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Thai cooking ingredients on a wooden table: galangal and lemongrass in a clay mortar, shallots, garlic, tomatoes, coriander seed and red chillies

Half a day, in and near the old city

Cooking class with a market tour and a Thai herb garden

Three and a half hours, a market basket, a garden and a wok, in the shortest cooking class on this site.

3 to 4 hoursOld cityfrom €26
Check availability ▸ ◂ Cooking & culture

Duration

3 to 4 hours

Stops

4 on the route

Starts in

Old city

Price

From €26

The experience

Best for
A short class in town, the herbs first
Not for you if
You want a full day, more dishes and a farm. The market-and-farm class on this site is the longer version

Thai food is the reason a lot of people extend their stay in Chiang Mai, and it is also the thing they get least out of, because eating it teaches you almost nothing about how it is built. This class is the short answer to that. Three and a half hours, starting at a local market with the chef and finishing at a table in a family kitchen garden, with the cooking in between. It is the least time you can spend and still come away able to reproduce any of it.

The market is not a decorative first stop. You go around it with someone who buys there, which is how you learn that there are four things in the herb pile that look identical and taste nothing alike, that the curry pastes are sold by the scoop and vary from stall to stall, and that the coconut cream in the bucket is a different ingredient from the tin you have at home. Then the herb garden, where the plants are growing rather than bagged: this is the part that makes the lesson stick, because a leaf you have crushed between your fingers is a leaf you will recognise in a dish six months later.

Read the rest

The cooking itself is hands-on, in a domestic kitchen rather than a school hall, and you eat what you make in the garden it came from. Three and a half hours is short for a cooking class, and it is honest about what that buys: fewer dishes than the farm-based full-day classes, no long drive, and an afternoon still free. For a first day in the city, or for anyone who wants the technique without losing a whole day to it, that trade is a good one.

Eating Thai food teaches you nothing about how it is built. Holding the herbs teaches you most of it.

The route

  1. A market stall stacked with fruit and vegetables in baskets and crates, handwritten prices in front

    The local market

    Around the stalls with someone who buys there. Curry pastes by the scoop, four herbs that look the same, and coconut cream that bears no relation to the tin at home.

  2. A woven bamboo basket held on the lap, filled with freshly picked Thai basil

    The herb garden

    The plants in the ground, handled and crushed rather than named. This is the twenty minutes that makes the rest of it stick.

  3. A row of cooking stations along a counter, stone mortars, prepared ingredients and sauce bottles ready

    The kitchen

    A domestic kitchen, your own station, your own wok. Hands-on from the first dish to the last.

  4. Finished Thai dishes laid out on patterned plates and banana leaf, chillies, shallots, lime and ginger around them

    Eating in the garden

    The meal where the herbs came from, which is the only honest test of whether you were paying attention.

Why this one

01

The market, with someone who shops there

Not a walk past stalls. You buy what you are about to cook, and you learn which of the four identical-looking herbs is the one the recipe means.

02

A herb garden, growing

Plants in the ground rather than in bags. Crushing a kaffir lime leaf between your fingers does more for your cooking than any written recipe.

03

A family kitchen, not a school hall

Domestic scale, your own station, and the meal eaten in the garden the herbs came from.

04

Three and a half hours

The shortest class here. It leaves the rest of the day intact, which no farm-based full-day class does.

05

Twenty-six euros

Market, garden, the cooking and the meal. For what a mediocre dinner for two costs in a tourist restaurant.

What is included

Included

  • The market tour with the chef, and the ingredients you cook with
  • The herb garden walk and what grows in it explained
  • The hands-on class: your own station and your own dishes
  • The meal you cook, eaten in the garden
  • Hotel pickup where it is offered, arranged when you book

Not included

  • Drinks beyond what comes with the meal
  • Anything you buy for yourself at the market, which you will want to
  • A recipe book, if one is not handed out; write things down as you go
  • Tips, welcome but never expected

Practical detail

Duration
About 3.5 hours, market and meal included
Where
In and around the old city. No long transfer, which is how it fits into three and a half hours
Pickup
Offered on some departures. The meeting point and time are confirmed when you book
Format
Hands-on. Your own station, your own wok, your own dishes
Dietary needs
Vegetarian is straightforward and normally accommodated. Flag allergies when you book: fish sauce and shrimp paste are in more things than you expect
Spice
Set by you, dish by dish. Nobody has to eat anything they cannot
Wear
Something you do not mind smelling of garlic afterwards. Closed shoes for the kitchen
Booking window
At least 1 hour 30 ahead
Cancellation
Free cancellation applies; the exact terms for your booking are shown before you pay

Read the article: five Lanna dishes to try ▸

Common questions

How does this compare with the other cooking classes here?

It is the short one. Three and a half hours, in and near the old city, with a market and a herb garden. The market-and-farm class runs half a day to a full day on an organic farm and gives you more dishes; the farm class is six hours; the Grand Canyon class is five and cooks seven dishes above a flooded quarry. If you have one free afternoon, take this. If you have a free day and food is the point of your trip, take one of the others.

Do I cook, or watch?

You cook. Own station, own wok, own dishes, and you eat what you produced. The market and garden come first precisely so that you know what you are holding when you start.

Can vegetarians and vegans do this?

Vegetarian, easily and routinely. Vegan takes a conversation, because fish sauce and shrimp paste do a lot of the structural work in Thai seasoning and the substitutes change the dish rather than disguising the change. Say which you are when you book, not on the morning.

Is it too spicy?

Only if you make it so. Chilli goes in at your own station, and the chef will tell you what a normal amount looks like before you decide to ignore them. Northern Thai food is generally less punishing than the food of the south in any case.

Will I remember any of it at home?

More than you would from a longer class without the market and garden, which is the entire argument for the format. The hard part of Thai cooking abroad is identification: knowing that galangal is not ginger, that holy basil is not Italian basil, and which of them the recipe means. Handle them once and that problem mostly goes away.

Is there hotel pickup?

On some departures. Everything happens in and around the old city, so the meeting point is central and most people walk to it. What applies to your booking is shown before you pay.

Book it

Ready when you are

Dates, times and live prices come up at the next step. Booking takes two minutes, and the cancellation terms are shown before you pay.

Check availability ▸

From €26

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