Many people cooking at home don’t have the luxury of using the kind of dream kitchen you see on the Food Network.

But Chateau Elan, a 322-room resort and winery near Atlanta, offers guests a chance to live that dream. Chateau Elan has invested nearly $50,000 in a show kitchen to be used for cooking classes and demonstrations for its customers.

“It’s a complete chef’s kitchen. If you’ve seen a lot of the cooking shows on TV, we’re trying to do something very similar to that,” says Chris Senden, director of restaurants at Chateau Elan.

The resort has had an interactive cooking demonstration program in place for almost five years. Senden says it has really taken off in the past two years under Executive Chef Mark Suennemann, and the time was right to build on that momentum.

WOW FACTOR

“The ‘wow factor’ is always a big thing we’re looking for. If we have a show kitchen with everything in there, that will be a great thing for our guests,” says Suennemann.

Work started in January on the kitchen, which will feature all-new Viking equipment, including an eight-burner rangetop, a large gas grill, a griddle, electric and gas ovens, a microwave, warming drawers, six all-induction cooktops, six portable all-induction cooktops, a dishwasher, two large refrigerators, and a freezer.

“We have a lot of corporate business in March, April, and May, so we definitely want to have it up and ready for that,” Senden says.

The show kitchen also will feature seating for up to 20 guests. Suennemann says the ideal class size is between 10 and 20 people, because it allows for a more personal, hands-on experience. If a group of 20 or more is in-house and wants to take the class, they’ll be divided into smaller shifts.
Chateau Elan conducts between 60 and 100 demonstration classes for its guests every year. Each customer pays between $50 and $75 for the class, which can last from one-and-a-half to two-and-a-half hours. But Suennemann says they don’t make a huge profit from the fees, and the demonstrations can be an expense as well, due to wear and tear on the equipment.

However, Suennemann says the long-term rewards more than make up for it, through repeat business and positive word-of-mouth from guests.

Senden says about 75 to 80 percent percent of Chateau Elan’s business is medium to large companies that stay for conferences, so giving repeat customers something new each time is very important.

“I think our classes are a little bit more personal than some of our competitors. For us, it’s really important to get close to our guests and also figure out what they would like to see in the future. If they come back, we can do something different,” Suennemann says.

CLASSES

Guests who take the classes learn how to prepare a three-course meal for lunch or a four-course meal for dinner. Suennemann says a typical class lunch could be a tomato mozzarella torte, followed by an herb-crusted chicken breast with risotto and a fruit martini for dessert. Customers also are given the recipes to take home.

Before the test kitchen idea was in place, Suennemann set up Bunsen-style burners with sauté pans, as well as cutting boards and knives, for guests to use.

Depending on how many people signed up, Suennemann and his sous chefs conducted the classes in different rooms because there was no designated area for the demonstrations.

Now, they’ll do everything in Chateau Elan’s on-site winery, which is where the show kitchen is located. “Having our own winery, we can take it to the next level. So, after a cooking demo, they can go on an executive wine tour and learn about the processes for making wine,” Senden says.

The new show kitchen also gives Chateau Elan a chance to market the cooking classes to more than 500 homes located on the resort’s property.

“The program is very unique. Our culinary people, they’re in the back a lot of times. It’s a great tool for them to get out and network with our guests, find out what our guests are looking for,” Senden says.