Like learning to juggle, learning to cook requires patience, a distraction-free environment, and the ability to handle multiple eggplants at once. Become the ringmaster of your kitchen with today's Groupon: for $35, you get a hands-on cooking class at My Kitchen in Gaithersburg (an $80 value for adult class; a $70 value for children 7+ class).

My Kitchen's seasoned instructors set aside their professional-catering duties to demystify culinary secrets during hands-on cooking classes for adults and children ages 7 and older. Grown-ups can delve into the gustatory traditions of the Mediterranean with an Easy Italian Gourmet course that spends three hours teaching the basics of whisking together such Italian classics as chicken marsala with linguine, tiramisu, and edible frescoes. Three-hour Introduction to Cake Decorating sessions flood senses with confectionery delights and teach attendees valuable pastry skills, including how to properly shellac buttercream icing, how to adorn desserts with palate-pleasing décor, and how to level a cake without a wrecking ball. Classes for children ages 7 and older teach burgeoning sous-chefs how to handcraft fresh meals that don't include fruit-roll-up hors d'oeuvres or Play-Doh aperitifs, with sessions that occasionally focus on world cuisines from locales such as West Africa and Italy.