Cooking Class & Market Tour in Cuenca: Discover Local Cuisine with Organic Products
4.9
35 Ratings
Discover our regional dishes and naturally grown products. We’ll tour and buy a few things at the ‘10 de Agosto market’ in our locality. After that, we’ll move to a residential home and start preparing our dinner!
Duration:
4 hours
Cancellation:
1 day
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Highlights
- General Torres 5-14 - The Ecuadorian cuisine and it’s many different flavors and mix of ingredients is the main reason we have opted to offer you a great learning experience. Although its gastronomy is considered to be one of the most forgotten of South America the country has nothing to envy Peru which one of the most recognized cuisines in the world.
Our first duty is to visit the “10 de Agosto” local market to handpick the ingredients that will be needed for our lunch. There’s nothing better than handpicking ingredients which are commercialized by the local farmers and vendors of the region. This will give an added flavor to our home-cooked meal! We will now proceed to visit a welcoming local family that will invite us to their kitchen where we will begin our class. The chef will lead you to step by step into making our meal into perfection. Whether it’s a \
What's Included
- Hotel pickup and drop-off
- Tour Guide/Driver
- All taxes, fees and handling charges included
- Market tour
- All cooking ingredients provided
- Lunch included
- Tea and coffee served
What's Not Included
- Gratuities
Meal Options
- Locro de papas - The most typical soup of the Ecuadorian highlands made with potatoes, cheese, and avocado.
- Quinoa Soup - One of the very important indigenous foods made with quinoa, cheese, milk, onions, garlic.
- Empanadas de Viento - Fried cheese empanadas until crispy and served sprinkled with sugar.
- Seco de Pollo - Chicken slowly stew cooking in a sauce of onions, garlic, peppers, tomatoes, herbs, and spices.
- Fritada - Fried until crisp cubes of pork served with Llapingachos (grilled mashed potatoes), corn, and salad.
- Vegetarian and Vegan options - Available under request.
Additional Information
- Vegetarian or Vegan option is available, please advise at time of booking if required
Cancellation Policy
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
Customer Ratings
4.9
(35 Ratings)
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Timothy_l
Apr 14, 2024
Authentic taste of Ecuador - Wilson was our guide, he picked us up at our apartment right on time. He took us to a local market to buy the ingredients and also told us about all the different exotic and local fruits. We then went to his aunts house which was very nice in a gated community. Wilson did all the translating and reall made us feel very comfortable, even learned a new way to chop an onion!
Lunch was very good and the fruit drink exceptional. Wilson is a fantastic guide would recommend to anyone coming to Ecuador.
Review provided by Viator
Deedavis_o
Nov 24, 2023
Fabulous! - Fabulous tour. Highly recommended. We had a lovely morning in the market learning about Ecuadorian food and ingredients. Then with the help of Alexandra, we helped to prepare a marvelous meal. Absolutely wonderful!
Review provided by Viator
F389sofannyc
Oct 25, 2023
Amazing culinary experience - This experience was amazing. We had such a good time with Javier and his wife. We learnt a lot about Ecuador and its cuisine. I can only recommande it !
Review provided by Tripadvisor
69lynnz
Sep 27, 2023
Good food, good learning, good people - We spent a lovely 4 hours with Flavia and her aunt, exploring a local market, buying ingredients, and preparing and eating a tasty and generous lunch of pollo seco and rice with all the typical accompaniments. Both have a wealth of knowledge about local recipes and ingredients and enthusiastically shared their tips and “secrets”. Be sure to ask Flavia’s aunt for her “green garlic” seasoning hack!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Del35601
Sep 18, 2023
Perfect start to buying in the market and cooking a cross section of Ecuadorian meals! - We absolutely loved the market shopping, participating in cooking locro de papas (potato soup), seco de pollo (chicken), rice, and several accompanying dishes. And we had the choice of English or Spanish which we loved because we wanted to practice Spanish. We learned so much about the city and culture as well from our guide and the cooking instructor, in whose home the class was hosted. We highly recommend this experience!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Aaron_m
Aug 24, 2023
PERFECTO - Was visiting Cuenca on a solo trip and saw the opportunity to take a cooking class. All I can Say is this was absolutely fantastic! What a great experience to shop the Mercado with my guide Peter, who not only helped with my Spanish, but just made the overall experience a 10/10. My kitchen host was absolutely the most kind woman on the planet and I couldn’t have a stronger recommendation than taking this class. Would do it all over again when I’m back. Aloha.
Review provided by Viator
541tamiw
Jul 11, 2023
Wonderful! - Wonderful experience and meal!!! Tour of one of the Cuenca open markets with a discussion of local culture and customs. A cooking class in a private home with delightful hosts and incredible food. Pictures are of the market as I did not ask our host's permission to post pictures from her home.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
A9953ywdouglass
Feb 28, 2023
Much more than a cooking class - We had a fantastic experience! The market tour was great! We learned a lot about the fruits of Ecuador, about ancient grains and the origin of potatoes. Wilson answered our many questions and treated us to some mercado fare. Our cooking class hostess gave us several different fruits to taste, showed us how aji and lulo were made, and prepared a delicious traditional Ecuadorian meal. This was one of the best experiences of our time in Ecuador!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Wendy_n
Sep 17, 2023
Casual Cooking Class in Cuenca - We enjoyed the guide and all of the history he shared about Ecuadorian food, this was the most interesting part of the tour. We felt very welcomed in a traditional Ecuadorian home, the food was hearty, the potato soup was excellent. It was a little difficult to really immerse ourselves in the cooking process, although we were invited to help, mostly due to the home kitchen set up being a little tight for all three of us to be in the kitchen at once. We are glad we took the tour, it was also interesting to go to the market to pick out the ingredients. We feel this was an authentic experience in Cuenca.
Review provided by Viator
Redhybird91
Jul 5, 2023
More like a restaurant in a family house - First of all it was nice and we enjoyed the food. It was delicious. The Cook was really friendly and lovely. But we have a few things that maybe can be changed. We compared it to other cooking classes we had in different countries. First it felt like a cooking show and not a cooking class. We watched her almost the whole time how she was preparing and cooking the dishes. We only peeled potatoes and cut a few vegetables. We prefer to cook more by our own. We also ask ourselves if the price is justified.
It would also have been nice to know in advance that the cook only speaks Spanish. We had a translator but it's just a different atmosphere when there is a language barrier.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
