It's Aug. 25: Do you know what you'll be making for Thanksgiving dinner? Even if you haven't (even mentally) gotten back from summer vacation, others are scouring the newly released schedules for local fall cooking classes, ready to take your place in the most popular ones. At the Center City Williams-Sonoma (200 S. Broad St., 215-545-7392), that typically includes many of the September and holiday-themed classes taught by store instructor Denine Gorniak, says store manager Brian Moore.

The course "menu" at Albertson's Cooking School (Wynnewood, 610-649-9290, www.albertsoncookingschool.com), by contrast, is driven by the star power of local celebrity chefs like Patrick Feury of Nectar (Oct. 11), Al Paris of Zanzibar Blue and The Sound of Philadelphia (Nov. 10) and Martin Hamann of the Fountain Restaurant at the Four Seasons (Nov. 9).

Hamann will also be teaching Nov. 2 as part of Temple University Center City's (1515 Market St., 215-204-6946, www.temple.edu/tucc_nc) Cooking with the Great Chefs of Philadelphia series at Foster's Gourmet Cookware in the Reading Terminal Market. The other "great chefs" are Guillermo Pernot of Pasion! (date TBA) and David Ansill of Pif (Dec. 7). Other Temple offerings are devoted to pressure cookers (the appliance, not your job, Nov. 8), the French holiday dessert béche de Noél (Nov. 29) and cooking and eating Italian simultaneously (Nov. 7 and 21).

The Restaurant School at Walnut Hill College's (4207 Walnut St., 267- 295-2367, www.walnuthillcollege.edu) Community Education program has the meatiest offerings for serious amateur chefs (perhaps not surprising, given its day job of churning out professional ones), including multiweek classes in basic culinary skills, pastry arts, wine, even in the dollars and sense of owning a restaurant (beginning Sept. 27). Single-session classes explore energy foods (Sept. 22) and fare for football tailgate parties (Sept. 15).

Classes to prepare for parties are common; classes that are themselves the party, increasingly popular. It's the concept behind Viking Culinary Arts Center's (One Town Place, Suite 100, Bryn Mawr, 610-526-9020, www.vikinghomechef.com) popular Girls Night Out workshops. At Sept. 19's Girls Night Out in Paris, for instance, women will gather to sip champagne, gab, and make and eat lamb chops and souffles. I don't know about you, but when I go out, the last thing I want to do is cook (even if someone else is shopping and cleaning up).

I prefer Viking's "fun, 5-hour session" to "introduce your teen to key kitchen and cooking fundamentals" (Oct. 22 or Dec. 27). Now that would be $125 well spent.

Send Off the Menu tips and cooking class creations to cwyman@citypaper.net.