Sur La Table is full of specialty cooking items with price tags that often aren't warranted. I like to browse here. I only pick up items that I can't find elsewhere, but the one word that comes to mind when I think of Sur La Table is: gimmicky.
If you're interested in a cooking class at Sur La Table, make sure you read the description carefully as not all classes are hands-on. Even the ones that are described as hands-on may not be as interesting as you might like. In my opinion and limited experience, most of the classes are designed to showcase tools and convenience products carried by Sur La Table. (Chefs will also come in for guest spots to hawk their new cookbooks.)
Take, for example, my takeaways from a class on "how to make tamales": 1) they are a pain to make from scratch, so don't...just use Melissa's-brand tamale kits instead; 2) Sur La Table not only carries the kits, they also carry these adorable little pots that are perfect for making tamales...you can buy them during the break; 3) you "make tamales" by cutting open some plastic packages, adding water, stirring the contents of the packages together, unfolding the pre-moistened corn husks, spooning the mix on the husks, folding up the husks, and then boiling them for the pre-determined amount of time. Handy and not half-bad, but the rep flat-out told us at the beginning that this is not how you make real tamales.
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