Blair House Inn is more than a place to stay, it’s a place to eat

The chef at Wimberley’s Blair House Inn has to have many talents.

First and foremost, the chef has to be able to cook. The meals and cooking classes at Blair House feature complex, challenging dishes.

One evening the chef may be called on to make sauerbraten and braised red cabbage. The next week, the menu may be a blackened ribeye steak with portabello mushroom sauce and cheddar cheese soup.

But there’s more to the job than just cooking.

The chef has to explain the dishes to diners and interact with Blair House guests.

Then there are the cooking classes, intense two- and three-day courses for up to eight culinary students.

“It’s an intimate dining experience (at Blair House),” says office manager Gary Turman.

Stunning views

The Blair House Inn is nestled in the hills up Spoke Hollow Drive. There are 12 individually decorated units, a pool with a stunning view of Hill Country, a day spa and the main building that houses the lobby, an art gallery, the dining room and the kitchen. Almost every weekend, the inn is booked solid with people who want to unwind, shop in Wimberley, visit area wineries — and eat.

Blair House Inn was built as a private residence in the 1970s and turned into an inn in the 1990s.

Besides the setting, what makes the Blair House unique is the food. Be it the Saturday night special dinners or the regularly scheduled cooking classes many of the activities revolve around eating.

The Saturday night dinners are popular with hotel guests and locals alike. Each menu has a theme: classic French, southwestern, barbecue, Italian or Mediterranean. A typical Italian menu includes an appetizer of scampi-style shrimp over angel-hair pasta, lentil soup, caprese salad, osso buco over cauliflower mashed potatoes and a dessert of tiramisu with berries.

A dinner is going to run just short of $100 (which includes tax and tip). Wine is included. The dining room is set up to handle about 24 guests so it’s a personal experience. The chef as well as the owners of the inn — Lois and Chris Mahoney — interact with with the diners and help serve.

Over the course of the year, there are other special events such as winemaker dinners in January and February and the popular Thanksgiving feast. For that one they extend the dining room to seat around 40 people. “The Thanksgiving dinner is typically our biggest dinner of the year,” explains Gary. “There’s a lot of food.”

The Saturday night dinner tradition at Blair House has been going on for about 25 years.

The five-course dinner is popular for birthdays and anniversaries. They always ask who is having a special day and a few hands always pop up.

The cooking classes are a big draw. During the classes, chef Travis Moak works with guests to prepare a multi-course meal. Travis studied at the Texas Culinary Academy in Austin and has had numerous restaurant positions.

Pedal to the metal

There’s no goofing off. During the three-day class guests prepare six meals. Their day starts at 7 a.m. and ends at 9 or 10 p.m. That includes cooking and eating.

The chef has to be flexible. The professional kitchen has everything you need, but put eight students in there and things get a little cramped. The “students” could be professional restauranteurs with decades of experience or a husband and doesn’t know a spatula from a potato peeler.

“These classes require our chef to pivot so everyone gets what they want out of the class,” says Gary. “We have professionals and we have novices.

“They (the classes) are a lot of fun. They are very hands on. Our goal is for people to be able to go home and recreate what they did here. You get a binder with the recipes for everything you make.”

The three-day classes have up to eight students. The two-day classes typically only contain a couple people.

Here’s the breakdown for a three-day experience:

— Arrive on day one by 3 p.m. First encounter with the chef is at 4. After dinner the chef lays out the itinerary for the next couple days.

— On day two the first class starts at 7:45 a.m. After breakfast, lunch preparation starts at 10. There’s a short break and dinner prep begins at 3 p.m. Then enjoy the dinner you made and go right to sleep because you are probably pretty exhausted and the classes resume early the following day.

— Day three starts with breakfast preparation at 8 a.m. Then fix a picnic lunch you can take out to a local winery. At 2 p.m., take a deep breath, your crash course is finished.

“You learn some of the tricks that professional chefs use,” says Gary, who has worked at hotels in Austin and Corpus Christi. “What can you do the day before? What has to be done at the very last minute. It’s pretty cool and interesting. You are actually working with a professional chef to prepare a complex meal.”

There’s about a 50-50 split between men and women in the classes and children have to be 14 or older to take part.

Titanic meal

The classes are all themed. For example, in late September guests will tackle Cajun and Creole menus. The dishes include: blackened snapper, gumbo, shrimp, brined pork loin, king cake and a beignet.

Other themes include The Last Meal on the Titanic (filet mignon Lili, Waldorf pudding and consommé Olga) and the barbecue camp (cedar planked salmon with jerk spice and mango-avocado salsa, baby back pork ribs, smoked beer-can chicken, brisket, and peach cobbler with home-made ice cream). The barbecue camp is especially popular with the guys.

The inn works with anyone who has dietary restrictions. There’s a garden out back where guest chefs go to pick fresh basil, rosemary and thyme.

The service and ambiance at Blair House has earned it a five-star rating on Trip Advisor and comments like this:

“The Blair House Inn was so helpful in orchestrating a perfect getaway for my teenage daughter’s birthday. Chris was so helpful. It’s a quiet, lovely space. And learning from a real chef was inspiring and fun! Thanks Gary and Chef Travis!”

The Blair House Inn is a unique Hill Country experience. “We’re not your typical bed and breakfast,” says Gary. “But we aren’t big enough to be classified as a resort. We’re somewhere in between.”