Old City Thai Cooking Class – Full Course, 6 Dishes
A four-and-a-half-hour Thai cooking course in the heart of the Old City, morning or evening, with a market walk and six dishes you pick yourself.
- Duration
- Half day (approx. 4.5 hours) – morning or evening
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Max group
- 20 pax
If your Chiang Mai days are already full, this is the cooking class that fits around them. The kitchen sits inside the Old City walls, a few minutes from most hotels, so there is no long drive at either end — you are cooking within half an hour of leaving your room and back on the street four and a half hours later, having learned six dishes properly.
Short does not mean rushed. The class opens with a walk to a local fresh market, where your instructor takes apart the Thai pantry for you: which of the three chillies is heat and which is perfume, how to tell young galangal from ginger, why palm sugar behaves differently to white, what shrimp paste is actually doing in your curry. There is a small kitchen garden at the school too, so the herb-picking part of the experience is not lost — you cut your own lemongrass, kaffir lime and basil before you start.
Then it is your own station: one person, one wok, one burner. You choose one dish from each of six categories — appetiser, stir-fry, soup, curry paste, curry and dessert — so a table of four cooks four different lunches. You pound your own curry paste in a granite mortar and use it in your own curry the same hour, which is the moment the whole thing clicks for most people. You eat each course as it comes off the heat, with coffee, Thai herbal drinks and a welcome snack in between.
Two departures run daily: a morning class from 09:00 to 13:30 and an evening class from 16:00 to 20:30 — the evening slot is a lovely alternative to another dinner out, and the kitchen is cooler. Free pick-up and drop-off within the Old City, a cookbook to take home, and non-cooking companions welcome at a reduced rate.
- Central Old City location — short transfer, more cooking, less driving
- Choose a morning class (09:00–13:30) or an evening class (16:00–20:30)
- Guided fresh-market walk explaining every core Thai ingredient
- Pick herbs from the school's own kitchen garden
- Six dishes from six categories, chosen by you
- Pound your own curry paste and cook with it the same hour
- One person, one wok — your own station throughout
- Vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free friendly; you set the spice level
- Cookbook, welcome snack, fresh coffee and herbal drinks included
What's included
- ✓ Free pick-up and drop-off within Chiang Mai Old City
- ✓ Guided visit to a local fresh market
- ✓ Herb picking in the school kitchen garden
- ✓ All ingredients for six dishes
- ✓ Your own individual cooking station, wok and utensils
- ✓ English-speaking Thai cooking instructor
- ✓ Welcome snack
- ✓ Fresh coffee (espresso, americano or latte), Thai herbal drinks and drinking water
- ✓ Everything you cook — eaten on site or boxed to take away
- ✓ Recipe cookbook
- Pick-up from hotels outside the Old City zone (ask us for a quote)
- Alcoholic drinks
- Non-cooking companions (300 THB per person, includes the meal)
- Gratuities
- Travel insurance
- 08:20
Pick-up (morning class)
Be ready between 08:20 and 08:50; evening class guests are collected between 15:20 and 15:50. Transfer inside the Old City takes only a few minutes.
- 09:00
Welcome and market walk
Welcome snack and introductions, then out to a nearby fresh market for a guided tour of herbs, pastes, produce, noodles and rices.
- 09:45
Kitchen garden and set-up
Cut your own lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, holy basil and chillies in the school garden, then take your station and meet your wok.
- 10:15
Curry paste and appetiser
Pound your chosen paste in a granite mortar, then cook and eat your appetiser — spring rolls, som tum or larb.
- 11:00
Stir-fry and soup
Pad thai, fried rice or pad kaprao at the wok, followed by tom yum, tom kha or tom sab.
- 12:00
Curry and main meal
Cook a full curry from the paste you made, then sit down to everything you have produced.
- 13:00
Dessert, cookbook and photos
Sticky rice with mango or banana in coconut milk, herbal tea, your recipe book and group photos.
- 13:30
Drop-off
Returned to your Old City hotel (evening class finishes at 20:30).
Yes. Every dish on the menu can be prepared vegetarian or vegan — tofu and vegetables replace the chicken, prawn and pork, and the fish sauce and shrimp paste are swapped for soy-based alternatives. Tell us when you book so the kitchen can shop accordingly, and mention any allergy (nuts and shellfish are the usual ones) again to your instructor on the day.
You choose. The menu is organised into categories and you pick one dish from each, so nobody at the same table has to cook the same lunch. You can also decide how hot each dish is — Thai-hot, mild or no chilli at all.
Content is identical. The morning class includes the busiest, best-stocked market hour and leaves your evening free; the evening class is cooler to cook in, replaces dinner nicely and suits late risers or anyone with a morning tour already booked.
Yes — free pick-up and drop-off within the Chiang Mai Old City zone. Staying in Nimman, by the river or further out? Tell us your hotel when you book and we will confirm or quote a supplement.
Light, comfortable clothes you do not mind getting a little splashed, and closed shoes rather than flip-flops — you will be standing at a wok and walking through a market and a garden. Aprons are provided. Long hair is easier tied back.
Yes, for 300 THB. They join the market walk, sit with the group and eat the same food; they simply do not get a cooking station. Children under five are free.
Yes, and Thai cooking classes are one of the best family activities in Chiang Mai. Younger children usually share a station with a parent rather than working a hot wok alone. Tell us the ages when you book so we can arrange the right set-up.