:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/Cooking-Classes-in-Dream-Destinations-FT-BLOG0724-Wrenkh-02-b3ec0340743d462c8661bc8473daa5f5.jpg?w=780&resize=780,470&ssl=1 "Where to Pair Travel and Cooking Classes")
There’s no greater entrée into a culture than its food. And there’s no better way to understand that food than with an on-location cooking class. Getting down and dirty in the kitchen provides insights into the local culinary traditions and customs far beyond just sampling the cuisine. And the bonus is tantalizing new recipes to bring home.
I took my first cooking class in Tuscany, Italy, in 2000, and it transformed my life (I was a reluctant and intimidated cook until then). Since that delectable weeklong experience (you haven’t tasted real ricotta until you’ve made it from scratch), I’ve made a point of enrolling in a class wherever I travel. Including Tuscany, I’ve had the joy of cooking in eight places around the world: Bali, Indonesia; Cusco, Peru; Vienna, Austria; Petra, Jordan; Phnom Penh, Cambodia; Santa Fe, New Mexico; and Bogotá, Colombia.
Many classes start with an instructor-led market visit to buy the ingredients for that day’s lesson — often an eye-popping introduction to unfamiliar produce. After preparing the meal, you sit down to enjoy the fruits of your labor. For anyone hungry to learn, it’s a delicious cultural experience shared with like-minded food-loving travelers — even those with limited kitchen skills.
Here, then, are six classes — from Cusco, Peru, to Phnom Penh, Cambodia — where you can roll up your sleeves, don an apron, and learn to prepare a few local dishes yourself.
Good Tastes of Tuscany (Florence, Italy)
Courtesy of Good Tastes of Tuscany
Discover the secrets of traditional Tuscan cooking in the professional kitchens of the Good Tastes of Tuscany cooking school. Located in a beautiful age-old villa near Florence, the school offers one-day and multiple-day classes and intensive week-long cooking vacations. In an introductory one-day class, you can expand your collection of Italian dishes by preparing two antipasti; two first courses, such as ravioli, risotto, or gnocchi; a main course with side dishes (osso buco alla Fiorentina, anyone?); and a dessert. Then savor the meal you’ve whipped up complemented by extra virgin olive oil and Chianti wine produced right on the Villa Pandolfini Estate, built in the 1200s by the Medici family. An optional market visit with the chef is also available. What a way to bring home a slice of Tuscan culinary history.
Marcelo Batata Cooking Class (Cusco, Peru)
Explore why the cuisine of Peru — land of a mind-boggling 3,500 varieties of potatoes, 300 types of corn, and 55 different peppers — has taken the culinary world by storm with a Marcelo Batata Cooking Class in the Andean city of Cusco, the gateway to the iconic ruins of Machu Picchu. Depending on the class, you may make classic ceviche; traditional Lomo Saltado, a beloved beef stir-fry served with fried potatoes; Pachamanca, an Andean underground hot-stone barbecue; and a pisco sour with Peru’s signature white grape brandy — well-shaken, not stirred. You can also expand your fruit repertoire with a cornucopia of exotic crops, from aguaymanto and maracuya, to carambola and lucuma. Leave with an understanding of why Peru’s unique geography and history have produced such a remarkable cuisine.
Wrenkh Cooking Salon (Vienna, Austria)
Meatless meals are likely to be on the menu at The Wrenkh Cooking Salon, part of The Wrenkh vegi-centric restaurant in central Vienna. Classes feature seasonal, regional, and organic produce with a focus on vegetarian entrees such as a cheese spaetzle with fermented butternut squash or Krautfleckerl, Austrian cabbage and noodles. Dive into classic Viennese cuisine — the only cuisine in the world named after a city — with dishes adopted from elsewhere: dumplings from Bohemia, schnitzel from Milan, and goulash from Hungary. Pescatarians can even choose a class that showcases local freshwater fish, such as Amur carp and char.
Petra Kitchen (Petra, Jordan)
Courtesy of Petra Kitchen
Sign up for an evening class at the Petra Kitchen, near Jordan’s landmark archaeological site of Petra, to learn how to prepare a full Jordanian dinner of soup, hot and cold mezze, and a main course. Guided by a local chef, you’ll learn the art of Levantine cuisine — heady with aromatic herbs and spices. Chop, slice, mix, and blend your way to a feast that may include lentil soup, baba ganoush, tabbouleh, tahini salad, Galayat Bandura (sauteed and stewed tomatoes), dried fava beans in oil, and Suniyat Dijaj (oven-roasted chicken), all made with fresh, locally sourced ingredients.
Banana Tree Restaurant (Phnom Penh, Cambodia)
Unleash your inner chef at a half- or full-day cooking class at Banana Tree Restaurant in the Cambodian capital and add Khmer cuisine to your repertory. Start with a market visit to procure the ingredients for your class, including such exotics as long beans, lemongrass, galangal, makrut limes, holy basil, and palm sugar. Then prepare traditional dishes such as green mango salad, a tangy regional favorite; coconut milk-based Khmer yellow curry, requisite for special occasions and religious holidays; and a dessert of fresh banana and pineapple in sweetened creamy pineapple juice. Finally, tuck into a meal fit for a long-ago Khmer king.
Santa Fe School of Cooking (Santa Fe, New Mexico)
Courtesy of Santa Fe School of Cooking
The foods of the American Southwest take center stage at the Santa Fe School of Cooking. Practice the gastronomic traditions that flavor New Mexico’s cultural crossroads — from traditional New Mexican to Native American, Mexican, Spanish, and contemporary Southwestern. Both hands-on and demonstration-style classes are offered followed by a tasty meal. Corn tortillas, cheese enchiladas, and red and green chili sauce? Yes, you can make those. Fresh corn and green onion tamale, chipotle black beans, and cabbage cilantro slaw? Yup, they’re on tap too. Red chile and pork, southern Mexican chicken in banana leaf, and blue corn calabacita? Sure, try your hand at those. Whatever you choose, your palate will thank you.
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