Creating a meal from scratch is both challenging and delicious, much like playing “Stairway to Heaven” on a clarinet made out of a candy cane. Master meal melding with today’s Groupon: for $50, you get a celebrity-chef-taught cooking class from Hollywood Cooking Classes on the fifth floor of Rise Restaurant (a $104 value). Each cooking class includes:

• Four-course-meal instruction (a $65 value)
• Four-course meal (a $29 value)
• Paired drink (a $10 value)<p>

Cooking seminars are normally scheduled Tuesday–Saturday at 7 p.m., with an additional Saturday afternoon class at 3:30 p.m. Click here for a sample menu.

One of Hollywood Cooking Classes’ sous chefs, trained by renowned chef Glenn Schneider and fresh off the sets of shows such as Jimmy Kimmel Live! or Dancing with the Stars, guides guests on culinary adventures across the gustatory terrain of a four-course meal. At the start of the 60- to 90-minute course, instructors describe the artfully conceived menu before demonstrating difficult techniques such as quickly and safely chopping foodstuffs or adopting just the right regional French accent while chasing cartoon lobsters through the kitchen. Pupils retreat to fully equipped workstations, where they prepare feasts under the watchful eye of the chef before indulging in the artfully plated fruits of their labor. Students aged 21 and older also craft and sample a paired cocktail such as a fresh ginger-cucumber martini or white sangria. Call ahead to reserve a class and inquire about the week’s menu offerings.