The Courageous Cooking School
Our Flagship, Life-changing,
Recipe-Free Cooking School in the South of France
As Seen In
Since 2017, the Courageous Cooking School and RecipeKick have welcomed over 500 home cooks to learn to cook without recipes, in the South of France. We invite you to become one of our next culinarians to crack the code of cooking seasonally, more deliciously, and saving time while you’re at it.
Each Courageous Cooking experience gives you an opportunity to dive into the world of French Culinary techniques, discover French (mostly natural) wines that we procure from around the country, and master the art of cooking without recipes.
Our proprietary Courageous Cooking School & Method is a truly, one-of-a-kind masterclass in recipe-free cooking, developing dishes from scratch, using only the highest quality products including single-origin spices, organic produce, and locally crafted everything.
The school is an in-depth, hands-on culinary education that provides one-on-one attention and an immersive opportunity in slow travel. We cook from the bounty of local produce from Provence—including produce and herbs and eggs from our own organic farm and local farms in the area.
Here at the Courageous Cooking School we know that you are….
Capable
You have skills, you can make things happen, turning them into functional dishes? We can help you navigate the details, you bring what you have, we’ll weave it into something delicious.
Intuitive or can build that intuition…
Maybe you’ve got keen intuition in the kitchen, maybe you don’t. Wherever you are, we can meet you there. Our expert instructors are trained to navigate experts to novices in the same class.
Curious about Cooking
No matter where you are on your cooking journey, we know if you’re here and reading this, you’re curious to make delicious things and you’re ready to develop new flavors in your kitchen. We’ll help you make that happen.
Your innate capacity to be a better cook isn’t hiding in another cookbook*, it’s already within you. And our expertly trained instructors are with you every step of the way to unlock that magic.
*Psssst…WE LOVE cookbooks too. In fact our founder wrote one called Mostly French. We just think we can use cookbooks better if we cook from the hip…better.
What will you learn in your time with us?
Our mission if for you to think more like a chef in your own home kitchen, allowing you greater creativity and capacity to cook seasonally, without fuss (no more multiple grocery store runs to nab that missing ingredient), and to save anywhere between 60 to HUNDREDS of hours a year in your own home kitchen. Over a lifetime? That’s pretty priceless.
How does that all boil down?
You’ll learn many of the key French techniques (including: sauces, souflées, mousses, stocks, sautéeing, roasting, and more) AND you’ll learn how to turn them on their heads so you can create an infinitesimal amount of dishes from these crucial and classic skills
How to mix and match spices with ease, so that your ‘go to Chicken’ recipe is something you can make five days in a row without it actually tasting the same.
Crucial knife skills to love, and some to lose. You’ll walk away with the chef-y tools necessary for the home cook, and we’ll demystify what you don’t need.
What you actually need in your kitchen pantry, spice cabinet, and batterie de cuisine to cook well.
How to go to a market, shop for whatever brings you joy, and then actually be able to turn that bounty into something delicious from anywhere in the world.
You’ll learn the why behind your favorite dishes, and figure out new ways to understand why that why doesn’t actually matter in the long run.
What Our Previous Guests Have to Stay
Our 2025 Cooking School is our last year at La Pitchoune. In 2026, we’re moving to Grasse!
La Pitchoune: 2025
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For years the Courageous Cooking School was housed in La Pitchoune, Julia Child's former summer home. And our last year there is 2025. This is our classic ‘As seen on TV program’ with our classic curriculum, taught to over 600 people over the years.
Group size up to 8 guests
All-inclusive from start to finish.
Click one of the Book Now links to get more inclusions and exclusions -
$11,000 per person, shared lodging in La Pitchoune.
Private room available for a single supplement fee of $3000 a person.
Available Dates
(Additional dates with single, private rooms for solo guests are available upon request. Please message us via our chat box to inquire.)
Fall 2025
September 28-October 4 - 4 spots left
October 5 - 11 - 1 spot left
Spring 2025
May 4-10 - 2 spots left
June 8-14 - 2 spots left
Every week strangers and friends mingle together at the Courageous Cooking School
In fact many stay connected after their stay with us for years to come, and become lifelong travel buddies and friends. If you want to come back after you visit us? You absolutely can! Joining the Pitchounicorn gang is like getting access to a not-so-top-secret-travel club. Because…we host level 2 classes, Courageous Cook Camps, and trips around the world to Italy, Morocco, Spain, Mexico, and more. In fact, 40% of our clients do return to another trip with RecipeKick.
Step into the magic of the Courageous Cooking School
Imagine...
You’ll pack your bags, hop a plane, do a little pre-school site-seeing and then we’ve got you. We’ll nab you within 30 miles of our school, and take you in a car (private or shared with another guest in the same area).
Upon arrival, one of our team members will whisk you away to your impeccably designed bedroom (We’ll even carry your bags). Designer linens grace your wildly comfortable bed, there are ample fluffy towels, stunning flower bouquets are at every turn, Dyson hair dryers, and luxury bath/body/skincare products wait for you. In moments, a cold glass of rosé will be in-hand, and the tour de force of discovering delicious things begins…
We begin with a seasonal apéro dinner—small producer cheeses and charcuteries of every stripe, local vegetable crudité, plenty of natural wine, and so much more. (We like some of it to be a surprise after all). This light apéro dinaitoire gives you ample room to make space for the week, or to have enjoyed a heavy lunch before arrival.
From Monday to Thursday, we’ll meet each day and gather in one of our many kitchens to engage in a tour de force of deliciousness, expertly guided by a top-notch culinary team (all of us are graduates from top culinary academies and range from adept homecooks to Michelin-Starred restaurant chefs). We’ll highlight classic French culinary techniques, focusing on key use cases for the home cook, and using those techniques to create entirely new dishes from the classic basics. We will hone your knife skills, and cover everything from the basics to more advanced techniques. We’ll roast, sauté, sear, butcher, infuse, make emulsions and sauces, and so much more. You’ll master the art of soufflés, omelettes, mousses, custards, and complex flavor combining–all from the hip.
All of our meals are communal and occur outdoors on our sun-soaked terraces (when possible) and gorgeous, well-appointed dining rooms–where wine, French linens, flowers, and more await you.
Friday, we take to the town to explore the heritage of Provence–from the perfumed hills of Grasse, to one of the best Provençal markets in the world— and to culminate? You’ll enjoy a chef-made, multi-course tasting menu using the spoils of the week in new ways.
The whole week is set up to demystify deliciousness for the home cook. And we’ve removed any barriers to your learning and retaining the information.
We have built our curriculum vetted educational experts and over 900 clients.
Your mission during the week is to enjoy and immerse. We’ll clear the table and do the dishes, we’ll do your laundry, we’ll housekeep your room each and every day. The staff to guest ratio is 1:1, with staff on-site approximately 12 hours a day. (And each of them are paid well enough to actually love their job.) Impeccable hospitality is the name of our game.
Worried you won’t retain everything? A lifetime membership to our live-streamed online platform RecipeKick is included so you can practice all your new found skills at home, with guidance and support.
Your Questions…Answered
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Absolutely not!
But, we’re all trained in French culinary techniques. We prefer to use the French techniques to amplify new uses. Our educational model has been honed over years and year of clients.
You’ll be able to master French techniques, and use them in a myriad of new ways.
French culinary schools are very rigid. We’re the opposite of that. -
We will not be cooking from Julia Child’s cookbooks, or learning to cook like her - not at all!
We want you to cook LIKE YOU. Using new found techniques, gorgeous knife skills, and delicious flavor combining.
The only way we try to embody her spirit? We encourage a willingness to just give it a good ole’ fashioned try in the kitchen AND a freewheeling love of really good cooking technique.
Want to rent La Pitchoune and cook from Mastering the Art of French Cooking? You can do that by clicking here.
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ABSOLUTELY NOT! We’ve worked with people from all abilities. Literally from people who have never even boiled an egg, all the way up to students who are cookbook testers and recipe creators professionally.
No matter your current skillset, you’ll learn something that will blow your mind. A technique, a historical tidbit, a new dish. THAT we can promise. And we’ll give you some homework so you can prep, and be the teacher’s pet from day one. ;)
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Nope. Not really whatsoever. If you want to sight-see in the local area, we encourage you to come before or stay after to do so.
We will let you know about a month before your trip which cities we’ll go to, if any, so you can plan ahead. Typically we go to Grasse and Valbonne. -
Dyson Hair Dryers AND AirWraps. High-end ammenities (Caudalie and InnerSense) So...Yes! We have everything on campus you need. We ask that you limit your use of the washer and dryer and combine loads of laundry with friends if you don’t have a full one. We prefer not to let you use the laundry whatsoever, but if you need it, we won't say 'no'.
It’s a historic house and we need to be gentle with water consumption.
And we do take your laundry off campus one day a week if need be , too. -
Nope! We can’t. Our philosophy is ‘Be. Here. Now’.
I know that’s weird for those who are used to tour groups, but we aren’t rigid in terms of schedule around here. We live in France, a country that loves to live in the mindset of ‘it depends’.
Since we’re seasonal, we also change things from time to time. We’re not here to create the perfect vacation, we’re here to facilitate a deep dive into the local cuisine. And to teach you about the local cooking techniques, produce, etc. And that changes from season to season.
We can tell you we always visit markets, always visit local food producers/purveyors, always go to at least two restaurants that are extraordinary and always cook A LOT
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Not sure how to answer that for you! The experience is expensive for a number of reasons.
If you compare us to our colleagues in high-end travel/hospitality/cooking experiences with backdoor access to things you couldn't do/get on your own, we're pretty much the same price. The fact that this house 'feels like it belongs to the public' because it was Julia's is a problem in how people perceive our pricing.
There are a number of factors that made us bring our prices to what they are now. Including…
Pandemic. Business debt from said pandemic. The real cost of doing business. Etc.
Living wages are expensive. We don’t just pay living wages we pay thriving wages. The absolute lowest paid humans on our team makes $25 an hour (US based) or at minimum 50% above the current SMIC (their minimum wage) for Europe based folks (cleaners/dishwashers/nanny for our kiddo because…we work a lot when you’re with us…etc). Our experience requires 10+ people working 40 hours a week, to deliver an experience for 6-7 people. Basically 1/3 of your payment is just to cover human capital. And if you know anything about business, it means our margins (after other costs) are thin.
Food, hospitality, and tourism is traditionally a “low-ish cost” game. And we think that sucks. People are underpaid in the food world, and we decided to say “nope” to that. In fact, the labor laws around “what it costs to actually make food/run tourism” are freaking outlandish, and we refuse to continue the exploitation of food folks.
We only welcome up to seven folks a week, most of our colleagues in the industry host 10-15 people at a time, and OFTEN their programs do not include lodging, all-inclusive beverages, transportation, etc. The pricing for these experiences is pretty comparable to ours when you look at what we include as extras including the online programs, what we send your way, transportation, etc.
La Peetch costs a lot of money to maintain. Holy monkey. Two years back we had septic issues that was literally over 100k to fix. We have to keep everything in great condition, which is expensive. And the deferred maintenance is real!
We're an educational institution, not a tourism experience. Joining us is a way to get a long-term education in recipe-free cooking, and in classical techniques. Both in-person, and in our online platform.
Why am I being this transparent?
Well…because I think business should be more transparent. The real costs of most things in business are hidden, and not talked about. AND the expectation for affordability of certain industries are directly linked to colonialism and capitalism. Ahem.
And since we’re a relatively public facing business, with a beloved former occupant, a TV show on major networks, and our current steward is a business mentor?
Transparency is important.
The good news?
Our online school is now FREE to join, the Smithsonian original Julia Child kitchen in DC from her Boston home is absolutely free, and we’ve built a new lower cost program for folks who want to spend time with us. It's called COOK CAMP! And it starts at $4000 a person!
The Courageous Cooking School is for people who want to shift their entire frameworks on cooking, it’s not for people who just want to see La Peetch. We understand we’re not for everyone. And with only 16 weeks a year, supply/demand is as it is.
And yes…we’re expensive. Because we have to be. And because...Most people who attend say it is utterly worth it.
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HEY FELLOW NERD! SURE!
Recipe-free cooking requires flexibility.
We crafted everything aboutt he experience to be a bit intentionally vague, because recipe-free cooking is intentionally vague.
This is also why we have each of our bedrooms super luxe, if a bit cozy. We want to create comfort in the discomfort of ambiguity, to create cozy in a process that pushes people out of their comfort zone.
Our curriculum and the schedule itself, and the very notion of a flexible schedule is all intentional. It was built and verified by experts far smarter than even us to be the ideal cadence for a friction and application cycle.
Our method (the pyramid) was invented by Chris Nylund and Makenna Held, validated from a culinary perspective by Kendal Lane, and codified by our Chief Education Officer, Anna Barab who holds both a PhD in Education and Psychology (she came on four trips with us before she joined the team. She paid for four of them. Including this exact curriculum at La Peetch).
Marc Watkins’ research and his educational point of view is one of the cornerstones of our thought processes too. He is quoted as saying: “One way we learn is through friction. Contending with experiences that require multiple steps, time between, and applying previous knowledge with new knowledge helps ensure students learn material and reflection asks them to pause and take account of what that learning meant to them.”
Our curriculum is built to be exactly that. Create friction, give time to pause and reflect, apply and go again. The spice clubs vs. a discrete set of spices, the same thing. Ambiguity. Friction. Application. Play.
Everything we’ve built is built on purpose. It’s pedagogical, it’s playful, but it’s definitely not a vacation.