Have you tried....?
Have you tried a cooking class? I signed up for one years ago, but it turned out to be a demonstration with no hands-on work. So imagine my delight when I got to do real work in a class at Sur la Table!
Seriously-so fun. We did this as an alternative birthday party for me, and it was great! This class was on Thai favorites (pad Thai, lettuce wraps, etc...) but they have classes for several cuisines such as Italian or Japanese. They had the ingredients, which we chopped and diced. We were taught knife skills. We were shown cool tools. We got 10% off an item in the store that night! Check out some photos from the evening!
I really recommend checking it out at: Have you ever done a cooking class?