Cooking Classes in Baton Rouge: Learning New Skills with Culinary Leisure Courses

Charlie Ruffolo • March 24, 2021

Learning new things in the kitchen is always a fun idea. Discovering new cuisines, mastering different skills, and adding to your overall culinary repertoire can spice up your weekly meals as well as your entertainment abilities. This is exactly why Louisiana Culinary Institute and their expert staff of professional chefs offer various culinary leisure classes throughout the year. 


Not only do you get to learn in a commercial kitchen from some of the best chefs in the region, but you also get to have fun while growing your passion and talent for cooking. All leisure classes include hands-on instruction from LCI’s ACF Certified Chef Instructors, food materials, an LCI apron, and a recipe booklet. LCI is constantly adding new and additional courses; let’s look at some of the new offerings.

 

Southern Fried Chicken Dinner Culinary Class

Fried chicken is a staple in south Louisiana. Not only can it make a delicious meal for around the dining room table, it’s also perfect for parties, tailgating, and picnics. This hands-on class demonstrates how to prepare juicy, crunchy buttermilk fried chicken, lemon herb coleslaw, potato salad, and strawberry shortcake.

 

Charcuterie 101 Culinary Class

Charcuterie is becoming increasingly popular. This class will teach you how to create an assortment of sausages, vegetables, cheeses, and breads for a delicious charcuterie board.  Learn how to use a meat grinder, sausage stuffer, and smoker. Not only will you make fresh Italian sausage and chorizo, but you’ll also smoke Tasso and Cajun andouille in class. In addition to these meats, you receive a variety of pickled vegetables to complement your board.

 

Mexican Street Tacos Culinary Class

Bring taco Tuesday to a new level with fresh, colorful Mexican street tacos. Learn how to make homemade corn tortillas, crispy pork carnitas with pickled red onion, charred tomatillo salsa, Mexican rice, and street corn.

 

An Evening in Tuscany Culinary Class

Bring the taste of Italy home with this class focused on making your own authentic Italian cuisine. The rustic essence of Tuscany can be recreated with homemade pasta dough, tagliatelle with pancetta and peas, pan seared steak with capers, arugula, and Parmesan, and Nutella swirl gelato.

 

Creative Barbeque Culinary Class

Barbeque is something you can enjoy the entire year. Again, whether it’s dinner on a Wednesday evening, if you’re having friends gather around the pool, or you have the grill fired up at a tailgate party, flexing new skills around the pit will be a hit with everyone. In this class, you’ll learn how to make your BBQ rubs and sauces. You can use these sauces and rubs on expertly prepared barbeque chicken, specifically BBQ chicken thighs with Steen’s Pepper Jelly BBQ, baked sweet potato, and roasted corn on the cob. Also, BBQ meatballs overloaded mashed potatoes topped with crispy onion strings, and savory BBQ salmon with a chili honey BBQ sauce will be on the agenda for this leisure class that will change the way you grill.

 

Spots go quickly, and new courses are constantly being developed and scheduled. Gift certificates are also available for culinary leisure classes. A temperature check and mask will be required to enter LCI’s building.


SIGN UP
By Charlie Ruffolo March 25, 2026
Some people know from childhood exactly where they're headed. Ben Messina took a different route. He started college as a music major, took a gap year to find his footing, and leaned on his brother's encouragement before landing exactly where he was always meant to be: a professional kitchen . Now a senior in the Savory program at Louisiana Culinary Institute (LCI) in Baton Rouge, Ben is weeks away from graduating in May 2026. He arrived at LCI with a love of cooking and a family connection to food. He's leaving with a world-class culinary foundation, a mentor who pushed him to be his best, and a dream of opening multiple restaurants of his own one day. His story is proof that the path to a culinary career doesn't have to be a straight line. Is It Too Late to Change Careers and Go to Culinary School? For Ben, food has always been part of the family fabric. Growing up in Baton Rouge, he spent time in the kitchen with his grandmother, learning to make snickerdoodles as a kid. Those early memories planted a seed. But Ben initially followed a different passion. He'd played trumpet and piano since a young age, so he enrolled at Southeastern Louisiana University to study music. It wasn't long before the questions started creeping in: "What am I actually going to do with a music degree?" He took a gap year to figure it out. And the answer, when it came, was simple: go back to his other love. Cooking. His brother, who owns a food truck, had been encouraging him to consider culinary school. More specifically, he encouraged Ben to look at LCI. And then, without warning, he signed him up for a campus tour. 
culinary leadership skills
By Charlie Ruffolo February 26, 2026
Being a great cook isn’t enough. Explore how LCI develops culinary leadership skills that prepare students for real-world kitchen management and career growth.
More Posts