Education & Classes in Cupertino

Many people learn better when they feel comfortable, which is why Cucina Bambini designed their workspace to resemble a family kitchen instead of a clinical wall of burners and ovens. Black-and-white tiles cover the walls behind rustic cabinets and ceramic spice vessels. Instructors work with ingredients atop a central island to share their passion for cooking with students of all ages. Children can learn about culture as well as cuisine in Around the World classes that focus on recipes for tandoori chicken or Chinese siu mai dumplings. Adults may mix fresh pasta dough and form fettuccine or ravioli by hand or learn how to prepare sushi rice and use it in fresh rolls or nigiri. During date-night classes, couples can bring in a bottle of wine to sip as they prepare a four-course dinner that they will eventually devour or smear across each other's faces.

With more than 15 years of flying experience, Fly Bay Area creates tours that are designed to bring recreational flying to the general public. Participants on Fly Bay Area's tours get to see Alcatraz, the Golden Gate Bridge, Half Moon Bay, and the coastline cliffs—but instead of exploring each up-close, they view them from around 1,500 feet in the air. Experienced pilots steer four-seat, single-engine planes over the San Francisco Peninsula and Bay, across sweeping redwood forests and the Pacific coast, during sky tours at any time of day. The FAA-approved air-tour company also lets passengers helm the plane's controls on U-Fly tours. During these flights, pilots train one or two passengers in basic flight maneuvers and making airplane noises with their mouths, eschewing the extra technical and theoretical lessons required by pilot-training programs. On any flight, staff members can snap high-resolution digital photographs or high-definition videos that document moments of the customer's in-flight experience.

It was a clear afternoon in Mission, British Columbia, when Walter Gyger climbed into his friend's Cessna 172. He’d spent his childhood constructing model airplanes and dreaming of stepping into the pilot's seat of a real one. The two lifted off, the ground dropping smoothly away, and soared on into the evening, finally touching down on Vancouver Island. That experience spurred Walter on to seek out his pilot license. Years later, after taking classes at Trade Winds Aviation, he bought the company. Walter now works with a team of FAA-certified flight instructors to give budding pilots that same push he received to pursue the dream of flying and pilot certification.

Trade Winds' two-runway airport and adjacent training area sit surrounded by ridges splashed with watercolor blotches of green, which pilots-in-training survey from wide cockpit windows as they follow the official Cessna training program. Students set their own pace as they progress through lessons in cross-country flight, night flying, and navigation, all augmented by online training, practical flight sessions, and heckling from birds. When not guiding pupils through the valley's consistently clear skies, the staff help maintain Trade Winds' fleet of Cessna and Remos aircraft, many of which have features such as satellite radio, autopilot, GPS maps, and spare commas for absent-minded skywriters.

The nonprofit Bay Area Glass Institute supports glass arts in its community by providing affordable studio space for artists, holding events and exhibits of local work, and teaching basic classes. Students create delicate glass art using cold techniques or acquire the basics of glass blowing as they rotate molten glass blobs at 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit to make terrariums, glass flowers, or space helmets for cats. A store on the premises sells elegant and innovative work by the local glass artists affiliated with the institute.

Trained by legendary acting teacher Sanford Meisner, Christy English Wioncek opened the Bay Area Acting Studio to teach a new generation of actors how to—in the words of her mentor—"live truthfully under imaginary circumstances." Her stable of equally Meisner-steeped instructors leads classes including introductory adult courses, intensive courses for working thespians, and children's classes for young'uns looking to break into the industry early or convince babysitters they've been diagnosed with a life-threatening ice-cream deficiency.

Fragrance and essential oils lace the air at the Opal'z studio, where soapmakers, candle-craftsmen, and perfume-concoctors spill secrets. Steam billows and nostrils sing as guests fill soap and candle molds with colorful, custom-scented potions. After consultations help them home in on the perfect fragrance, customers alchemize scents and take home glass bottles of their one-of-a-kind scents. Single-session workshops, summer camps, and parties gather aspiring artisans, while a boutique of kits and mini-soaps keeps home studios stocked.