow USN alumni Hrant Arakelian is stepping up for our alma mater to teach a class on Cooking Middle Eastern Food the Lyra Way where students will cook along through a menu of Levantine classics and then sit down to eat their homework together. Edible Nashville executive chef Skylar Bush is graciously teaching three classes, and the one that caught my eye is Exploring Appalachian Cooking, where he’ll explore the history behind and cooking methods for preparing an iconic mountain meal featuring kilt lettuce, leather britches (shucky beans), cornbread and buttermilk chicken and dumplings and fried corn and tomatoes.
The fried chicken at SS Gai has quickly become legendary among local foodies, but don’t forget about the excellent side dishes at the tiny restaurant in The Wash. Chris and Emma Biard are sharing the secrets behind two of their best accompaniments in a class called Som Tum & Sticky Rice With SS Gai that should prove popular. If you love a great dumpling, don’t miss the Dumpling Making Class With Mama Yang and Daughter, where you’ll learn the secrets behind making classic Taiwanese treats. The owners of Present Tense are opening up their restaurant for a voyage through their incredible menu during their Sake and Sushi Class at Present Tense.
All kinds of folks make chicken in all kinds of great ways in Nashville. And with all due respect to the many purveyors of wonderful hot chick…
In case you don’t know what makes the food at Bill’s Sandwich Palace so amazing, it’s the sauces and spreads that make the sandwiches sing. Aaron and Christen Clemins will share some of their secrets in a class called Sandwich 101: Building a Better Sandwich With Sauces and Spreads.
If you’re a fan of the classics, I strongly recommend The Five Mother Sauces With David Andrews and Danielle Kates, where the proprietors of D’Andrews Bakery and cafe and DKates Catering teach how to make the bases of French cuisine and how to extrapolate on them to create entire meals. It’s great to see that chef Kevin McCauley has returned to town and the USN Evening Class instructors list with an exploration of old-school cooking in his Classic Steakhouse Workshop. Students will learn about and then eat a menu of seared cowboy ribeyes, classic creamed spinach, twice-baked potatoes, caesar salad and bananas Foster.
I’m not gonna lie — not all the classes are as “educational” as others. Some are just big old parties wrapped around the chance to get together with old and new friends to learn a little bit about cooking, but mainly to enjoy a feast prepared by pros. The always entertaining Kobie Pretorius and Liza Weavind are throwing a South African Feast, a classic cookout known as a “braai” featuring boerewors and bobotie, South African wines, gin, desserts and a raft of traditional side dishes.
Adam Latham invites you to Crawfish Boil 101 With Gumbo Bros, where he’ll teach the techniques behind putting on your own mudbug party for friends. The class will include cooking techniques as well as teaching the best ways to eat crawfish like a pro and pair them with the right flavors and beverages for a proper party. If you can’t have fun at a crawfish boil, you’re just not doing it right!
For two things that you might not realize go together well, check out the Koji and Pizza Party, where Proper Sake’s owner and master brewer Byron Stithem will invite students into his Rice Vice bar on Ambrose Avenue to join him and Pizza Lolo proprietor Steven Anthony for an evening of wood-fired Neapolitan-style pies accompanied by Stithem’s Koji Gold lager and Koji King IPA, house-distilled shochus, and of course Byron’s take on a Negroni featuring all house-made spirits. It’ll be a night of serious umami!
One last little decadent suggestion for your consideration is the Raclette Party With Little Gourmand featuring Guenievre Milliner’s version of the gooey, melty cheesy treat served over tender boiled potatoes, accompanied by a selection of charcuterie/cured meats and cornichons. Guenievre will also show you how easy it is to host your own raclette party at home and share how to source and select quality ingredients.
This is just a short list of recommendations from the University School Evening Classes catalog for 2025, and there are plenty more great options that aren’t necessarily food-focused. Take a gander at the entire catalog so you can clear (and then refill) your calendar for the spring.
