The day after kids went back to school in Ankeny, Deb Cazavilan’s telephone started ringing a lot more and her computer’s inbox filled up with e-mails. Everyone she talked to wanted to register for cooking classes. Fall is a busy time for Cazavilan, who runs a cooking school in Ankeny called The Little Blue House. It’s a good thing that the weather gets her in the mood for some serious cooking, because she receives a lot of requests for cooking classes this time of the year.

“As soon as there is a chill in the air, I get in the mood to cook,” Cazavilan said. “After eating lighter or grilling out in the summer, it’s time to get back in the kitchen. And it seems early, but the holidays are not that far away, either.”

What if cooking is not your passion like Cazavilan’s? There are several places you can go in Greater Des Moines to learn some new recipes and cooking techniques. And if you love cooking, these classes can be a fun way to meet people or spend a night out of the house with friends.

Kitchen Collage

Some of the classes at this East Village culinary store give students the opportunity to learn how to cook some of their favorite dishes from local restaurants. Several of Kitchen Collage’s classes are taught by local chefs, such as one next week where Dominic Ianarelli from Splash Seafood Bar & Grill will teach how to make lobster pot pies.

Most of Kitchen Collage’s classes are taught by demonstration, according to Teresa Adams-Tomka, one of the store’s owners. Groups of up to eight people gather in the store’s kitchen area while the guest cook shares his or her recipe and techniques for preparing it. The classes are usually held from 6 to 8 p.m. and cost around $50.

But occasionally, Kitchen Collage also brings in chefs from outside Iowa to teach special classes such as its upcoming ones on Turkish and Israeli cuisine, which will feature Sheilah Kaufman, a chef from the East Coast.

Adams-Tomka said the cooking classes attract a lot of younger adults who are interested in learning more about cooking and entertaining.

“The demo format works well because people are happy to sit back after they’ve worked all day to see how someone can make their life easier in the kitchen,” she said.

A schedule of classes is available online at www.kitchencollageofdesmoines.com.

Williams-Sonoma

The Williams-Sonoma store at Jordan Creek Town Center offers evening cooking classes about every other week that feature seasonal recipes or build off a theme in the store. Instructor Christine Falk is finishing an Italian theme this week and will shift to a holiday focus for the rest of the classes offered through year’s end.

According to Holly Lombardo, the store’s assistant manager, the recipes featured in the cooking classes are “relatively simple things – not anything overly ornate or gourmet,” and the ingredients used are readily available in Des Moines.

Like Kitchen Collage, the cooking instruction classes at Williams-Sonoma are taught through demonstrations. Groups of up to 12 watch the demonstrations at the cooking area located near the middle of the store and eat the food that is prepared as it is finished. Most classes cost around $40.

Class schedules are not listed online, but the store will add you to its e-mail list upon request, or you can call 225-6613 for a schedule.

Little Blue House

Deb Cazavilan teaches hands-on cooking at her Ankeny cooking school and family-meal catering service. Cazavilan, who has been cooking professionally for nearly 30 years, typically includes about five recipes in her classes: a side dish or appetizer, three entrees and a dessert. She designs the class around a theme, such as the state fair one she offered last week, which featured prize-winning recipes from state fairs across the country. With Cazavilan’s instruction, students prepare the recipes and then package the food into containers to take home with them. Her kitchen can accommodate up to nine students.

“We have a lot of working women who come for a girls’ night out,” Cazavilan said. “They sign up with their friends, bring a bottle of wine to share and leave with meals for a week.”

To complete all the recipes during the two-hour classes, Cazavilan takes care of some of the straightforward ingredient preparation beforehand, such as dicing onions. She said her criterion for food selection is that the recipe has to be interesting – not something that people would already know how to cook – and the preparation time for it has to be less than 30 minutes because of time constraints. She tries to select a wide range of recipes, ranging from Mediterranean to Thai.

She offers both daytime and evening classes on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, with costs ranging from about $65 to $95 per class. Next week, she will begin a series of holiday baking and gifts workshops. View a schedule of upcoming classes at www.alittlebluehouse.com.

Community education

Cooking classes with David Meis fill up quickly. Meis, whose culinary training was in French cuisine, has been teaching classes for 30 years through Des Moines Public Schools’ Community Education. This fall, both of his sessions of “Two of the World’s Great Cuisines,” which covers French and Italian cooking, are full. Meis’ classes are more in depth than the one-time classes offered by local cooking schools and retail shops because they meet for three hours one night a week for six weeks.

Meis’ classes tend to attract a lot of people with cooking experience, because about three-quarters of the people in his classes of 24 have taken classes of his before. “I would say that most people who take the class have a serious interest in food and the means to appreciate good food,” Meis said.

On the first night of class, he tries to assess each student’s cooking abilities and what he or she wants to learn before determining the menus for the following weeks. He tries not to repeat recipes from one class to another. In his classes, groups of four work together in six small kitchens to prepare a meal. His two classes that start this week are full, but he will offer more classes in January. Class fees typically run $65, and food fees are about the same. For a list of other cooking classes offered by DMPS Community Education, visit http://www.dmps-adulted.org/classes.html.