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 $62, you get a 4.5-hour cooking class at The Mardi Gras School of Cooking (a $150 value).

The Mardi Gras School of Cooking’s seasoned chef, Richard Bond, guides culinary connoisseurs through the ins and outs of Cajun and Creole cooking during informative, hands-on classes. In each two- to six-person lesson, the instructor dispenses cooking tips and nuggets of New Orleans history as attendees chop ingredients and befriend lonely globules of flour. The culinary coaching eventually manifests in a tasty chocolate bread pudding doused in a mocha-chocolate brandy sauce. After schooling on four types of roux, blossoming knife-wielders concoct a Cajun roux to mix with gumbo and a Creole roux to accompany shrimp Creole or wear as perfume. At the end of the session, students can sip wine and nosh on their completed dishes while perusing copies of the recipes they conquered.

Pupils embark on gastronomic adventures at 9:45 a.m., when a complimentary ferry shuttles them from the foot of Canal Street to historic Algiers Point. By 10:00 a.m., the decorated chef will greet participants and lead the way to the kitchen for chopping, baking, and taste-bud pampering.