Education & Classes in Paradise Valley

To get started, peruse Entrées to Go's menu of classic American, Asian, and Italian dishes. The menu changes each month, but December entrees include chicken marsala, almond encrusted tilapia, and tomato basil soup in a bread bowl. Once you've made your selection, call ahead to make your reservation. When you arrive, the friendly, accommodating staff will guide you to a preparing station stocked with all the ingredients you’ve requested, as well as optional surprise ingredients such as "love" and "Grandma's secret." The staff will show you how to assemble your two dishes just the way you like them. Pack them up and take them home for immediate consumption, or freeze them for future use either as sustenance or trebuchet fodder during castle sieges.

Over careers spanning 25 years and 15 pairs of spontaneously combusted shoes between the two of them, Academy of Ballroom Dance instructors Jim and Jenell Maranto have chalked up a long list of professional-dancing and dance-instruction achievements. The pair entered the dance world from backgrounds as high-level college athletes, and after meeting and teaming up, they whirled through professional dance competitions, winning every major Open Professional Smooth contest in the United States and two consecutive US American Smooth Championships in 1993 and 1994. More recently, the couple has taken to training new generations of winning dancers, including several US Pro-Am and Amateur champions, and both have won teaching awards for their efforts and their ability to explain high-level physics while foxtrotting. Any level of dancer may receive private instruction from Jim or Jenell in any of 26 styles of dance.

Glasses of purple merlot or golden chardonnay stand out against the white tables at Art of Merlot, a BYOB art space where students learn to replicate paintings by Van Gogh, Kandinsky, and other artists. The studio provides paint, brushes, aprons, easels, and canvases, as well as glasses and corkscrews for wine. Art of Merlot also hosts private, corporate, and bridal events as well as kids camps and birthday parties.

An LPGA Class A golf professional for nearly two decades, Sue Wieger combines the timeless knowledge gained from on-course experience with the some of golf’s newest technological teaching tools. Along with being certified as a Titleist Performance Institute Golf Fitness Trainer and a club fitter for both Ping and Titleist equipment, Sue boasts a bachelor’s degree in education and a master’s in psychology. Sue's mélange of educational experience has prepared her to give clients clear advice on both their golf swing and the oft-tense relationship with their sand wedge.

Using V1 video swing analysis and TPI golf fitness technology, Sue can take a multifaceted approach to improving her students' performance both technically and physically while also giving her own personal advice on how to approach the mental side of the game. While discussing the game’s finer points, such as when to hit the driver or how to discreetly fill rivals’ golf bags with rocks, clients enjoy a backdrop of mountain vistas amid palm and pine trees at the practice facilities at The McCormick Ranch Golf Club.

Opened in 2007, Classic Cooking marches under the banner of classical French cooking techniques while using Native American ingredients and dietary foundations. Chef and owner Pascal Dionot draws on his training in France, Germany, and Spain to elucidate the finer points of fine cuisine during cooking classes tailored for both career-minded gastronomers and novices. In addition, catering services take his unique brand of fusion food on the road.

Next door at Test Kitchen, chef Lou Swartz and his restaurant team put a creative twist on classic American dishes, filling diners' plates with everything from Maryland crabcakes to bananas Foster crepes. Their menus, which rotate weekly, incorporate fresh, local produce from venues such as Horny Toad Farm and Maya's Farm. Diners dig into the artfully plated cuisine at dark-wood tables arrayed beside broad front windows.

From its nest at Scottsdale Airport, Southwest Flight Center introduces aviators to the open skies, providing aircraft rental and instruction services since 1984. During flight training and flight simulation, certified instructors instill fledgling barons with the technical knowledge and techniques necessary to safely play chicken with clouds. More experienced pilots commandeer a craft from Southwest's Cessna-dominated rental fleet.