​Team Building & Private Classes

Cook. Eat. Bond.

{Please note that all cooking classes are on permanent hold as of April 2022}

Culinary team building and corporate cooking classes make for extraordinarily effective team bonding experiences. Our interactive classes offer a fun way to encourage healthy competition and open communication among coworkers.  

Private Cooking Parties are a great way to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, and other special events.

At Refugio we offer a complete and tasty menu of options for small groups, from hands-on classes to slightly larger demonstration classes, to unique dining experiencesand private cooking parties at our lovely “campus” on the grounds of a private residence in Central Coast Wine Country. Refugio Paso Robles is just a hop and a skip from some of California’s most respected wineries, and our local wines play a supporting role in all our classes and events.

Sit-down dinners at Refugio are hedonistic events where all the work is taken care of for you. Spectacular local wines are curated and paired with dishes that represent the incredible bounty of our lush county, from excellent fish and shellfish to land-based proteins, citrus, herbs, fruits and vegetables. All dishes are prepared and served by a small team of highly trained individuals.

Halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco, Paso Robles is a HOT culinary and wine destination. Assemble your team members in this stunning wine region, participate in an entertaining and educational culinary event, then return to your workplace with improved morale and an enhanced understanding and respect among team members. Plus new and delicious culinary skills.

No matter which format you choose for your team-building or private class, one thing is certain: laughs, memorable moments, and excellent food will be in good supply.​​

In October of 2017, Brigit's 29th book became widely available: Cooking In Season: 100 Recipes for Eating Fresh. Her 12th title for Williams-Sonoma, this lushly-photographed book offers refreshingly simple and wholesome recipes showcasing the best ingredients and flavors of each season.

In spring of 2015, her 28th cookbook was published: Sunset's Eating Up the West Coast; The Best Road Trips, Restaurants, and Recipes from California to Washington.
 

Testimonials and Press:​

This Paso chef can teach you the secret to a perfect pizza - The Tribune, August 2017 

From Greta Sharon, MindBody, 12/2017
Our group of about ten people gathered at the lovely Refugio Kitchen for a great evening of team-building, collaboration and fun – this event resulted in such positive feedback from all and great memories! We really enjoyed being hosted by Brigit & Casey, who made the event fun and relaxed. We were able to work together to create an incredible dinner, and then enjoy it together. The activity of cooking in teams in this beautiful space made the event more interactive than a typical dinner outing with co-workers. We were able to bring our own wine to enjoy with dinner, which made it possible for everyone to contribute their favorite bottle. I’d highly recommend Refugio to anyone looking for a great team-building event in a gorgeous location.

From Margene Mooney of Chateau Margene Winery, 12/2018:
We wanted to say thank you to you and your staff for a great evening.  It was a lot of fun. We all enjoyed the hands on experience very much. Your demonstration and refined teaching techniques helped us achieve success with the sauces. A great experience for all! As a bonus, we accomplished the team building opportunity we were hoping would occur. 

From Marcy Mallete of Laffort USA, 1/2019
The dinner certainly was the highlight of the week.  Everyone really enjoyed it and there were a lot of very positive messages that came out of the evening.  The message from our meeting really tied in to the hands on connection that you demonstrated in the class. Very apropos. 

From Jill Ogorsolka of Zenaida Cellars, 2/2019: (handwritten card)
Dear Brigit, Casey, Christie, & Teresa:
Thank you so much for making our Zenaida Holiday Dinner something special! Not only was the food delicious, we are all discussing our efforts at recreating the dishes. We all cannot wait to do it again and I will be in touch to schedule a wood burning oven class and maybe a winemaker dinner! Cheers, Jill O 

Brigit Binns is the author or co-author of numerous best-selling cookbooks, many of them for Williams-Sonoma. Although she has lived, cooked, and celebrated the pleasures of the table from New York to London to Southern Spain, and throughout the Mediterranean, her heart always remained true to her home state of California. All cooking classes take place in Refugio's state-of-the-art kitchen studio in Paso Robles, which she created with her husband Casey Biggs (aka "Paso Wine Man").  

Brigit's book The New Wine Country Cookbook: Recipes from California's Central Coast, celebrates the luscious food, award-winning wines, and alluring-yet-unpretentious lifestyle of the fastest-growing wine region in California. Brigit is just beginning her 30th book, Meathead On Fire: The Art of Great Grilling and Barbecue, in collaboration with the Chicago-based Hedonism Evangelist, Meathead Goldwyn of AmazingRibs.com.