Near Chiang Mai
Elephant sanctuary and Thai cooking workshop
- Two experiences in one day
- Cook what you learn, then eat it
- Best for
- An elephant sanctuary and a cooking class in one day
- Skip if
- You would rather linger over either one
5 tours
Thai Cooking Classes and Culture
Five classes, from a market stall to a farm kitchen. You cook it yourself, then you eat it.
A Chiang Mai cooking class is not a demonstration you watch. You get a wok, a burner and a station, and you cook five or six dishes yourself, usually a curry paste pounded in a mortar, a stir-fry, a soup, a salad and a dessert. Most classes start at a fresh market so you learn to tell the three Thai basils apart before you're asked to use one.
The northern kitchen is not the one most people know from Bangkok restaurants. Expect khao soi, the coconut curry noodle bowl that Chiang Mai is built on, and sai ua, the herb-heavy sausage from the Lanna hills. Ask the teacher for those two by name; they're often optional on the menu card.
Classes come in two shapes. Town kitchens sit close to the old city and give you back half a day; farm kitchens are twenty to forty minutes out, cost a little more, run longer, and let you pick part of what you are about to cook. The farm ones are also open-sided, which matters in April.
You cook alongside four to twelve people depending on the school, and nothing here needs experience. The mortar is the only piece of equipment that will make you sweat, and pounding a curry paste properly takes about ten minutes longer than anyone expects.
The five we list
Old city
Cooking class with market tour and Thai herb garden
- Herb garden walk before you cook
- Local market shop with the chef
- Best for
- A short class in town, the herbs first
- Skip if
- You want a full day, more dishes and a farm
Organic farm
Authentic cooking class with market and farm visit
- Pick your own herbs on the farm
- The longest-running class on this list
- Best for
- Picking your own herbs, then cooking them
- Skip if
- You only have an afternoon and no appetite for a drive
Cooking farm
Half-day cooking class on a Thai cooking farm
- Morning or afternoon slot
- Good if you only have one free day
- Best for
- One free day, a morning or an afternoon to fill
- Skip if
- You want the market as part of the lesson
Hang Dong canyon
Thai cooking class at the Grand Canyon with market tour
- Cook above the flooded quarry
- Market tour before the class
- Best for
- A class with a view, market tour included
- Skip if
- You want the farm-to-plate version
The farm-based classes are worth the extra drive. You pick the herbs yourself, the kitchens are open-sided, and the pace is slower because groups are smaller. The Grand Canyon class trades the farm for a view over the flooded quarry at Hang Dong, which photographs better than it cooks.
Nearly every class takes vegetarian and vegan requests, but flag it when you book rather than on the morning: fish sauce and shrimp paste are in almost every base recipe, and the substitutions need to be shopped for.
What comes home is a recipe booklet and, if you ask, the paste you pounded. What does not travel is fresh galangal, kaffir lime leaf and palm sugar, so work out your substitutions before you attempt khao soi in a European kitchen. Our article on Lanna food says what each dish is actually built from.
Common questions
Do you eat everything you cook?
Yes, dish by dish as you go, which is more food than most people expect. Bring a container if you want to take the leftovers back; several schools hand out a recipe booklet too.
Morning or evening class?
Morning classes include the market, which is the better half of the experience. Evening classes are cooler to cook in and usually skip the market.
Is hotel pickup included?
On most of these classes yes, within the old city and Nimman. Check the pickup zone on the booking page if you're staying further out.
How many dishes do you cook?
Five or six on a half day, six or seven on a full day, and you choose most of them from a menu card at the start. Curry paste in a stone mortar is the one everybody remembers and the one everybody underestimates: it is ten minutes of real work before the cooking begins.
Is it too spicy?
You control your own wok and the chilli goes in by the spoonful, at your own count. Say so at the start rather than mid-dish, when the paste is already made. Northern cooking leans herbal rather than fiery in any case, and khao soi is mild by default.