Culinary Class at the Architectural Justice Gallery & Cafe

In addition to drinking, we love cooking. There is nothing better than cooking a meal together in the kitchen and enjoying a bottle of wine. So when we were recently invited to a chef-lead culinary class at the Architectural Justice Gallery & Cafe in Strongsville, we couldn’t say no!

The Architectural Justice Gallery & Cafe is a “European inspired place to shop, dine and be inspired.” It is absolutely gorgeous, you could spend half a day wandering around looking at everything. You can shop in their eclectic gallery for hand-crafted home furnishings, including products made by artisans at their Medina workshops.  Or, you can dine in their cafe where they serve an array of pastries, tartines, charcuterie, etc. They also serve an assortment of coffees, teas, wines and beer. We honestly can’t wait to spend an afternoon working on blog posts in the cafe (it is a blogger’s paradise). Finally, you can sign up and attend one of their culinary classes and events in their Sub-Zero Wolf Demonstration Kitchen, which is what we did. You can learn how to make macarons, a delicious fall meal, the art of olive oils; these are just a few examples of the classes you can take.

We had a really fun group for this class and we cooked a traditional Italian meal. Our group was comprised of Rachel (and her husband) from CLEfasionista, Alison (and her mom) from Alison’s 5 Things, Sam from CLE Cravings, Crystal from Eat Drink Cleveland, Alyssa from The Mexitalian, and Makayla (and her man) from Fashionably Kay. Also joining us for the class were Darlene and James Justice, the owners of the gallery and cafe. We had an awesome time chatting and cooking with everyone!

The class is set up in food preparation stations for the different courses of the meal. We had the chance to walk around before the class and view the stations and choose which one we wanted to work at. Chef Josh led the class. He gave us a brief intro, talked about knife skills and then he walked around to all the stations to give us pointers and help as needed. There were also assistants to help us and they made sure things moved in a timely fashion. They also made sure we got our welcome glasses of wine (very important).

We chose the rustic Italian salad with champagne vinaigrette dressing. The fresh veggies and the simplicity of it (didn’t really feel like making pasta from scratch on a Monday night) made the choice pretty easy. The rest of the meal stations included: eggplant caponata, toasted crostinis, mushroom and herb arancini balls, chicken piccata, white wine lemon sauce, fresh linguini, simple aoli and orange scented florentine cookies.

After we were done preparing the meal, we were given a tour of the gallery and learned more about Architectural Justice. Chef Josh and his assistants handled the rest of the cooking and plating of the food. After the tour we made our way back to the kitchen where the table was set and ready for us to eat. To say the meal was amazing is an understatement. We were so proud of everyone and the hard work they put into this meal. Also eating at a long dining table together really gave the whole event a family type feel. Take a look at their calendar and book a class with your significant other, family member or just go by your self. You will definitely have a great time and leave with a full belly!