Cooking at the Winery – A Rustic Italian Experience

During this special evening, you’ll learn the art of creating handmade gnocchi, how to create a rich, creamy wine and mushroom sauce with a Italian sausage in an engaging cooking class designed for cooking enthusiasts of all skill levels. After getting checked in, you’ll be invited to take a seat in Winehaven’s tasting room in our private event space for the evening and enjoy a wine tasting flight featuring four 3 ounce locally made wines (which is the equivalent of two glasses of wine). Perfectly paired with our wine tastings, we will be invited to enjoy a beautifully curated charcuterie appetizer to help kick off the culinary experience for our evening together. Once we’ve all arrived, we will meet our partners from Way Cool Cooking School, who’ve been bringing people together in the kitchen through food experiences since 2004. The experience will begin with a chef-led demonstration of a seasonal salad tossed in a bright lemon parmesan dressing topped with toasted Italian breadcrumbs. The Way Cool chefs will share tips for balancing acidity, seasoning, and flavor — simple techniques that elevate everyday cooking. The heart of the experience centers around crafting handmade gnocchi completely from scratch. Participants will mix, roll, cut, and shape their own pillowy gnocchi while learning the essential techniques that make this Italian classic light, tender, and full of flavor. Using organic dehydrated potatoes to achieve a lighter, more refined gnocchi allowing for greater hydration control, creating airy, cloud-like gnocchi. Our chefs guide guests step-by-step — from understanding proper dough consistency to shaping and cooking methods — ensuring everyone leaves confident in their new skills. While the gnocchi are being cooked by the chef team, participants will collaborate to prepare a rich, creamy wine and mushroom sauce with Italian sausage right at the table. Together, we’ll cook our Italian sausage, then sauté mushrooms, build layers of flavor, deglaze…