Forget Emeril Lagossi,Paula Deen and Rachael Ray –– Maryville Hy-Vee’s Cooking School is coming to town.

The first series for the cooking school classes are Monday and Tuesday evenings, Aug. 18 and 19.

The bad news is ––  the classes are full.

Future classes are coming though. Hy-Vee’s Store Director Greg Chapman said it is in the plans to have the cooking school events at least once a month in the future.

“We are more than willing to have up to four classes a week if the interest is there,” Chapman said.

The date for the next class hasn’t been determined; however, interested parties can sign up to be on the email list at the Customer Service Desk at Hy-Vee.

They will then e-mail information about any future events.

Jan Martin will be the cooking instructor for the upcoming classes. Martin taught at the Tante Marie, the United Kingdom’s oldest established professional cookery school. She was responsible for organizing and taking students to France to compliment their studies.

Martin came to the United States in 1986 to demonstrate and teach at L’Academic de Cusine, in Bethesda, Md. She fell in love with America and has been here ever since.

One of Martin’s most high profile jobs was being the director of special events and daily planning at a private dining club in Georgetown, a neighborhood inside Washington, D.C. Guests at the dining club included presidents and vice-presidents of the United States.

“Food is my passion,” Martin said. “I love to try to communicate that with others.”

Chapman said Hy-Vee wanted to give customers the opportunity to learn some new ideas to use with their daily cooking. He said Martin has been doing cooking demonstrations for Hy-Vee for a while and they decided to put together some evening classes for their customers.

“The classes are held in our conference room on the second floor of the store,” Chapman said. “The space in the room is limited to around 18 people, so the classes have filled up fast. We will be offering more classes as people demonstrate interest.”