Cooking Class Siem Reap: Learn Three Cambodian Dishes

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Free cancellationExcellent quality

1/8

Duration3h

GroupUp to 8

LanguagesEN

PickupAt your hotel

Cook three Cambodian dishes in a village kitchen, then eat what you made

You visit a local market outside Siem Reap, learn to cook three traditional Cambodian dishes from a local chef in a garden pavilion, and eat what you've prepared. Hotel pickup and drop-off by tuktuk are included, as is a recipe book you can take home. Small groups mean hands-on attention throughout the half-day class.

Step-by-step itinerary

Half-day Cambodian cooking class

Tour local Cambodian market
Learn about produce and ingredients
Travel to garden pavilion
Hands-on cooking class with chef
Cook fresh rice paper spring rolls
Prepare Cambodian curry
Make bananas in palm sugar dessert

The Experience

The tuktuk ride out to the village takes longer than expected — the driver takes a turn that feels wrong, then laughs when he realizes, and you're suddenly on a narrower road with rice paddies on both sides. That's when you know you're actually leaving the tourist zone. By the time you arrive at the market in Siem Reap's countryside, the morning is already warm and the stalls are packed with vendors selling produce you don't recognize. Your local chef is waiting, and they walk you through what everything is: the lemongrass, the galangal, the morning glory, the fish sauce that smells like it shouldn't work but absolutely does in Cambodian cooking. You handle the ingredients, smell them, ask questions. It's not a lecture — it's a conversation with someone who cooks this way every day.

Then you head to the garden pavilion, a simple open-air space with cooking stations set up for the group. The chef demonstrates the first dish — fresh rice paper spring rolls — and then you make your own. Your rolls probably won't look as neat, but they taste right. After that comes Cambodian curry, which involves a paste you build from scratch, and then bananas in palm sugar, which is sweeter and simpler but somehow the one people remember. The whole class is hands-on, not standing around watching. You're the one holding the knife, stirring the pot, tasting as you go. The group stays small, which means the chef can actually see what you're doing and adjust if something's off.

By the end of the morning or afternoon — depending on which session you book — you sit down and eat what you made. It's a three-course meal that tastes better because you built it yourself, and you get a detailed recipe book to take home so you can actually try this again in your own kitchen. The tuktuk picks you up afterward and takes you back to your hotel, and you're back before lunch or dinner, depending on the time slot.

What’s included

Your half-day includes hotel pickup and drop-off by tuktuk, a guided tour of a local Cambodian market where you learn about regional produce and ingredients, hands-on cooking instruction from an experienced local chef in a garden pavilion, preparation of three traditional dishes (fresh rice paper spring rolls, Cambodian curry, and bananas in palm sugar), the three-course meal you've cooked, bottled water and a cold towel, and a detailed recipe book to take home.

Good to know

Stroller friendlyPets welcomeInfants must sit on laps

Operated by beyond. unique escapes

Is this one for you?Book this if you want to learn real Cambodian cooking from someone who cooks it daily, and you'd rather not navigate the market or figure out timing on your own — the fixed schedule and included transport handle both, leaving you free to focus on the food.