Jaipur: Cooking Class with a Local Family

Somebody's kitchen, not a cooking school.

You are in a family home in Jaipur, cooking what they cook, with them. That is the whole thing, and it is why this has the reviews it has.

How it runs

Welcome drinks first, then into the kitchen. Rajasthani home cooking is not the Punjabi food most people abroad think of as Indian — the desert shaped it. Little water meant cooking in ghee and buttermilk instead; few fresh vegetables meant lentils, gram flour and dried beans carried the plate.

Depending on the day you will likely make dal baati churma, the dish the state is known for: hard wheat rolls baked until they crack, broken into ghee, with dal and a sweet crumble alongside. Or gatte ki sabzi, gram-flour dumplings simmered in a yoghurt curry, which exists precisely because vegetables did not. Plus a bread on the tawa, and rice.

The spice box comes out early and gets explained, which is the part people say changed how they cook at home afterwards.

Then you eat what you made, with the family.

Options

Two at checkout: the cooking class, or henna art classes if that is what you are after instead.

Included

Welcome drinks, the cooking class with a local family, and the meal. Gluten-free is available for both cooking and eating — say so when you book.

Worth knowing

Who it suits

Travellers who want one thing in Jaipur that is not a fort, anyone who cooks, and families — children usually take to the bread-making.