Chengdu Cooking Class with a Local Market Visit

What an amazing experience at Chilli Cool Cooking School! This was one of our favourite things that we did in our whole China trip. Our guide Lance was great, he was super informative about all of the foods in the market we visited and then great during the cooking class too! The whole team were so kind and friendly, the meals delicious and there were so many extra touches throughout that didn’t go unnoticed. We left feeling so glad that we booked the experience. I would 100% recommend to anyone visiting Chengdu!

Excellent tour! Would highly recommend to individuals or families with kids! Helena is the best tour guide and cooking tutor! She navigated us thru many neighborhood markets and taught us how to choose food and spices wisely. After carefully selecting what our meals of the evening would be, we walked to her very deluxe kitchen and she and her partner taught my 11-year old son and I how to cook Szechuan food. It was the best and we loved it. What a way to learn about Chengdu culture! Thank you Helena, the experience was #1.

This was a great experience learning about Sichuan food and culture. The whole experience felt well run and not rushed, our guide Lance did a fantastic job of explaining local produce and technique when cooking. I would recommend this tour to anyone coming to Chengdu.

We spent 8 days in Chengdu and this was by far the best experience and food during our vacation! The food was authentic, delicious, and much better than many of the other established restaurants that we had visited. A huge shoutout to our guide Lance, who was simply excellent. He was very knowledgeable about Chinese and Sichuan food and culture. He was very happy to respond to our many questions, helped us identify the items that we wanted to buy, and took the time to explain all the market spices and local produce to us. We had such a fun time with Lance during our session, and he had such a contagious energy that we loved. Thank you, Lance! The market/cooking studio was in a very local, non-touristy area of Chengdu, which we appreciated. The price we paid for the cooking class was VERY worth it. A brief description on people can expect - We booked the 5 dishes class and cooked: Mapo tofu, Kungpao Chicken, Hong You Chao Shou (Chilli Wantons), Cold Cucumber Salad, and Twice Cooked Pork - We started the morning by meeting our guide (in our case, Lance) at the meeting point, then proceeded to head to the local market where Lance would explain to us the local produce, spices, etc. We were also able to stop and try some local snacks and breakfast items. - We then headed to the cooking studio to enjoy some local tea with the grapes Lance kindly treated us to. - Then the preparation starts, followed by the cooking! Everything was demonstrated to us clearly, we followed how it was done, and explained to us in English - After the dishes were cooked, we were able to enjoy it in the dining room with hot rice and drinks, followed by good company with our guide. The chef was very careful to check if we had any allergies and spice preferences before cooking. After the session is over, Lance also kindly shared the recipes so we could replicate the dishes at home - which we definitely will! This was so much fun :) And simple enough for true beginners to follow.

We first took a walk through a local market in a non-touristy part of town. After a tea moment we went to work with the chef. Mise-en-place, and stir-fry! We got clear guidelines with extra explanation about the spices, baking method, with a delicious result! Thanks to the chef but certainly also to Lance who guided and interpreted us in cooking.

Great experience! My teenage daughter and I really enjoyed the local market visit tour and cooking. Our guide Lance was great, he told us many interesting things and made cooking pleasant and fun. Highly recommended!

Amazing experience. Lance was very kind and knowledgable. We had a lot of interesting conversations and with this learned a lot about culture, language and food. As I'm learning Mandarin we could do the tour in Mandarin, so my vocabulary is very grateful for this experience as well. I would definitely recommend doing this tour, as you will learn a lot about local food and customs.

This was a great experience. Lance was a great guide and walked us through a local market explaining a lot about Sichuan food culture and ingredients. He also explained the recipes for the dishes being prepared and interacted well with our 2 young kids. The Chef was friendly and the food was amazing. With Lance's help she explained the dishes well. The facilities were top notch and very clean. I would definitely recommend to anyone interestrd in Sichuan food and culture.

This was a brilliant introduction to the history, culture and food of Chengdu and Sichuan cooking. Lance was our guide - they were brilliant and tailor our experience to what we were interested in! Real personal touch! The chef at kitchen was brilliant! She explained and demonstrated the technique and visual cues you would be looking for when preparing these dishes at home. Well worth taking the time to experience this introduction to the Chengdu and the area.

It was so much more than a cooking class. Jerry was amaising guide. Market was so inspiring. I had some cooking experience before but I learned couple of new tricks. I found out how MSG is made. How to proportion spices and some really useful tricks. It was a cooking class but also a coultoural tour. And Jerry spoke exelent englesh so I used opertunety to ask him so many question regarding food and Chengdu.