Cooking is great. Even more fun? Watching the pros work their way around the kitchen — like, for example, on the (very popular) Bon Appétit YouTube channel!

Sometimes, however, you just have to tackle a new challenge for yourself.

We’re talking, of course, about cooking classes — and Toronto has a TON of them.

Have you ever wanted to get hands-on experience on how to make real Neapolitan pizza?

Or make authentic pasta, with insider tips from the pros?

Maybe you love to cook fish, but you’re worried about ruining a beautiful (and expensive) filet.

In rounding up some of our city’s most exciting culinary experiences, Toronto Life has done a dutiful service — perhaps a delicious favour — by explaining what you’ll get by gettin’ down in the kitchen at one of the city’s top restaurants.

Spoiler alert: They all involve a lot of eating, drinking, and socializing. With a heaping side of useful culinary knowledge.

Take, for example, the classes at the Healthy Butcher (two locations, 298 Eglinton Ave. W. and 565 Queen St. W.). While cutting meat is a lifelong vocation, two hours under their tutelage and you’ll walk away with the skills to debone, spatchcock, and truss raw poultry — and you’ll take home two birds to practice on. With the holidays around the corner, we imagine this course will be invaluable come turkey time.

You’ve no doubt heard people say it’s never too late to go back to school. In this case, hitting the (cook)books sounds like a satisfying night out.

Interested? Check out Toronto Life’s feature on the 10 best cooking classes this city has to offer.