Before cooking classes, novice chefs were constantly thwarted by common rookie mistakes such as switching the sugar with the salt and the salt with the neighbor's begonias. Learn to navigate this confusing culinary art form with today's Groupon: for $40, you get admission to the Let's Start with the Basics! cooking demo class at Cooking Skills Academy in Itasca (an $80 value).

Cooking Skills Academy's award-winning chef Patsy Bentivegna boasts 25 years of culinary experience as a chef, bakery owner, and cooking instructor, imparting her knowledge to novice hash-slingers during her demonstration-led Let's Start with the Basics! class. Patsy's intimate gourmet kitchen allows for close interaction as the master meal-maker instructs participants on cooking skills and techniques such as knife basics, steaming, sautéing, caramelizing, deglazing, pea juggling, and stove-top baking. During the demo session, guests mouth-wateringly watch as chef Patsy and her culinary team turns basic ingredients into meal-ready healthy masterpieces such as lemon-thyme chicken breast, tropical upside-down cake, and a model of the Arc de Triomphe made entirely of zucchini squash. Students will get to nosh on the delectable demo items, and will also leave the kitchen-taming class with a copy of the session's recipes to replicate for their own pots and pans. Check the calendar for a list of class times and dates.