Joan Nathan on Jewish Cooking Joan Nathan was an engaging teacher. But the three dishes that she chose to cook didn't all turn out well - in her opinion - and that was disappointing. I would love to do a class where there is more class hands on opportunity to participate, but Southern Season may not do its classes that way.

Fantastic Culinary Classes The staff at Southern Season's Cooking School do a phenomenal job presenting their own cooking classes, both demo and hands-on, as well as bringing in talented and personable guest chefs. The most recent I attended was Chef Keith Rhodes from Catch Restaurant in Wilmington and have already re-created 2 of the recipes at home. Highly recommend Southern Season and their cooking classes for everyone who delights in good food! The portions are great and I often take some home. Delicious wine pairings help round out the evening of culinary entertainment.

Not enough hands on coming opportunity My 9 year old daughter attended a cooking class this past weekend. The facilities were lovely, and the teachers warm and kind. My daughter was, however, frustrated by the lack of actual cooking she got to do. Would have enjoyed more individual work, rather than making a class dish, which was mostly cooked by the teachers and then divided for all to try.

Love Southern Season - Online Ordering needs improvement. We ordered a lovely Carolina-based gift basket to be delivered express delivery for nearly $40 extra. Other online stores offer 1-2 day express delivery from the time of order. It was not evident from the beginning (poorly placed messaging on the website) that the express delivery option meant that it would be shipped *after* the basket would be prepared, and this meant not on a Saturday or Sunday. This caused us to need to cancel our order, which was being delivered to a guest staying in a hotel at the time, and need to re-order to be delivered to a new location, albeit later than we wanted to. One other detail: the credit card entry method was outdated and did not work with a business expense card I often use on other online ordering platforms. I had to use a personal card. We love A Southern Season's products, but wish the online ordering system was more up-to-date.

Gift basket ordering I have been a long-time customer of Southern Season (since they were in Eastgate) but we moved away from NC 5 years ago due to a job relocation. I like to give Southern Season baskets for special occasions and in the past they had a great selection. For this most recent purchase the basket I wanted to send was out of stock, but I ordered it anyway since there was no rush to have it sent immediately. Customer service called and notified me that the item was out of stock and could not state when it would be available again. Therefore, I replaced the gift basket with another one at a similar price. I also had trouble with the website with my initial purchase, since NO e-mail confirmation was sent. Only after talking to Customer Service, did I receive an e-mail. I also am a Premier card holder and my discount and free shipping was not applied to this order. Overall, the gift basket selection online is limited and using the Premier card online does not work. For the future, I will stick with just purchasing items at the store when I am back in Chapel Hill (once a year). I love Southern Season, but since online purchasing is less satisfactory it makes sense to do only in-store purchases.