Description

Vietnamese Cooking Class in Ninh Binh

You will eat a lot of good food in Vietnam. Most of it you will never taste again, because you have no idea how it was made. This is the afternoon that fixes that.

About three hours in a real kitchen, your hands in the rice paper, a wok that is hotter than you expected, and a host who shows you the three small things that make Vietnamese food taste like Vietnamese food. Then you sit down and eat what you made. Guests keep telling us it was the meal they remember best, and they cooked it themselves.

How it goes

1. Everything is bought fresh that morning. Your host is at the market before you are awake. Herbs, meat, fish, rice paper, all from that day.
2. You cook, not watch. This is not a demonstration. You roll the spring rolls, you slice the papaya, you stand at the wok. Your host stands next to you and corrects you before it goes wrong.
3. You learn why. Why the oil has to be that hot, how thin the rice paper should be, what to do when the sauce is too sweet. The things a cookbook never tells you.
4. Then you eat it. Everyone sits down together at the table and eats what was just cooked. Nobody leaves hungry.

On the table, depending on your menu: spring rolls, bun cha (grilled pork with noodles), fish in a clay pot, morning glory from the wok, green papaya salad, and rice. Vegetarian menus are just as good, not an afterthought.

Why we send our own guests here

• Private. Your own group, your own table. No twenty strangers around one wok.
• Real hosts. A professionally trained chef, or a family in their own kitchen in the countryside. You choose. Both cook the way they cook for their own families.
• Hands-on, all the way. By the end you have made every dish yourself, so you can cook them again at home.
• Great with children. Kids love rolling spring rolls. Children aged 6 and under join for free.
• Rain proof. Boat trips need dry weather. A kitchen does not. Many guests book this on the wet day and call it the best day of their trip.

Good to know

• Price: from 380,000 VND per person (about 15 euro) for the vegetarian menu, 490,000 VND with meat or fish, 590,000 VND with both. Everything included except drinks.
• Duration: about 3 hours, cooking and eating together.
• When: morning, afternoon or early evening, depending on the host. Choose your time when you book.
• Where: in Tam Coc, a few minutes from the village, or in a family kitchen in the countryside 15 minutes from Tam Coc. Directions come with your confirmation.
• Group size: from 1 person with some hosts, from 2 with others. The booking site shows the group size for each host.
• Booking: online with instant confirmation, everything paid in advance so there is nothing to arrange on the day. Free changes and cancellation up to 48 hours before the class.

Book your cooking class

Booking goes through Ninh Binh Cooking Class, the site where all the hosts in the region are listed. Pick a host, a date and a time, and you are done.

Choose your host and book