Amateur chefs now have a place in town to get together and try their hand at homemade dishes.

The Dartmouth Grange’s shared-used kitchen, home to a variety of startups, is now the location for cooking classes. Chef Roberta Elhaddad is offering group classes through her business, Culinary Delights.

Elhaddad has an extensive background in cooking. She was just 12 years old when she landed her first gig at a bakery in Beachwood, New Jersey. But her love of cooking long predates that time.

“I grew with a marvelous cook, which was my mother,” said Elhaddad. “She loved to have these enormous dinner parties.”

She said her family and others would gather together after church services on Sundays to partake in a five- to six-course meal.

“To this day, when I’m in the kitchen, those memories come back to me,” she said.

With more than 25 years of experience under her belt, Elhaddad currently works as a personal chef. She said that she began the classes because her clients and friends would frequently ask her cooking questions.

“To be able to share my passion with people and help them in a life-long skill that’s needed is a marvelous thing,” she said.

Her classes, held in the 2,000-square-feet incubator kitchen at the Grange, teach students everything from basic cooking skills to assembling a multistep recipe. Each class features one basic theme or type of food.

During her winter soup class, held in early December, she taught a small group the basics, like how to cut carrots safely and how to properly wash escarole, to more elaborate feats, like setting mushrooms ablaze with some assistance from a shot or two of alcohol.

Students were led through an introductory soup, and then the group of six was divided into two teams. One group prepared a cream of mushroom soup while the other tackled a spiced pumpkin soup recipe.

For Elhaddad, it’s more than simply following a set of instructions.

“Presentation – that’s something that a lot of people don’t take into account when cooking,” she said. “Your first experience with food is visual. Then comes aroma and, thirdly, is the palette. All of those components have to be met for it to be successful. You won’t have a successful recipe if you don’t have one of those components.”

When she works as a private chef, Elhaddad said she puts effort into table settings and centerpieces, too, as it creates a memory for her clients. Generating memories is an element she wants her students to experience as well.

“It’s not only about cooking. I think people are looking for a way to join together. As you become an adult, it becomes difficult to meet people and establish relationships. I have an expectation of people coming and joining in great conversation and sharing time together,” she said.

She said that, during her first class that taught students how to stir fry, she felt it was important that future classes conclude with participants sitting around a table, talking and eating.

The first batch of classes began in November and will conclude on Jan 16. The final three-hour class, named “Journey to Italy,” will take students through pasta making and feature one of Elhaddad’s signature dishes.

“It’s outrageous – one of my favorite all-time recipes. It’s a lasagna Bolognese and the secret ingredient is cognac and fresh pasta,” she said. “It turns out much more delicate than what you’d find at the super market. When you bite into it, it melts.”

The cooking series will pick back up in March, and Elhaddad is already planning possible dishes to teach.

“There are so many people with so many different palettes that I don’t take offense if someone says ‘this isn’t my thing.’ But I like to give people the opportunity to broaden their palette,” she said.

For more information on Culinary Delights or to sign up for the Jan. 16 class, visit Elhaddad's website at culinarydelights.org or call 508-625-0500.