The Mall at University Town Center Williams-Sonoma store's American Girl-themed cooking classes sell out rapidly

UNIVERSITY PARK -- If you think kids aren't into food, you might want to swing by Williams-Sonoma's kids cooking class to check out just how sophisticated their culinary paletes can be.

Williams-Sonoma partnered with American Girl to host classes for kids inspired by the popular doll company. In June, associate manager Erin Schosser said the 24 spots for the Grace-themed class sold out in a day and a half. Each seat in the class costs $30.

The Williams-Sonoma store in University Park's The Mall at University Town Center hosts free and paid cooking classes throughout the year for both children and adults. The classes aim to enrich attendants' culinary knowledge and teach new cooking techniques.

The American Girl classes have been especially successful.

Each American Girl doll comes with a story, and Grace's story revolves around a trip to France. For her cooking class, children learned how to make madeleines, a small French cake shaped like a shell.

The waiting list for the June American Girl class was long enough to book all of the spots for the August American Girl class. But Schosser said the partnership between Williams-Sonoma and American Girl is set for three years, so the store will host more kid classes and events with an American Girl focus in the coming months.

Once the store gets past the "gigantic issue with the waiting list," they'll advertise the classes more heavily via social media and the mall's marketing team.

Free weekly children's cooking classes are offered

as well, but the number of children participants is limited to 20. They also have a theme that is often related to the weekly adult cooking classes. Kids can learn about cooking with salt on July 11, how to make kid-friendly smoothies and snacks with a Vitamix blender July 18 and learn to make their own ice cream sandwiches July 25. The first two classes are suitable for children ages 8 to 13 and the ice cream sandwich class can accommodate children 5 years old to 13 years old.

The store also offers paid cooking classes two to three times per month for adults allowing them to eat dinner while gaining culinary knowledge from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Classes are limited to eight participants and each class costs upwards of $65, depending on the class and included takeaways. This week's class, featuring Food Network TV star Ina Garten, sold out, but two other dinner-included classes are still open in July.

On July 15, country musician Trisha Yearbook's cookbook will be the focus of the class and a part of the takeaway package. The following week's class features Greek flavors.

Every Sunday the store offers a free, unlimited-seating cooking class starting at 11 a.m. for adults.

The classes are informal and associate manager Erin Schosser said usually between 15 and 20 people attend in Florida's off season and they've had as many as 35 or 40 attend when the area is at its busiest.

Each week has a theme, typically focused on a specific ingredient, utensil or technique.

On July 11, "cooking with salt" will teach participants how to cook coconut curry shrimp skewers, beef teppanyaki and tin roof sundaes and will review how to use different types of salt in common recipes.

The next two weeks will focus on using Vitamix blenders for making recipes other than smoothies and nonstick sauteing, respectively.

All of the classes are demonstration only, meaning people in attendance will not do any cooking themselves. The Williams-Sonoma store in UTC is not equipped with hands-on facilities.

This story was originally published July 8, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "The Mall at University Town Center Williams-Sonoma store's American Girl-themed cooking classes sell out rapidly ."