DISHING UP CLASSES WITH FLAVOR AND FLAIR.

Byline: Natalie Haughton Daily News Food Editor

The next time you stop at the new Gelson's market in Calabasas for butter, eggs and milk, you may be able to pick up a few tips on using them in a class at the store's adjacent Cooking Connection.

The kitchen of the second-floor cooking school features cherry wood cabinets, green granite countertops, stainless steel sinks and state-of-the-art double self-cleaning ovens, a six-burner cooktop and top-of-the line dishwasher and refrigerator.

Weekly classes - ranging from cake decorating to Chinese and Italian cuisines - are $20 to $65 and limited to 50 people (average is 30 students). Teachers include guest chefs - Wolfgang Puck led a recent class. They're filmed using closed-circuit cameras with zoom lenses and broadcast on two 32-inch televisions hung from the ceiling so students can get a good look at all the action.

Adjacent to the kitchen is the Village Room - a community room that at first glance appears to be a ballroom - featuring a hand-painted mural of country scenes. Nonprofit local groups can book the room for meetings, free of charge, by calling [phone].

The Calabasas store, which opened in February at 22263 Mulholland Highway, also features a Wolfgang Puck Express offering quick on-premises dining (you order at a counter) and an extensive line of Puck's takeout items.

It was designed to be ``a rewarding experience as far as pleasure - with areas to sit and dine in and little extras like the cooking school and cooking store - which complement the market and the shopping center,'' said Robert Stiles, president of Gelson's/Mayfair Markets.

Gelson's executives came up with the idea for a supermarket with an express-type cafe and adjacent cooking school during business trips to other areas of the country, Stiles said.

``Every place we went on the East Coast, stores had a restaurant, a restaurant and a kitchen or a cooking school on the premises,'' said Stiles, who has lived in the San Fernando Valley for 46 years and worked for Gelson's for 35 years.

Gelson's Cooking Connection is presenting Tuscan Treasures, 6:30 p.m. July 18; A Passion for Cheesecakes, 6:30 p.m. July 24 ($45); and Hot Wok Cooking, 6:30 p.m. July 31 ($55).

Gelson's is not the only new market in the area to offer cooking classes. Bristol Farms, which opened last fall in Woodland Hills, occasionally offers classes in the adjoining Bristol Farms Cafe. Classes are $25; the next class is A Taste of Summer, 7 p.m. July 23.

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Photo: (Color) Art Gibson, Gelson's/Mayfair Markets executi ve chef, shows off the new cooking school kitchen at Gelson's Market in Calabasas.

David Crane/Daily News