Silverado Cooking School

Your first assignment: Book one of Frances Wilson’s classes. Wilson, who hails from Ireland and lives in Berkeley, peppers students with important information from the minute they’re seated at the linen-set dining table. Sit back and listen carefully to descriptions of the food you’re about to prepare, because for the next three hours you’ll be energetically dicing, grating, whipping and prepping a global array of dishes in the enormous, state-of-the-art kitchen. Because Wilson makes the class so much fun, you’re not even aware how many facts you’re digesting. There doesn’t seem to be one culinary subject she can’t opine about (from knife safety to egg shopping), and she has hints that might change the way you cook, from spoon-less measuring (except when baking) to delicately poaching the perfect egg, to the correct thickness for hand pressing tortillas, to successful omelet flipping.

In a recent brunch class, Wilson taught eggs Benedict with blender hollandaise, breakfast tacos with beets and greens (from owner Malcolm de Sieyes’ Stone Tree Farm), and a moist, irresistible pineapple upside-down cake. The colorful spread, served buffet-style, was enhanced by flutes of sparkling wine from Schramsberg, and the dozen sated students went home with buttery scones, a container of warm persimmon chutney, school aprons and recipes. (Next classes: 10 a.m.-1 p.m. next Sunday, Oct. 30, and Nov. 27. $140)

1552 Silverado Trail, Napa, (707) 927-3591. www.SilveradoCookingSchool.com