While economic growth remains slow, many restaurants are feeling the pinch, as customers choose to stay home and cook in order to save money.

Ironically, this is good news for operators of cooking classes — and for one chain, business has never been better.

"We literally started off with just one gas range 30 years ago, but we grew by word of mouth," says Emi Sato, spokeswoman for ABC Cooking Studio, a chain of casual cooking schools that teaches everything from how to chop vegetables to how to bake your own bread.