Da Nang Traditional Cooking Class with Market Visit

I have completed many cooking classes, and this one was by far one of the worst. For what was ultimately offered, it is absolutely not worth the money. There are still two stars because the food was delicious in the end, everyone was nice, and there was a lot of consideration for each individual's preferences. But unfortunately, it was not a real cooking class. Let's start with the market visit: I know it to be that the ingredients are explained there, what role they have in the dish, what spices are used, etc. Here, I felt more like a child who is allowed to help with shopping. We were only told what to put in the basket. The market visit could have been completely omitted. It would have been more interesting to see how the meat is purchased. However, that was already taken care of the night before. That is perfectly fine in itself, but then one should not advertise a market visit when it ultimately only lasts 10 minutes and offers no real added value. After that, we got to cooking. Here, I usually know that everyone cooks their own dish so that everyone performs all the steps themselves and actually learns something in the process. The chef explains the steps, ideally demonstrates them, and accompanies the participants. Whether one prefers individual dishes or group dishes can be debated, but the implementation here was simply poorly organized. Everyone was assigned a task, and while some grated vegetables, the rest was already preparing the sauce in parallel. As a result, important steps were constantly missed. There would have been enough time to go through everything together step by step. (In the end, we were already out after 2.5 hours instead of the stated 4.5 hours) We also made summer rolls. Everyone was allowed to fill their own roll to taste and decide how much cilantro to include, which is fundamentally a nice idea. However, it became problematic with the organization: Instead of everyone getting their own roll at the end, all summer rolls were placed together on a tray, so no one knew which one was theirs. It was also asked who can eat spicy and wants chili; two pointed, but in the end, the spicy chilis ended up in all the dishes anyway. Afterward, we made Banh Xeo. During the preparation, all the gas bottles for the stoves ran out and had to be replaced in the middle of the cooking process. Despite differing preferences, we also had to share a single spatula. By the end of the day, none of the participants managed to prepare a functioning Banh Xeo. No one really learned how to do it correctly. And that raises the question for me: Why does one even attend a cooking school? The plating of the dishes was not done by us, but by the kitchen assistants. It's a shame; I would have liked to give the whole thing the final touch. The crowning achievement was ultimately the recipe booklet at the end. Aside from the poor image quality, the recipes sometimes deviated from what we actually cooked in the course. I was truly speechless. Overall, this was one of the most disorganized and least educational cooking classes I have ever experienced. Kindness alone is simply not enough at this price. I would recommend booking a different cooking class instead.

We had Hazel as our teacher and she was amazing. So clear and patient with the instructions and everything came together beautifully. Was an amazing experience and would highly recommend

WE WANT MORE HAILEY! The class was excellent. Hailey’s teaching was fun and thorough and all the food is good. I had a good time and I’m hoping to come back✨.

Great experience and learned more about the Vietnamese culture and the history about egg coffee. Thank you so much to our guide, Ms. Vy you are amazing. Will definitely recommend this cooking class

Finally learned how to roll proper spring rolls.