Prune Kitchen Cooking School

I've been to Fumiko's cooking get-togethers through Meet Up a couple times now. There is a lot of street parking (for reference, it's right across the Northwest African American Museum).Her Meet Up events tend to fill up quickly so be sure to RSVP ASAP! She hosts monthly Meet Up events with a new theme (for example, Indian, German, Italian, Japanese, spring vegetables) each month. The Meet Up events are informal in the sense that people who RSVPed just show up, look over the recipes she's selected, and choose what they'd like to make. Rather than a single cook showing attendees how to cook, everyone has a hands-on contributing towards cooking the meal. For each event, there is usually a main dish, sides, and a dessert. There is also complimentary tea (and for tonight's Japanese chanko nabe event, she even served warm sake!)Her kitchen is large but can seem a bit cluttered and unorganized due to the number of "cooks in the kitchen" and sheer variety of cooking gadgets and ingredients. You may not be able to find what you're looking for but Fumiko and her husband (who is usually present at events and helps with dishwashing) are always glad to point you in the right direction. Her kitchen is kind of like a Mary Poppins bag because it seems like she has every kitchen tool in there somewhere!Her recipes are easy to follow and if you aren't sure how to do something, she is always happy to clarify/help. People that attend range from young twenty-somethings to retirees of all kinds of backgrounds and walks of life. There has been a good mix of people with the two events I've been to so far. There are a couple of regulars but it's also a great way to meet new people while trying new foods.Fumiko is such a kind and humble yet talented host. She really tries to put an extra touch on things, whether it's playing traditional Chinese music on Lunar New Year cooking night or setting out sumo decorated sake cups for Japanese chanko nabe (hot pot stew famously eaten by sumo wrestlers) night. Her husband is also very welcoming and friendly. All of the attendees so far have been so open and easy to talk to, despite having just met them. You never feel intimidated or left out here--and that's coming from someone who is generally introverted.

If you think you know how to make sushi at home by watching youtube videos, like me, you are wrong. That what was my epiphany, when I took Fumiko's class. I already have had all my equipment and made sushi a couple times at home. But little did I know, how far I am from understanding the roots and origins of sushi, or the way to make a great rice, or to put together a right combination for rolls. I am glad that I tried to make sushi at home few times, because Fumiko was able to trouble shoot all my mistakes and give me great tips! My rice, for example was terrible and dry, so she had a suggestion on improving my current way of making rice and on the best way it could be done.Her sushi making style is so authentic, coming from her Japanese roots, from mother, from family. She also has this rare magical quality to make food taste great, like a great conductor makes a symphony sound unforgettable. Her clam miso soup is to die for! And I almost swallowed my tongue when I tried her tuna-crab-avocado-cucmber big rolls. Besides sushi making, she gave a little presentation about sushi history and a sushi museum in Tokyo, which she personally attended, as well as sushi making training with a world recognized top sushi chef in Tokyo. And not to forget our trip to the local fish market, which we started my one-on-one class, where she told me all the secrets of buying a right sushi grade fish.I learned so much from Fumiko! Four hours on her rustic kitchen gave me more than half a year of my youtube self education! Thank you, Fumiko!

This place is great! I loved being able to make my own sushi and other ethnic cuisine, and when i get back home i will make all of my food from scratch using the recipes that i learned here.

What an amazing experience. Fumiko is absolutely warm, knowledgeable, and provides such an authentic experience. I highly recommend any of her classes. We will plan to take more classes from her on our next visit.

This was my second ever cooking class, but it was really fun and a great experience! Came with my husband and in-laws. Ambiance: Tucked behind a home in a residential area, the building in the back has been renovated to be able to have these classes. It was clean, spacious, and felt very homey. You know it's legit when there's two full stoves and a ginormous sink with the hanging hose. Host: Fumiko's very friendly and welcoming and quite frankly, reminds me a bit of my asian grandmother (which was good and bad, bc I really didn't want to disappoint her with my terrible cooking skills). Along with the instructions, she mixed a bit of her own history and experience as well as the history of sushi making. It was very thorough with nice touch personalization. We even got a printed version of the recipes to make at home!Food: We made 3 rolls of sushi with increasing levels of difficulty. While Fumiko made most of the base ingredients, we were responsible for putting and rolling everything together. The ingredients (cucumber, avocado, tuna, shrimp, salmon, etc) were fresh and fun to work with. Overall, a great experience and I would love to come back and do her other classes! Everyone had a great time and I'm confident I can make some decent sushi (the basics at least) at home.

This is the spot. If you want to learn the way to make a sushi roll call Prune. This was an intense and productive two hour class in an excellent kitchen. I am no chef but I know I can now make a decent roll. I loved this experience in sushi.

Fumiko gives one-on-one, or sometimes group, lessons in cooking at Prune Kitchen, a nicely-appointed, homey, private kitchen. Much of it is Japanese-oriented, such as sushi, but it also has included other kinds of cooking, like Japanese traditional breakfast, Irish breakfast and more. I arranged to take a sushi lesson.I liked that we met at Uwajimaya at 10am and spent some time wandering the aisles, me asking so many questions about foods I had always wondered how to use. She showed me how to check labels for ingredients she avoids, like added chemicals, food coloring, and more. We selected ingredients for a sushi lunch, which we then went to Prune Kitchen to prepare it.Fumiko did most of the work, naturally, as I did not know how to help very well, but I watched, and took photos so I could remember better. We had: soup, several kinds of sushi (unagi, tuna and tilapia), lotus root and bamboo shoot, as well as tea. For the sushi we used sushi presses to make perfectly shaped sushi.Lots of socializing and lots of questions on my part. I think I wore poor Fumiko out! I took a nice tray of leftovers home for dinner. I would characterize her sushi as "homestyle sushi", meaning more accessible and casual than a formal class, and more emphasis on healthier ingredients. She helped me look for ways to cut down on salt, for exampleIn short I would not hesitate to recommend Prune Kitchen and Fumiko for a very enjoyable cooking lesson.