Passport to the Plate: The 15 Cooking Classes Worth Traveling For

A cooking class is a perfect family activity. Image by Maarten van den Heuvel.

Some souvenirs don’t sit on a shelf - they live in your kitchen.

When I was about eight or nine years old, my family took a trip to New Orleans, Louisiana. I savored barbecue shrimp at Emeril’s, loaded up on remoulade, and fell in love with gumbo. We went from fine dining restaurants to Central Grocery for their famous muffuletta, and Café du Monde for beignets - which I begged to visit every single day (and still would).

Somewhere in between all of that eating, we took a cooking class. I remember the smells first - rich roux bubbling on the stove, the sharp, savory scent of andouille sausage, the warm sweetness of butter melting into brown sugar. The chef taught us to flambé bananas foster, and when the flames leapt up in the pan, I felt like I had just unlocked a secret spell. To this day, I still make bananas foster for special occasions, and every bite takes me right back to that kitchen in New Orleans.

That’s the magic of cooking classes when you travel - they’re edible souvenirs. You bring home more than a recipe; you bring home a memory you can recreate again and again. Kids get to touch, smell, and taste their way through a culture. Adults get to learn authentic techniques straight from local experts. Everyone leaves full and happy.

Anytime is perfect for a cooking class, but as we head into fall and winter, it's a great time to add a culinary class to your travel plans. Cooler weather means more time in the kitchen, and seasonal ingredients make the experience even richer. Some ideas to inspire your next “passport to the plate”:

Cooking Classes Around the World

1. Creole & Cajun Classics – New Orleans, USA Learn to make rich gumbo, shrimp étouffée, and bananas foster in a city where every recipe tells a story. Families can split tasks - kids can stir the roux or dust the beignets, while adults tackle the flambé.

2. Holiday Cookies & Pastries – Nuremberg, Germany During the Christmas market season, join a baking workshop to craft Lebkuchen and butter-rich Stollen. The smell of warm spices will follow you home.

3. Sushi School – Tokyo, Japan Learn the delicate art of rolling sushi and making tamagoyaki (sweet omelet). Many schools offer kid-friendly classes where children can create colorful sushi rolls with fun shapes.

4. Mole Magic – Oaxaca, Mexico A deep dive into one of Mexico’s most iconic sauces. Taste-test the 20+ ingredients before blending them together, from smoky chiles to rich chocolate.

5. Pasta from Scratch – Bologna, Italy Roll, cut, and shape tagliatelle or tortellini alongside a local nonna, then sit down for a family-style feast.

6. Dim Sum Delights – Hong Kong From delicate shrimp har gow to fluffy char siu bao (barbecue pork buns), learn the folding techniques that make dim sum an edible art form.

7. French Pâtisserie – Paris, France Perfect buttery croissants, éclairs, or colorful macarons in a Parisian cooking school. Great for older kids who enjoy baking precision.

8. Spice Market to Kitchen – Marrakech, Morocco Start with a guided market tour to choose fresh herbs and spices, then head to the kitchen to make tagines, couscous, and mint tea.

9. Island Flavors – Kauai, Hawaii Cook with fresh local ingredients like taro, coconut, and tropical fruits to create dishes like poke and haupia. Poke is surprisingly easy and delicious to create.

10. Chocolate Making – Bruges, Belgium Melt, temper, and mold your own pralines or truffles in the chocolate capital of the world.

11. Pizza Perfection – Naples, Italy Learn to stretch dough the Neapolitan way, top it with San Marzano tomatoes and fresh mozzarella, and bake it in a wood-fired oven.

12. Curry from Scratch – Chiang Mai, Thailand Pound fresh curry paste in a mortar and pestle, then cook fragrant Thai curries using lemongrass, galangal, and coconut milk.

13. Pierogi & Polish Comfort Food – Kraków, Poland Roll out dough, fill it with savory or sweet fillings, and boil or pan-fry for a traditional Eastern European feast.

14. Greek Island Cooking – Santorini, Greece Make moussaka, tzatziki, and baklava using island-grown produce and local honey, with a view of the Aegean Sea.

15. Nordic Baking – Reykjavik, Iceland Try your hand at rye bread baked in volcanic hot springs, paired with Icelandic butter and smoked fish.

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