Hands-On Summer Fruit Galettes with Chef Michael Kalanty in Berkeley

Berkeley Kitchen sits at 1509 Shattuck Ave in downtown Berkeley, California, and this three‑hour hands-on workshop with Chef Michael Kalanty teaches you to make rustic summer fruit galettes using the chef’s famed sourdough starter, Lucky Lady. In a workroom designed for small teams, you’ll learn a foolproof flaky galette dough, rolling and folding techniques that keep butter cold, and how to highlight the season’s best stonefruit and berries. The class begins with a short lecture where Kalanty—an award-winning baker whose book and contest wins are noted worldwide—walks through dough families, timing, and market selection, then breaks participants into stations to shape, fill, and bake.

What makes this session uniquely Berkeley is the intersection of chef-led craft and the city’s market-driven produce culture: Kalanty scouts the day’s harvest and adapts the menu—so each galette reflects what’s ripe. You’ll work directly with the Lucky Lady starter, see fermentation practices at a home-bakery scale, and practice techniques that translate to sourdough loaves, flatbreads, and pastries. The class serves a snack early and culminates in shared tasting of the galettes you bake; due to zoning rules you cannot take food home, so plan to enjoy it there.

Practical details matter: classes run about three to three-and-a-half hours, are for ages 18 and up, and require close-toed shoes and tied-back hair. Bring an apron or a preferred knife if you like; the kitchen supplies tools. Adults may bring wine or beer for personal consumption, but staff cannot open or serve alcohol. If you have allergies indicate them at registration and contact [email protected] to confirm ingredients.

This is a good fit for aspiring bakers who want hands-on guidance from a master teacher—Kalanty’s clear, methodical instruction has won praise for demystifying complex techniques. The pace is practical: you’ll learn dough handling, fruit prep, blind baking cues, and how to finish a galette so the crust crackles and the filling sings.

Berkeley Kitchen is more than a demo: it’s a classroom that translates market freshness into a reliable, repeatable recipe you’ll actually make at home. For visitors planning a Bay Area food weekend, this class doubles as a primer on sourdough technique and a direct line to seasonal fruit flavors—ideal for cooks who prefer learning by doing.

Michael Kalanty brings nearly three decades of baking experience to each session; his book How To Bake Bread: The Five Families of Bread won a Gourmand International Award, and wins at the Tiptree World Bread Competition include Best Flatbread and Best Ciabatta. That pedigree matters because techniques shown are battle-tested in artisan and production settings, so students leave with timing and troubleshooting strategies. If you love hands-on learning, this class compresses a season’s worth of bakery practice into a morning session.