La Toque de Cindy promotes fun in the kitchen for kids of all ages, primarily summer camps in Palo Alto. La Toque de Cindy brings the magic of cooking and culinary fun to you through a series of online and hands on cooking classes, private events, food tastings, culinary books and camps. La Toque leads executives and staff in team building cooking exercises, hosts private cooking party events and teaches the pleasure of cooking at classes and summer cooking camps for children and teens.
The school is named La Toque de Cindy and France is where we believe much good food comes from. The school is located in Palo Alto, California, and brings lessons learned in Paris and California to you. The specialty at La Toque de Cindy is chocolate but you’ll see by the class listings and publications the commitment to California cuisine with international twists from her travels and from the backgrounds of those who teach at the school, organic agriculture, developing an enthusiasm for home cooking and fabulous food. The promotion of budding chefs is key to her mission as a way to inspire the next generation to “get back to the kitchen”.
What’s a Toque? Wearing a toque is a time honored tradition in the world of chefs. Each fold in this hat represents a dish mastered by the chef. The higher the toque the more of a big whig that chef is.
FAQs
- When is a good age to start cooking? We start teaching children at age 5 with hands on classes and a low teacher to staff ratio.
- How large are your classes? In person hands on classes are taught with up to 12 chefs.
- Do you do cooking parties? Yes. We will tailor the menu to your choosing. Enjoy the cooking class them sit at a table with your guests to share what you’ve cooked. This is most popular for birthday parties. We have hosted auction prize events, corporate team building and wedding showers also.
- Where are good places to buy cooking tools?
- Sur La Table. Cooking tools
- Draegers. Cooking tools
- Webstaeraunt. Large Quantities of cooking tools, furniture, serving items
- Where can I find great ingredients?
- Penzys. Spices, cocoa powder, vanilla
- Draegers. Specialty ingredients such as fresh yeast, citrus for stollen
- King Arthur. Flours and baking ingredients
- Choco Transfers. Chocolate transfer sheets
- Chocolate Garage. Specialty chocolate
About our Staff
Alyssa Blau
Gudrun Enger
Anasua Gupta
Amy Hartinger
Cindy Roberts
From her kindergarten days when she marked that cooking was “fun” and not “work” on an exam, Cindy has spent her lifetime having fun in the kitchen and promoting this in her circle of friends, students and co-workers.
Cindy turned her culinary interests into a professional career in 2005 after her fun tech career at Apple and Netscape. She was a cooking instructor at the Palo Alto Adult School for a decade and has also taught at curious.com and Sur La Table in addition to her private business. She now spends all her time spreading the word about culinary adventures via La Toque de Cindy and the Slow Food movement.
Cindy’s training includes coursework at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, schools in the San Francisco Bay Area (Home Chef, Sur La Table, Draegers, Palo Alto Adult School) and instruction from the Bay Area renowned chocolate masters Alice Medrich, John Scharffenberger and Michael Recchiuti. Her claim to fame came when the Food Network asked her to compete on their Guy’s Grocery Game show.
In service to the community she has run a meal delivery service for families in need has worked at the Food Closet in downtown Palo Alto and donates cooking classes to support local schools and non profit fund raisers.
La Toque De Cindy Culinary Experiences 