Peruvian Cooking Class in Lima - Market Visit and Hands-On Lesson

Peruvian food is one of the great cuisines of the world, and Lima is its capital. The city has more high-end restaurants than any other in South America, and three of the best in the world. But the soul of Peruvian cooking is not in the tasting menus. It is in the markets, the family kitchens, and the dishes that everyone, rich or poor, eats every week: ceviche, lomo saltado, causa, ají de pollo.

This class begins where the food itself begins, in a working Lima market with a Peruvian chef. You choose the dishes you want to learn, you walk the market with the chef and choose the ingredients yourself, and then you cook those dishes in a proper kitchen. At the end you sit down and eat what you have made, with the chef and your guide.

What you’ll learn

The class covers one starter and one main course. The starters are the classics of cold Peruvian cooking. Ceviche is fresh white fish cured in lime juice with red onion, chilli, salt, and coriander, served with sweet potato and the giant Andean corn called choclo. Causa rellena is a chilled tower of yellow potato seasoned with lime and yellow chilli, filled with chicken, tuna, or vegetables. Papa rellena is a hand-shaped, deep-fried stuffed potato, golden outside and hot inside.

The mains run from the famous to the lesser-known. Lomo saltado is a stir-fried beef dish that grew out of Chinese-Peruvian cooking in the nineteenth century, served with both rice and chips. Ají de pollo is shredded chicken in a thickened yellow chilli sauce with walnuts and parmesan, mild and creamy and very much a Sunday dish. Pescado a la chorrillana is fried fish in a tomato and pepper sauce, with rice and sweet potato.

Hands-on and unhurried, the class is as much about the stories behind the dishes as the cooking itself

Who this is for

Travellers who like to cook, and travellers who don’t. The class works equally well as a hands-on lesson for an enthusiast and as a slow morning out for someone who would rather watch and ask questions and then eat. The pace is set by you and the group.

Miraflores, Lima’s most vibrant neighbourhood, where the class takes place