Maybe you’ve always wanted to learn how to make a sinfully decadent breakfast in bed for your sweetheart … or how to start eating cleaner without giving up the flavor … or maybe how to create delicious cuisine representative of the western way of living. This month and next, the Arizona Biltmore presents “Inside the Chef’s Studio” classes led by noted personalities of the culinary world.

Are you in for a treat. Beginning March 26, Arizona Biltmore will be hosting three back-to-back weekends of classes with three raved-about cookbook authors and food experts, as well as private dinners with the authors featuring special menus they’ve created. If you’re a cooking enthusiast, it doesn’t get much more up close and personal than this chance to learn tips and techniques straight from the pros themselves.

March 26 & 27
Barbara Passino
Author of “Chocolate for Breakfast” and owner of Oak Knoll Inn in Napa Valley

Self-proclaimed chocoholic Barbara Passino claims her first food was a chocolate brownie and that one of her favorite family rituals while she was growing up was indulging in chocolate for breakfast with a beloved aunt. Understandable then, that her love affair with chocolate led to a professional career in sharing the joys of this sweet treat with others.

The owner and chef of Oak Knoll Inn in California’s wine country, Passino has studied with master chef Marcella Hazan in Venice and studied the cuisines of a multitude of cultures. Her cookbook “Chocolate for Breakfast” includes some of her techniques, philosophies and anecdotes alongside easy-to-follow recipes showcasing the flavors of Italian, French, Asian, Moroccan, Spanish and American cooking, and illustrated with vivid photography by Marc Hoberman.

April 2 & 3
Terry Walters
Author of “Clean Food” and “Clean Start”

Health counselor and food educator Terry Walters wants to teach us all how to eat more sustainable, cleaner foods. Her first book, the appropriately named “Clean Food,” stressed the importance of eating minimally processed foods for maximum nutrition and sparked a movement of eating locally grown, seasonal, fresh foods that was embraced all the way to the White House. Then with the release of “Clean Start,” Walters made it even easier for individuals to incorporate this way of thinking and eating into their daily lives, whether you’re a cooking novice or a seasoned chef. You’ll find the 100 new recipes in “Clean Start” to be quick and easy to prepare, and most importantly, delicious.

Tasty signature recipes from Walters include spring greens with apricot vinaigrette, lemony artichoke dip, mango salsa, quinoa and black bean salad with apricot lime vinaigrette, pumpkin spice muffins, ginger pear crisp, shallot fig spread, and roasted Brussels sprouts with fennel and Shiitake mushrooms. Mm-mm …

April 9 & 10
Gwen Ashley Walters
Author of “The Great Ranch Cookbook,” “The Cool Mountain Cookbook” and “Par Fork! The Golf Resort Cookbook”

An honors graduate of the Scottsdale Culinary Institute, Gwen Ashley Walters is a skilled chef as well as a food writer, having worked in the kitchen at Carefree’s Boulders Resort and contributing articles to such publications as “Phoenix,” “Edible Phoenix,” “Cooking Light,” “Sunset Magazine” and “The Arizona Republic.” She also authors the popular Pen & Fork blog.

Walters three award-winning cookbooks feature renowned U.S. resorts and reveal to readers how they can recreate the luxury of dining at a world-class resort right in their own homes. Flip through her “Par Fork!” golf resort cookbook to experience places such as Pebble Beach and Pinehurst, among more than a dozen of the nation’s very best golf meccas.  The pages include detailed travel information, exclusive golf pro tips, complete breakfast and dinner menus and more than 130 recipes that have been home-tested and rewritten with the home cook in mind. And in her “The Great Ranch Cookbook,” Walters has included recipes from more than 30 western guest ranches — such culinary delights as grilled honey lamb chops, smoky rib-eye steaks with tobacco onions, blackened buffalo quesadillas and many others.

To Attend: Classes will be at 12 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday, and the chef’s dinner with the author will be held Saturday from 7 to 10 p.m. The classes will be a mix of demonstrations and hands-on learning, and you need not necessarily be a resort guest to participate. The cost for each class is $50 and includes the author’s cookbook and lunch (the meal you’ll prepare during your class). The cost for each chef’s dinner is $75 (does not include tax or gratuity). Space for all events will be limited, so book as soon as possible.

If you have additional questions, or would like to make your reservation, you can call the Arizona Biltmore at 602.381.7632 or 800.950.0086, or visit this page.

The Arizona Biltmore is located at 2400 E. Missouri in Phoenix

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