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Cusco: Cooking Class & Pisco Tasting with Chef

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Free cancellationExcellent quality

1/20

Duration3h

GroupUp to 12

LanguagesEN

Mobile ticketAccepted

You Cook Three Peruvian Dishes in Three Hours, Then Drink What You Learn

You spend three hours cooking three iconic Peruvian dishes—ceviche, lomo saltado, and traditional snacks—under a professional chef's guidance in Cusco. The class includes a walk through El Mercado to learn about Andean ingredients, a pisco tasting where you make cocktails, and all meals and drinks. You do the cooking yourself, not watch someone else do it, and leave knowing how to make these dishes at home.

Step-by-step itinerary

Meet the chef and participants
Explore El Mercado interpretive center
Taste different potatoes and chicha morada
Taste traditional alpaca and guinea pig snacks
Participate in ceviche preparation
Taste pure Pisco and learn cocktail making
Prepare lomo saltado stir-fry

The Experience

The chef is already at the stove when you walk in. Not demonstrating—waiting for you to join. That's the whole point of this class in Cusco: you're not watching someone else cook Peruvian food, you're making it yourself, your hands in the ceviche, your wok tilting the lomo saltado. The three-hour session starts with a fruit tasting and a walk through El Mercado, the interpretive center where you handle the potatoes—there are dozens of kinds here—and taste chicha morada before you even touch a knife.

Then you move to the kitchen. Ceviche comes first, and the chef walks you through the acid and the fish and why the timing matters, but you're the one squeezing the lime, the one tasting as you go. After that, pisco. You taste Peru's national spirit straight, then learn to build a cocktail with it, understanding how it got here and why it tastes the way it does. The class includes small bites made from alpaca and guinea pig—traditional snacks that most tourists skip, but they're part of the real meal. Then lomo saltado, the stir-fry that defines Peruvian cooking: you work the wok, you balance the soy and the vinegar and the heat. By the time you're done, you've cooked three dishes, tasted five things, and learned something about how Peruvian food actually works instead of just eating it.

The group stays small, which means the chef can watch what you're doing and adjust. If you're vegetarian or vegan or have any dietary restriction, tell them when you book—they adjust the whole class, not just your plate. You need your original passport at the start for tax purposes, and the minimum age is 15, but otherwise it's open to anyone who wants to cook instead of watch. The ingredients are all included, the meals are all included, the pisco tasting is included. You leave with the skills to make these dishes at home and a clearer sense of what Peruvian cooking actually is.

What’s included

All ingredients for the three dishes you cook, a full meal with the dishes you prepare, soft beverages and alcoholic beverages including pisco tasting, traditional Peruvian snacks made from alpaca and guinea pig, a guided tour of El Mercado with fruit and potato tasting, instruction from a professional chef, and accommodation for any dietary restrictions (vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, lactose-free) if noted at booking.

Operated by Marcelo Batata Cooking Class

Is this one for you?Right for travelers who want to learn Peruvian cooking hands-on rather than just eat it, and who value understanding the ingredients and techniques behind the food—the small group size and professional chef instruction mean you actually cook, not just watch, and leave knowing how to make these dishes yourself.