My family attended a 2 hour introduction to Italian Cookery course here. It included some demonstration, plus hands on experience if you wanted to join in and the chance to eat the food prepared at the end of the meal. We bought our tickets via Groupon and so it was only $30 a head, and for me it felt like very good value.
Laurent is the epitome of a french chef - yes he does like things to be done in a particular way and is a bit gruff, but to me that was part of the fun of the day. And he did know his stuff - even though we were making things I must have made a zillion times myself (soup, lasagne and tiramisu) he taught us ways to make it that had never occurred to me such as the best way to cut an onion, how to cook vegetables so they don't burn, how to keep the sponge fingers from getting soggy. I really felt I learned a lot and I feel if you go to this class knowing you are going to be the full french chef experience then you will too.