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View all Chiang Mai toursChiang Mai: Cooking Class, Market & Thai Herbs Garden Tour
Shop a local market, cook five classic Thai dishes with a home-trained chef, and finish with sweet sticky rice and mango in a lush kitchen garden setting.
Highlights
- Browse a local Chiang Mai market with your chef
- Cook five authentic Thai dishes from scratch
- Master sweet sticky rice with mango
- Learn in a real kitchen herb garden
- Take home a recipe booklet to cook again
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Cooking Class, Market & Thai Herbs Garden Tour
Full description
Chiang Mai's food scene is best understood from behind a wok, not across a restaurant table, and this hands-on class is built around that idea. The morning (or afternoon) starts with a walk through a bustling local market, where your instructor points out the fresh herbs, curry pastes, and produce that give Thai food its signature balance of sour, sweet, salty, and spicy. You'll leave with a genuine feel for how ingredients are chosen before you ever pick up a knife.
From there, it's on to a home-style cooking school set inside a working kitchen garden, where lemongrass, kaffir lime, and Thai basil grow just steps from the stove. You'll choose five dishes to cook from a rotating menu of Chiang Mai favourites, working in small batches alongside a friendly local chef who breaks each recipe down into simple, repeatable steps. No prior cooking experience is needed.
As each dish comes off the flame, you sit down and eat it, so the meal unfolds course by course rather than all at once at the end. The class wraps with a lesson in sweet sticky rice and mango, Thailand's best-known dessert, which you'll make and enjoy yourself. Everyone takes home a recipe booklet, so the dishes don't have to stay a one-time souvenir. Round-trip hotel transport is included, making the whole experience easy to slot into a day in Chiang Mai.
Tour Itinerary
The schedule below is a suggested plan and can be adjusted to suit your preferences.
Hotel Pickup
Convenient pickup from your hotel within the eligible zone in Chiang Mai.
Local Market Visit
Walk through a bustling Chiang Mai market with your chef, learning about the herbs, spices, and produce behind classic Thai flavours.
Transfer to Cooking School
Short transfer from the market to the family-run cooking school and herb garden.
Dish Selection & Herb Garden Walk
Choose your five dishes for the day and stroll through the on-site kitchen garden to see fresh lemongrass, chilies, and herbs up close.
Cook 5 Thai Dishes
Cook your selected dishes in rotation with hands-on guidance from a local chef, tasting each one as it's finished.
Sticky Rice & Mango Dessert
Learn to make Thailand's classic sweet sticky rice with mango and enjoy it as your final course.
Hotel Drop-off
Relaxed transfer back to your hotel within the eligible zone.
Detailed Itinerary
Your day of Thai cooking begins with a comfortable pickup from your hotel, provided your accommodation falls within the eligible pickup zone in Chiang Mai. From there, your chef and small group head straight into the heart of the city's food culture: a local market that supplies much of the region's home cooking. This isn't a staged photo stop. Your instructor walks you past baskets of fresh chilies, lemongrass, galangal, and curry pastes, explaining what goes into the dishes you're about to cook and why certain ingredients are non-negotiable in Thai kitchens.
From the market, a short transfer brings you to a family-run cooking school built around its own kitchen garden. Before anything hits a pan, you'll walk the garden itself, brushing past kaffir lime leaves and Thai basil that will end up in your food within the hour. You'll then choose five dishes from a rotating seasonal menu, covering the range of Thai cooking from punchy curries to stir-fries and soups, so everyone in the group leaves having tried a genuine cross-section of the cuisine.
Cooking happens in a relaxed, small-batch rhythm. Your chef demonstrates each recipe step by step in plain, easy-to-follow language, and you recreate it yourself at your own station. As each dish is finished, it's served immediately, so you eat your way through the class course by course instead of facing one large meal at the very end. This pacing also gives you time to ask questions, compare notes with your chef, and actually taste the difference technique makes.
The final dish is Thailand's most famous dessert: sweet sticky rice with mango. You'll learn the technique behind the coconut-infused rice and put it together yourself before sitting down to enjoy it. Once the last plate is cleared, you'll receive a recipe booklet covering everything you cooked, so the class travels home with you. A comfortable transfer then returns you to your hotel, wrapping up a morning or afternoon that's equal parts market tour, cooking lesson, and meal.
Includes
- Hotel pickup and drop-off (within eligible zone)
- English-speaking chef/instructor
- Local market tour
- All ingredients
- Recipe booklet to take home
- Herb garden visit
Excludes
- Gratuities
- Personal expenses
- Alcoholic drinks
Important information
Meeting point
Hotel pickup within eligible zone in Chiang Mai (confirmed after booking)
Know before you go
- Free cancellation available up to 24 hours before the activity starts
About this activity
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Traveler Reviews
Absolutely loved this class! We walked through the local market first where our chef explained different Thai herbs and spices, then went through a beautiful herb garden before cooking. I made Pad Thai, green curry, and spring rolls, and the mango sticky rice at the end was the best I've had in Chiang Mai.
The chef's teaching style was so patient and fun, even for someone who'd never cooked Thai food before. We picked our own 5 dishes — I went with tom yum soup, basil chicken, and papaya salad — and everything turned out incredible. The market visit in the morning really made the whole experience feel authentic.
Such a well organized tour. Hotel pickup was on time and the group was small and friendly with people from four different countries. Cooking massaman curry and mango sticky rice from scratch was the highlight of my Chiang Mai trip, and I still use the recipe booklet at home.
Really enjoyable afternoon class. The kitchen herb garden walk before cooking was a nice touch since you got to see and smell the lemongrass and kaffir lime before using them. My spring rolls fell apart a little but the chef helped me fix them with a laugh. Great value for $35.
One of the best things we did in Thailand. We chose pad see ew, tom kha gai, and cashew chicken, and every dish came out tasting like a real Chiang Mai restaurant meal. The market tour beforehand made choosing ingredients so much more meaningful, and the mango sticky rice was a perfect ending.
The 9am slot was perfect because the market was buzzing with locals doing their morning shopping. Our chef was hilarious and clearly loved teaching. I made a vegetarian version of everything and they adjusted the dishes without any issue. Left with a full belly and a recipe booklet I've already used twice at home.
Booked the 5pm slot so class doubled as dinner, worked out great. Cooked tom yum, red curry, and pad thai from ingredients we picked out ourselves at the market. The herb garden walk was a highlight, so many smells and textures I'd never encountered. Sticky rice with mango was outstanding.
Great hands-on class with a warm, knowledgeable chef. We got to select our own dishes which I appreciated since I could skip anything with shellfish. The market walk was informative, though a bit rushed on a busy day. Still, the mango sticky rice alone was worth the trip.
Fantastic value for $35 including pickup. Our chef walked us through the herb garden explaining each plant before we headed to cook basil chicken, green curry, and spring rolls. Small group, lots of hands-on time, and the recipe booklet means I can actually recreate these dishes back home.