Before guests arrived, Chef Sergio Remolina and three of his student chefs prepared masa, the dough used for tamales. The student chefs whisked around the Culinary Institute of America’s San Antonio campus, gathering cookware and preparing the fillings for the various tamales guests were about to assemble. 

The CIA instructor said his favorite classes are ones that are a taste of home, like the two-hour Tamal Traditions class on the evening of Dec. 5. 

“I’m from Mexico, so I enjoy any classes that are related to Mexican cuisine,” he said. “In this season especially, I like teaching about tamales.” 

Guests arrived at 6 p.m., donning their provided aprons and white chef hats, or toques, while Remolina gave them a brief history of tamales and explained the two types of masa and three different types of tamales they would make during the two-hour class. 

CIA’s Tamal Traditions class is one of many cooking classes offered during the holiday season in San Antonio. Sur La Table, H-E-B’s Central Market and the San Antonio Botanical Garden also offer culinary classes. 

For the guests, it’s a chance to expand their skills in the kitchen. For Remolina, it’s a chance to step out of the routine of more formal classes in the CIA, a top culinary school located at Pearl. 

“These classes, they’re completely different to what we do on a daily basis,” he said. “The logistics and goals are different — it’s mainly to have people enjoy their time here, to learn something, enjoy and relax.”

Chef Sergio Remolina shows student guests how to fill tamales during a tamale making class at the Culinary Institute of America on Friday. Credit: Amber Esparza / San Antonio Report

Here’s a list of classes available to San Antonians this holiday season. 

Culinary Institute of America 

312 Pearl Parkway, Building 2, Suite 2102, San Antonio, TX 78215

Parent and teen holiday pies
9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 13

Classes are suspended while the school is closed for winter break, but one more class will be offered, teaching parent/teen teams how to prepare pies for the holiday dinner table. Guests will learn how to put together a classic crust and masterfully bake fruity holiday pie favorites. 

H-E-B Central Market Cooking School

4821 Broadway, San Antonio, Texas 78209
Cost: Ranges between $89.63 and $110.13

Make and take: Decorate sugar cookies for the holidays
4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 13

Children ages 7 to 17 and their parents will decorate 12 cookies and take them home at the end of the day. All children and parents must purchase a ticket for entry.

Make and take: A holiday cookie exchange
6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m., Tuesday, Dec. 16

A class for adults who will work in small teams to bake three of nine different types of cookies, all to be split amongst the group so everyone goes home with at least one of each type of cookie. The variety of treats include brown butter dream cookies, pecan fruit drops and candy cane brownies. 

An Italian Christmas Eve
6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., Wednesday, Dec. 17

In this demonstration, guests will watch chef instructors prepare a traditional Italian meal typically served on Christmas Eve. The instructors will prepare a focaccia, smoked salmon, white bean soup, seafood crespelli, and gianduia mousse.

A holiday dinner
6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m., Friday, Dec. 19

This class will teach participants to cook a delicious meal for the holidays, featuring blue cheese soufflés, roasted prime rib with a red wine pan sauce, a creamy swiss chard gratin, butter roasted and herbed potatoes, and a chocolate and peppermint tart. Participants will work with a small team to prepare the dinner, and those 21 and older will enjoy a glass of wine with their meal at the end of the class. 

Make and take: Fill and decorate a Bûche de Noël
1 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., Sunday, Dec. 21

Instructors will teach guests how to fill, roll and decorate a Bûche de Noël, or Yule Log, including the techniques of baking genoise, creating buttercream and whipping meringues. Guests will take their creation home with instructions on freezing and defrosting their Bûche de Noël to save and serve on Christmas. 

Sur La Table

15900 La Cantera Parkway #19120, San Antonio, Texas 78256
Cost: Ranges between $69 and $299

Holiday macaron workshop
9 a.m., Wednesday, Dec. 10

Guests will learn to make two macaron flavors in this three-hour class. The chef instructor will teach guests how to whip up a batter, create buttercream fillings and assemble macarons for their holiday menu. 

Global holiday feast
7 p.m., Wednesday, Dec. 10
4 p.m., Sunday, Dec. 21

This class will teach participants how to make dishes from various holiday traditions. It starts with a Christmas prime rib before frying up Latkes for Chanukah. Participants will also make a traditional Persian salad to celebrate Shab-e Yalda and finish the evening baking sweet potato bars, a Kwanzaa classic. 

Student guests takes turns smelling and tasting the prepared masa for tamales during a tamale making class at the Culinary Institute of America on Friday. Credit: Amber Esparza / San Antonio Report

Handmade holiday treats
10 a.m., Thursday, Dec. 11
10 a.m., Wednesday, Dec. 17

In this class, guests will make homemade marshmallows, white chocolate bark with cranberries and pistachios, peppermint crunch fudge and chocolate caramel turtles. 

Holiday cookie decorating workshop
9 a.m., Friday, Dec. 12
9 a.m., Wednesday, Dec. 24

This class for participants 14 and up will teach them to master the art of decorating holiday treats, such as gingerbread people, windowpane cookies, and coconut macaroons. Some dough will be premade so participants can practice their decorating skills throughout the class. 

Holiday baking essentials
10 a.m., Tuesday, Dec. 16

Guests will learn to make chewy ginger molasses cookies, butter parker house rolls and pumpkin roulade with ginger-orange buttercream in this class. By the end of the class, guests will be able to take home all three creations. 

Holiday ravioli
4 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 18

In this class, the chef instructor will first show participants how to make pasta dough from scratch before participants work in groups to create fillings and sauces to turn the pasta into ravioli. Participants will also make a seasonal salad to complement their ravioli. 

Build and take: Bûche de Noël
9 a.m., Friday, Dec. 19
9 a.m., Tuesday, Dec. 23

In this class, participants will learn the skills required to create a Bûche de Noël. They’ll learn to make sponge cake and an Italian mocha buttercream to assemble the Bûche de Noël, as well as marzipan pinecones and sugared cranberries to decorate it. 

Family fun: Holiday cookie decorating
1 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 20
1 p.m., Sunday, Dec. 21

This class invites families to come together to decorate gingerbread and sugar cookies using royal icing. Most cookies will be baked ahead of time, but families will receive the recipe to make themselves at home.

Handcrafted holiday tamales
4 p.m., Tuesday, Dec. 23

Guests in this class will make shredded pork tamales with green mole sauce, cotija cheese, corn and poblano tamales with pasilla sauce and horchata to celebrate the Mexican tradition of eating tamales around the holidays. 

Student guests gather their supplies to begin making their own tamales after a demonstration and history lesson from Chef Sergio Remolina, right, at the Culinary Institute of America on Friday. Credit: Amber Esparza / San Antonio Report

Festive bread workshop
10 a.m., Sunday, Dec. 28

This workshop will teach participants how to work with yeast and knead, proof and bake dough for a raspberry snowflake pull-apart wreath. At the end of the day, participants will go home with a chocolate hazelnut babka. 

Kids 5-day winter series: Holiday baking
10 a.m., Monday, Dec. 29 through Friday, Jan. 2
1 p.m., Monday, Dec. 29 through Friday, Jan. 2

During a five-day camp, kids ages 7 to 11 will learn how to make cookies, pies, chocolate treats, and “cozy cap cakes.” The two-hour classes explore essential baking skills and kitchen safety and send kids home with a graduation certificate. 

The San Antonio Botanical Garden

555 Funston Place, San Antonio, Texas 78209
Cost: $50, $45 for members

Cocktail scavenger hunt: Hot Toddys
Noon to 1 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 20

Participants will search the Botanical Garden for ingredients for tea to make a Hot Toddy, a warm holiday classic with whiskey, honey, cinnamon and hot tea. The class is for guests 21 and older and welcomes all skill levels. 

Young Chefs Academy

20330 Huebner Road #110, San Antonio, Texas 78258
Cost: Ranges between $55 and $210

Holiday gingerbread house workshop
1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 20

In this workshop, kids will build and decorate their own gingerbread house while sipping on hot chocolate from the Young Chefs Academy’s cocoa bar and listening to festive Christmas music. 

Winter Young Chefs Academy culinary camp
9 a.m. to noon, Monday, Dec. 29 through Wednesday, Dec. 31

Kids will learn how to produce sweet and savory foods in this post-Christmas camp made to keep them entertained in the days leading up to the new year. Recipes for this camp are not shared in advance so that kids come into class with an open mind to try whatever they might make that day.

Chocolatl

18720 Stone Oak Parkway #105, San Antonio, Texas 78258
Cost: Ranges between $65 and $95

Croquembouche
Saturday, 12:30 p.m., Dec. 13

Guests will craft a croquembouche, a combination of choux pastries with cream puffs, decorated with craquelin into a Christmas tree shape. This class highlights working with choux, a French pastry dough that puffs into hollow, crisp shells. 

Cookie decorating with Santa
Half-hour slots from 10 a.m. to noon, Sunday, Dec. 14
Half-hour slots from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 20

Families can decorate cookies during a visit from Santa, who will read books for the kids in the classroom. Santa will be available for pictures, and hot cocoa will be served.

Bûche de Noël
5:30 p.m., Tuesday, Dec. 16 

Participants in this class will learn how to bake a sponge cake, roll it with a cream filling, and frost it to look like a rustic yule log. 

Macarons (snowmen)
10 a.m., Sunday, Dec. 21

In this class, guests will pipe their own macarons to turn them into snowmen. To fill the macarons, guests will learn to make french buttercream. 

Rosca de Reyes
11 a.m., Sunday, Jan. 4 

This class will have chef instructors teach participants how to make a traditional Rosca de Reyes for Three Kings Day from scratch and decorate it. 

The Bake Lab

10731 I-35 Frontage Road, San Antonio, Texas 78233 
Cost: $69

Yule log
Noon to 3 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 13

Participants will learn how to bake and assemble a yule log cake, or Bûche de Noël, from start to finish. After making a chocolate sponge cake and rolling it with a rich filling to create the iconic log shape, participants will decorate it with piped details and take it home to enjoy. 

Pavlova Christmas trees
Noon to 3 p.m., Monday, Dec. 22

Guests in this class will learn how to whip, pipe and bake meringue into pavlovas before stacking them to create a Christmas tree shape. All skill levels are welcome, and everyone will leave with their own pavlova tree decorated with whipped cream, fresh berries, edible glitter, and other toppings fit for the festive holiday.