A cooking class can look like an activity squeezed into a holiday, but a good one teaches something that stays with you. The difference lies between handing over a recipe and showing a technique. Here is how our two-hour session works; wherever you book, you should expect a similar shape.<\/p>\n
One hour is only enough to meet the ingredients and rush a single dish to the finish. Four is tiring and will not fit into a holiday. Two hours allows three or four recipes to run in sequence and still leaves time to sit down and eat \u2014 and the waiting stretches in between get filled.<\/p>\n
First twenty minutes:<\/strong> the ingredients. Spices, pomegranate molasses, tahini, pepper paste \u2014 things most participants do not keep at home, or keep and never use. Once you have smelled them, where each one belongs tends to stick.<\/p>\n The next forty:<\/strong> the long recipe begins. Usually something for the pot; it goes on the heat and moves at its own pace.<\/p>\n The middle stretch:<\/strong> while that cooks, you work on pastry or a meze. This is the hands-on part \u2014 rolling dough, wrapping vine leaves, filling. It is usually the section people talk about afterwards, because nobody gets it right first time and the table finds this funny.<\/p>\n The last half hour:<\/strong> the table is laid and you eat what you have made. The chef answers questions about technique while you do.<\/p>\n No. Someone who has never cooked and someone who has done it for years can work at the same bench, because the recipes advance by sequence rather than by skill. The experienced person simply finishes sooner.<\/p>\n You learn: when a spice goes in, how long dough needs to rest, why an olive oil dish is served cold. These carry over once you are home.<\/p>\n You do not learn: kebab. Working the grill and handling meat is a separate craft and cannot be passed on in two hours. Saying so upfront is the honest thing.<\/p>\n Our workshop runs every day from 14:00 to 16:00 at 60 euros per person. Photographs and an Olive apron are included. Because it ends at 16:00, you still have your evening.<\/p>\n An hour-long cocktail workshop starts right after, at 16:00, for 25 euros. Taking both on the same day works well: two hours in the kitchen, one at the bar, then dinner.<\/p>\nDo you need experience?<\/h2>\n
What you learn, and what you do not<\/h2>\n
Practical details<\/h2>\n