Cooking Schools / Classes in Spain & Portugal

[Dalia Wood]

I am looking for a week long techniques class similar to the one offered by Awaiting Table (which I am about to sign up for), that is all hands on and geared towarded professionals and or very serious home cooks. Any good experiences to share? (BTW I am fluent in Spanish so language is not a barrier). Thanks!

[Rogelio]

Try Hofmann in Barcelona: http://www.hofmann-bcn.com/

[Genetti]

What culinary schools are considered to be the best and most thorough in Spain/Portugal? I'm currently in the process of applying and am wondering where else to look. Thanks for your help.

[Rogelio]

Luis Irizar was the teacher of the first top basque genration (Subijana, Arguiñano...) and is still directing his cooking school in the old part of San Sebastián.

[amm1984]

Hey I wanted to thank you guys for letting me know about the schools in Barcelona. I visited Escola Superior and Hofmann at the end of January and I fell in love with the Hofmann school, and I was planning on matriculating there in the fall in the 11 month program of Formacion Completa. I currently live in Granada, and I've been trying to work at several restaurants here, and finally one said that I could if I could get a contrato de practicas from my schoo I could start in a week. I called up Hofmann and unfortunately, they apparently do not give out these contracts, no matter which program you enroll in. The news has been disheartening because I wanted to work while I was studying but especially now in these tough times restaurants are more likely to be firing than hiring, so the easiest way into a restaurant seems to be doing a stage via these contracts which cover health insurance from the school. Tomorrow I have an interview at the Culinary school in Sevilla which seems to have a very strong program and a lot of connections with restaurants all over the world to do stages. We'll see how it goes and if anyone is interested on how it went or would like to know more about the 3 schools I saw please let me know I'd love to help.