Cooking Class - Vibrant Flavors of South America in San Jose

We had a wonderful experience cooking with Chef Ruel. He was very welcoming, informative and fun to cook with! The meal was great, the ingredients were organized and we learned a ton! Thank you very much!

Great experience. Chef Ruel was knowledgeable, professional and friendly. He and Shelly provided us with a fun and informative evening at our house with the South American meal. Highly recommend!

Chef Ruel and his assistant were great! We had a very fun evening and look forward to doing it again!

Chef Ruel and Shelley were amazing. They came to our house and were so prepared and professional. The meal was amazing and we learned so much. It was so nice to have them in our place and they left it even cleaner than it was when they arrived. I highly recommend you book with Chef Ruel, you'll have a blast!

Wonderful time and very informative. We learned a lot of tips, recipes, and good techniques for prepping and cooking good food.

We had a date night planned for South American cuisine and Chef Ruel gave us the best experience. The food was fresh and recipes were amazing! He really took his time to explain the reason behind each step with a few tips on how to recreate it at home. Overall, highly recommend!

Had a wonderful time with Chef Ruel in his beautiful apartment! He had an easy and simple way to make fresh fettuccine pasta and his creamy mushroom sauce was absolutely delicious! It's hard to go back on packaged pasta after you've tasted this. I'm often disappointed by empanadas but Chef Ruel's recipe was a snap! Plus, it had a tasty and flaky crust with a savory and delectable beef filling. Yum! If you're in the San Jose area and looking for a fun, relaxing time with delightful food, don't hesitate to stop by Chef Ruel's place. You won't be disappointed!

Cooking class with Chef Ruel was a fantastic experience! My boyfriend and I attended the Spanish Tapas class right before Valentine's day. Chef Ruel had a lovely setup with all the necessary ingredients at hand. Another couple was also present for the class and we all split up to chop and prepare different parts of the meal. Chef Ruel provided some basic cooking tips as well ad advanced instruction on how everything comes together for the final presentation. We had a delightful time taking the class and really enjoyed spending the evening with the other couple, Chef Ruel, and Shelly.

My girlfriend and I booked Chef Ruel for a pre-Valentines Day (February 13th) cooking experience, and we can’t say enough about how great our evening was! We worked with fresh ingredients and took turns learning various cooking techniques, while we prepared our meal. The atmosphere was very light and Chef Ruel was very accommodating to both our dietary restrictions and our varied levels of cooking experience. At the end of the night we enjoyed a meal that I would have paid good money to be served at a fancy restaurant for Valentines Day. We’re definitely going to book another cooking experience with Chef Ruel, and we’re bringing a bunch of our friends with us. Five Stars!

We had a great time with Chef Ruel! Great entertainment and we learned how to make amazing pasta. The menu was well selected, instructions were on point and it felt like we were spending time with a good friend. What a wonderful evening with food that we can't wait to re-create! Can't wait to try some of Chef Ruel's other menus in the future :)

Beyond our expectations. Chef Ruel and his sous chef, Shelly made our cooking class for our family of 3 so memorable and we learned so much! I took a pasta cooking class in Florence a few years ago, and Chef Ruel made it so much easier, by teaching us two methods. Who knew, I could use my Kitchenaid to make the most delicious pasta. I highly recommend Chef Ruel's class, and I'm already rounding up friends to take his empanada class.

Lots of fun! The food was fantastic!

Chef Ruel was great. We booked him for a private party for 7 of us. Not only was his food amazing, he did a really good job of helping host the party by making sure everyone was having fun, and getting them as involved in the cooking as they wanted to be. Overall a fantastic experience and would 100% book him again.

We hired Ruel for brunch and dinner during my best friend’s bachelorette. I worked with him to plan thoughtful and customized menus, and the food was incredibly delicious. We had a couple vegetarians in our group who Ruel made sure to accommodate and they were equally impressed with their meals! Beyond the quality of the food, Ruel was professional, responsive and super friendly! I will definitely hire him again for a future event.

My bf and I recently we’re treated to a meal made by Chef Ruel and we were pleasantly surprised. This was our first experience dining w/a private chef and our meal was perfect. I especially like the soup he served, it must of had 4-5 different types. We opted for the lamb chops and they were cooked and seasoned well.

This sucks!!!! This sucks I didn’t find Chef Ruel earlier for another event I wanted to do with my friends. But I was able to book him for a company Team Bonding event. I’m glad I did. Clean and upscale apartment. You can tell Ruel loves what he does and puts passion into what he is creating. The food was delicious! We all loved it. Now I can make it at home to impress my wife. Definitely will do this experience again with my friends and will be going back to Chef Ruel to learn more recipes and techniques.

Definitely one of the better chefs in the bay! My company did a catering event with Chef Ruel and everything went so smoothly and most importantly, the food tasted delicious. He had made us Beef Empanadas and it was soooo good! We had few of our co workers get his contact information for future events. Highly recommended!

Really enjoyed the dining/cooking with Chef Ruel. The meals were easy to learn and very tasty. I highly recommend him for your Cozymeal experience!

Chef Ruel was awesome! He made sure that I wasn’t allergic to any ingredients that he was going to use and made sure that the food temperature was perfect, as I like my meat medium rare. Delicious food, highly recommend!

So happy I found Chef Ruel!? I wanted to treat my husband to a classy, romantic, intimate meal for his 30th birthday. We’ve done the “fancy” restaurant thing over and over again so I figure, let’s try something different. Best decision ever. Chef Ruel’s food was soooo freakin yummy. Everything tasted so fresh, but the flavors were rich (my favorite was the Uni pasta ??) The cute “IG worthy” -restaurant style plating was a plus? Totally felt like I was at a Michelin Star restaurant ? We will definitely come back to Chef Ruel soon!

I was trying to find something fun and different to do for a girls night. I was referred to Cozymeal from a coworker of mine. She raved about her experience when her work used Cozymeal for a team bonding event for her department of 10 people. After researching through dozens of the chefs in the area, I decided to book with Chef Ruel based on his variety in menu selection. My biggest concern was accommodating a few dietary restrictions in the group-food allergies and gluten free diet. After a couple of email exchanges, Chef Ruel customized a menu just for our group with the dietary restrictions! To be honest, the customized menu sounded better than the original. On the day of the event, we arrived at the address provided. It was in an apartment building. The decor and ambiance of the room made me feel like we were in a while different setting....very cozy and the space was very clean. He was very professional and personable throughout the whole experience. And of course the food tasted amazing! Our group couldn’t stop raving about every dish we made. There is no doubt I would book with Chef Ruel again.