Simmer and Sear

San Francisco, United States

3.8

20 reviews

Contacts

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Telephone:
+1 415-335-8831
Website:
www.simmerandsear.com
Address:
San Francisco, CA 94123
Marina/Cow Hollow
Nearby public transportation stops & stations:
0.2 miBig Bus Tours Stop 14, Lombard Street 1
0.5 miBig Bus Tours Stop 13, Palace of Fine Arts
0.6 miBig Bus Tours Stop 15, Lombard Street 2
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Today

Today –
Local time (San Francisco) 2:27 PM Wednesday, June 4, 2025

Business hours

Monday –
Tuesday –
Wednesday –
Thursday –
Friday –
Saturday –
Sunday –

Description

Specialties

Why go out to dinner when all the fun is in the kitchen?

Hi, I am Chef Anna and welcome to Simmer and Sear! I offer a whole new approach to cooking. Rather than just focus on instruction, I share the best methods — from picking the right ingredients to the secrets of making that special dish with extraordinary flavors. My classes are designed to fit your needs and are great for team building events, special celebrations (baby and bridal showers, bachelorette parties, birthdays, etc…) or just a special night out with friends. Unlike other cooking schools Simmer and Sear offers over 30 exclusive venues to choose from. These spaces are only available to Simmer and Sear and I would like to share them with you. I match each venue with the personality and size of your group to truly make your event special.

I also offer open registration classes for themed cooking events such as foods from a specific regions, singles classes and corporate networking.

Check me out.

History

Established in 2007.

Please go to the history page on the Simmer and Sear website to read my story.

(There was not enough characters available to write my story here and no url links allowed)

Meet the Business Owner

Anna B.

Business Owner

My passion for cooking started over 30 years ago… I grew up in an Italian household with a Mother that cooked all day everyday. We had own vegetable and herb garden so all of our meals were made with fresh home-​grown ingredients and that tradition carries on today in my own cooking. At age 17 I worked in a small Italian family run deli. My experience grew from there as I picked up more authentic practices from the Italian owners and many of the techniques that I will be sharing with you have been passed along for generations. I helped my brother open his own restaurant. I prepared all of his specialty salads and created some signature dishes as well. Creativity in the kitchen runs in the family! My philosophy on cooking and food is that it is an everyday part of life that brings people together, keeps families communicating and is a huge part of romance and happiness. Come learn, laugh, & enjoy the benefits of cooking with me today.

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20 reviews of Simmer and Sear

No registration required
Place rating: 5
San Francisco, CA
Chef Anna was so wonderful! She helped me plan a holiday cooking event for my about 14 of my coworkers. She knew exactly what I wanted and even helped find a venue that was in our budget and also was awesome. We chose to cook an Italian meal and it could not have been better. She had the best ingredients (from her own garden) and knew exactly how to handles us all. Because of Chef Anna, I got multiple praises for putting on such a good event. If I ever plan something like this again, I will for sure be using Simmer & Sear. Thank you, Anna!
Place rating: 1
Santa Cruz, CA
Horrible execution for a corporate event. All hugs and smiles until the execution started, then nasty interactions with someone just trying to coordinate the event. Not business friendly. Stay away.
Place rating: 5
El Granada, CA
What an amazing evening! Anna taught us how to prepare the perfect Thai curry fish with Thai fried rice and fresh calamari salad that is to die for. We learned techniques, paired wines and had a delightful lesson and cuisine. Anna is spectacular. 10 star!
Place rating: 2
San Francisco, CA
This review reflects the communication and service we had with Chef Anna, since we did not end up taking the cooking class.
We received an email from Anna the night before our cooking class as a reminder and asking for confirmation of our attendance. I was not able to confirm until the next day, but she had already cancelled the class. Since there were several hours left before the originally scheduled class time, I tried to contact her to see if it was too late to still attend. I called her and left several emails but did not hear back.
We did not end up getting to take our class which we were excited about. It was our fault for not confirming in time, but it was a very small window of response time. Also, I tried contacting Anna several times afterwards to re-​schedule the class, but did not hear back from her. The voucher ended up being worthless, which is too bad.
Place rating: 1
San Francisco, CA
I took one of Chef Anna’s classes a while back, and just last weekend I took a 2 hour class at the CIA in Napa (both for the same cost). First, Anna is not professionally trained, but she does not claim to be either. However, when you are paying the same amount of money, and you experience the facilities and expert instructors at the Culinary Institute, it makes you feel like a fool for taking Anna’s class. Oh and if you want to bring wine to the class, she tells you that you have to share with everyone (you really have to tell us that? it is my wine and i can choose who i want to share it with)
The food in Anna’s class was fine. She assumes you have NO EXPERIENCE whatsoever, and will challenge you if you say you do have cooking experience. She will grill you on what you know how to cook. The ingredients are cheap (ie, chicken thighs and couscous), whereas we had a piece of sashimi-​grade yellowtail that was overnighted from Japan! Again… same cost for the class.
I dont need to go on. But if you are looking for a challenging class at a good value, I would highly recommend the CIA. Finally, I know that Anna is going to respond and blast me for something. She is just defensive. She is right, she probably does have MANY MANY happy guests, but they probably came in not knowing how to boil water!
Place rating: 4
San Francisco, CA
I was at Simmer and Sear last night learning how to make sushi rolls.
Our instructor was Jocelyn with her sous chef Harry (?). Nice gal! I didn’t quite read the email disclaimer sent by Anna about not being late, I had problems with parking so I was a little late but Jocelyn was cool about it and she assured me I didn’t miss much and that she’ll go over it at the end again.
We were a group of 8 people. I learned so much in that small kitchen, it got me excited. I never liked cooking but I vow to start learning the art.
Jocelyn gave a lot of helpful tips about the knife, ingredients, techniques, where to shop, what to buy, fish quality, etc. The atmosphere was low key. No assumptions. We took our time and you can ask all the questions you have. We were just having fun as we learn how to make sushi rolls hands on.
We had ginger tea, seaweed salad, sauteed bokchoy, sushi rolls, sashimi. Whatever we made, we ate. Fun, huh?
Bragging points: My first attempt on rolling sushi was a success. My second attempt was again a success. It’s not a fluke!
Place rating: 5
San Francisco, CA
My girlfriend signed us up for an Italian cooking class with Chef Anna as a Valentine’s Day gift. We learned to make a delicious Wild Mushroom and Chicken Risotto. With the small class, we got a lot of attention and interaction throughout the process of making this meal. Best of all, she gave us useful tips on preparing chicken or risotto seperately, so that we can apply what we learned to many other meals. We will make risotto for special occasions, but we will make chicken all the time, so this was a really helpful foundation. Chef Anna took the time to understand each persons experience level with cooking to really cater the class to us. Definitely want to try Simmer and Sear for some other cuisines!
Place rating: 5
Sunnyvale, CA
I took another class with Chef Anna. This time it was Spanish cooking. We made a hamhock based seafood paella dish. It had chicken, chorizo, scallops, mussels, clams, etc. The dish ended up great with red wine. As usual, the class was in Chef Anna’s apartment. There were 5 people total which was a perfect number to not be squeezed and still have everyone get all the prep done to get the dish cooked. I learned a lot about technique in this class so I think it was well worth it. The format of the class is very hands on. Chef Anna will go through ingredients, prep and then cooking while all the students participate hands on. She does a good job of getting everyone involved. If you take this class, come ready to get your hands dirty and be rewarded with a great meal. You’ll be out of there by 9pm depending on how slow you eat.
Place rating: 5
Livermore, CA
I took Chef Anna’s Italian Cooking class last night. She has prepared Italian Brushetta and Handmade Butternut Squash Gnocchi with Arugula Pesto Sauce. I invited 4 other ladies from my boot camp class that won a contest and she treated them like stars :) She was very professional and nice. The food was abolutely delicious! She covered different techniques to cut an onion, squash and an heirloom tomato. Although the gnocchi was hard to make I enjoyed learning how to make it and will try another time on my own.
I don’t mind that it was in her apartment. Being a fellow business owner I train in my house as well. You have to start somewhere, plus the deal I got on Facebook was a great deal so I didn’t mind. She is hard to reach sometimes she is busy and needs an assitant! :)
I really enjoyed the class and would love to do it again.
Place rating: 4
Santa Monica, CA
I recently attended a French cooking class with Chef Anna, bought via Living Social. I found it very easy to purchase and schedule the class but was surprised when I showed up at the location that it was an actual house we’d be cooking in, but then again I don’t really know what I expected. I found that cooking in a smaller kitchen, much like my own, boosted my confidence level. We made delicious food, shared a bottle of wine and had a great time. Hoping I’ll be able to recreate the recipes we made– she will email them to you after class.
Place rating: 1
San Mateo, CA
Bought a class via Living Social as a gift for my wife. Anna was hard to reach and slow to respond. It took many attempts and cancellations to get a class scheduled 9 months after initial contact. My wife showed up at the scheduled time and location and Nada. No one was there.
Place rating: 5
San Francisco, CA
I recently held an engagement party for a family member and catered it through Chef Anna of Simmer and Sear. To say she did an outstanding job is an understatement! The food was superb, tailored to the people who were attending. Her attention to detail and focus on everything at the party was very helpful. She came the day before to help set up and make sure that all of the furniture would be protected and that there was enough «flow» for the crowd when food and drinks were served. And she came 2 hours earlier than planned to get started on the food. Overall she worked a solid 10+ hours during the event and did it with a smile. This was the best event I’ve thrown in my condo and I attribute a great deal of the success to Chef Anna!
Place rating: 1
Novato, CA
Tried twice to post negative review that is not dissimilar to other 1 star ratings indicating poor service levels once Chef gets your money, but they keep disappearing. Gotta wonder why?
Place rating: 5
San Francisco, CA
Not only is Chef Anna a great cooking teacher but she is also wonderful cateress. She created a lunch for me that was fabulous. I ordered a tray for 12 and it was filled with wonderful teas sandwiches, a great selection of cheese and cracker, as a fantastic selection of fruit. My guests were delighted with their lunch and as proof they ate almost everything. Every one left full and happy.
I will call Chef Anna next time I entertain. You should call her, too.
Loretta L
Place rating: 5
San Francisco, CA
My client, Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants, asked me to help arrange an off-​site meeting for their exec team with a fun activity. I knew just the go-​to person to help me organize the event — Chef Anna. She was amazing. Anna scouted the location and worked with the venues on contracts and pricing (and was patient when Kimpton needed to change venues). She came up with a really fun menu and cooking activity for the group to do together — tough job when you’re teaching a class to those in the hospitality industry, but Anna is a pro and impressed the bunch immensely. Here’s the feedback I got from Kimpton directly: «Very upbeat pleasant personality, very creative in her menu suggestions and how our people could be involved — interactive part was perfect, supported our eco theme with organic foods perfectly, thought of everything. A delight to work with — would do so again.» I think their comments say it all. Thanks Chef Anna for making me look good.
Place rating: 5
Washington, DC
This weekend I did a 3 hr private cooking class with Chef Anna. We met at the Ferry Building and did some forging at the farmers market. The ingredients we purchased were fresh and her course recommendations were exciting and new.
After we got all our ingredients we headed to her kitchen and got to work! Her cooking style is both informative and innovative. None of the dishes we made were preplanned but rather we combined good ingredients to make a great 3 course meal!
I would highly recommend her private cooking class or any other class she offers!
Place rating: 5
Cupertino, CA
We had our company holiday party there and it was fun! We really interacted with each other. Everyone laughed and drank wine. The food was great. The venue was an old church and it was beautiful. I would definitely do this again.
Place rating: 1
San Francisco, CA
Simmer & Sear is very capable of collecting your money, but I can’t speak to the quality of the class. I became ill the day of the class I was signed up for and could not attend. I was able to send an email letting them know I was going to miss. I figured I could check out another class later.
A few weeks later I inquired about the availability of an upcoming class, and the answer I received was that I couldn’t use the credit from the class I missed. (A question that I didn’t even pose) I thought I would have paid for the new class in question.
The nature of their response leads me to believe that this company is far more interested in collecting money than customer satisfaction.
Not worth the effort.
Sur La Table offers customer friendly, quality cooking classes…
Place rating: 5
San Francisco, CA
I attened a Simmer and Sear party for a friend’s birthday. Chef Anna had a great venue and guests were greated by a birthday message for the guest of honor and some candles that let you know you were at the right place.
We were a group of 20. The large kitchen was organized with cooking stations and we spent a few minutes saying hello and socializing over wine and appetizers prepared by Chef Anna.
We were placed into groups and sent off to get to cooking. Anna spent time with each group getting us started and continued around the room checking on our progress. It was a fun and casual environment where everyone participated — even a novice cook, like me.
Somehow, everything was timed just perfectly. We socialized a bit more while the tables were set for dinner. I made sure the wine glasses were full (especially mine) and we sat together to enjoy the dinner we prepared with our own hands and a little help from Chef Anna. The food turned out great (despite my involvement) and we had a really enjoyable evening.
I cannot wait for my next event with Chef Anna!
Place rating: 5
San Francisco, CA
I went to Simmer & Sear’s «Taste of Spain» on a Tuesday night last month… what a great experience. Going solo, I thought it might be a bit awkward but Chef Anna knows how to make everyone relaxed and it was such a great way to get out and meet new people during the week… Plus it was so much fun! The theme was Tapas and we spent the evening preparing different dishes and then passing them around to share. The vibe was casual and relaxed and everyone was involved. By the end of the night our bellies were full and we were happy :)
A great event for singles, solos, friends, partners and groups. Would be fun for a family event too! The possibilites are endless. I can’t wait til her next event!