Ancient wisdom tells us to "eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow you may die!" Forgive me but this saying gives one "food for thought." Yes it is always a good idea to live a full, good life as you relish the present moment with close friends and family. After all, the events of your life and positive, fulfilling action today creates the cherished memories of tomorrow. One way many of our Ocean Reef guests are accomplishing this so called task is to sign up for a wonderful cooking class at Kitchenique in Destin or the newly opened Viking Cooking School in Miramar Beach.

Vicki McCain originally a native of New Orleans, grew up with a passion for French inspired Cajun as well as Italian food which has made that city a culinary celebrity of sorts. She moved to our beautiful Emerald Coast of Destin and set her passion into motion with the opening of Vicki's Kitchenique in 1985. Her idea was to invite local chefs to her new store to share their expertise with gourmet wannabes who paid to take cooking lessons. It was very well received. Food lovers flocked to her newly established Kitchenique store which at that time only had portable burners for the chefs to work with while preparing meals. This idea worked well for all attendees since it brought a number of gourmands together who appreciated fine dining. Chefs at local established restaurants were able to mingle with their "students", teach them recipes and create a devoted following. The amount of response increased rapidly through the years, mostly from local residents since it was almost a secret for "those in the know." People gathered, friendships were made, recipes were shared, great wine was relished and gourmet entrees were enjoyed. In 1999 Kitchenique added a commercial, fully sized Teaching Kitchen and as Vicki likes to say "it's been a party ever since!"

Today Kitchenique is located at 36150 Emerald Coast Parkway in Destin at The City Market at Destiny. This is just east of Destin Commons and located on the south side of Highway 98 near the gates of the Destiny East neighborhood. It is now becoming popular with visitors to our area since it is the Emerald Coast's oldest and most established Gourmet Kitchen Store with renowned local chefs continuing to conduct classes for the Cooking School. Obviously, the word has gotten out to the rest of the world and we didn't want any of our Ocean Reef Resort guests to be left out!

TripAdvisor gives Kitchenique a Five Star Rating from their composite of a number of submitted reviews from guests and patrons. In fact, it has been listed as one of the top destination recommendations in all of Destin. Comments from attendees include such accolades as: "Fabulous fun", "outstanding food entertainment and atmosphere", "delightful evening", "entertaining and educational", "excellent", "unique and memorable", "an amazing culinary experience" and "the best part of our vacation."

Cooking classes are held on an almost weekly basis and can be seen online at Kitchenique.com Recipes and renowned chefs vary from week to week so that you can choose the food meal recipe that most interests you. The cost of admission so to speak covers two hours of class time as you and others sit around the long kitchen counter and watch the Chef go to work on instruction. It is a great way to experience fun comradery, learn a new gourmet recipe, taste excellent accompanying wine and enjoy great food. Besides the fun classes, Kitchenique carries fine cutlery, cookware, cutting boards, special herbs, spices, cookbooks, and even gourmet coffee.

Kitchenique Cooking School

Another culinary destination for our Ocean Reef guests is located in Miramar Beach across from Silver Sands Outlet Mall and is called The Viking Cooking School. This company was founded in 1987 by Fred Carl, Jr in Greenwood, Mississippi. Mr. Carl, a fourth generation residential building contractor had an idea to create a commercial type range for the homes he was building. This gave birth to The Viking Range Company which was a great success because no one had introduced such a kitchen range into private residences beforehand. The sought after range led to the creation of other appliances as well such as refrigerators, dishwashers, small appliances, and cookware. Soon customers wanted instruction for recipes and cooking on these new commercial grade appliances that were in their homes. This led to the advent of the Viking Cooking School. Now they are located in twelve states including such disperse locales as Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Utah. Besides Miramar Beach here in South Walton County the only other Florida location is in Sarasota. Since many of our Ocean Reef guests live around the southeast, it is nice to know that you may do a class here and then if you like it, take another one when you return home. Other nearby Viking schools are located in Atlanta, Nashville, Memphis, Baton Rouge, Houston and of course Greenwood, Mississippi where it all began.

The Destin Viking Cooking School has regularly scheduled culinary events and classes which are taught by both area, regional and national guest chefs. These are hands on demonstrations which appeal to both novices and more experienced cooks. Classes range from teaching basic simple cooking skills all the way up to creating exotic global cuisine. They even have courses for kids and teens. Joe Sherman, President and CEO of the Viking Culinary Group stated that "our customers span a broad array of culinary skill levels, from beginners to epicurean enthusiasts and we are committed to providing them with new skills, new taste experiences and the finest culinary equipment." Last year over 77,000 cooking students joined in on the fun at Viking Stores throughout the country. Their schedules and more info may be found on line at vikingcookingschool.com

Destin, Miramar Beach, and Scenic 30A restaurants have become quite sophisticated over the years offering the kind of cuisine that is normally only found in large urbane cities. It is no wonder that Vicki's Kitchenique was so successful in establishing a cooking school here years ago or that a company as well known and reputable as Viking would establish one now. Now a little known secret is becoming a national sensation and we are sure that many of our Ocean Reef guests may want to try one of these wonderful epicurean experiences. They will delight the taste buds, impart the mind with knowledge, and create another wonderful Destin vacation memory during your stay with us to take home with you. So by all means eat, drink and be merry because after all you're on vacation!