Cusco Culinary Review: The Best Cooking Class in Cusco?

In October I traveled to Cusco and took a cooking class with Cusco Culinary before setting out on the Salkantay Trek a couple days later. Here’s my honest review of our visit to the market and the cooking class.

I love to take cooking classes when I travel, my favorite so far has been Anita’s Cooking Class at Lake Atitlan in Guatemala. I decided to take a cooking class in Cusco rather than in Lima, as I was most inspired by the ancestral Andean flavors from the mountains and the rainforest. 

Visiting the San Pedro Market during the Cooking Class in Cusco

The San Pedro Market is the cultural center of Cusco, much like Cusco was the center of the Incan empire. Here you’ll find everything neatly arranged in different sections. The San Pedro market is designed by the the French engineer, Gustave Eiffel, yes that Eiffel – the same man who designed the Eiffel Tower. It was built in 1925 and is the most important market in the city. 

At the front there are clothing, souvenirs, juice and bread stands. The butchers and fish mongers are also close by. As you go inward, you’ll find Peruvian cheese, grains, chocolate and coffee. Next, the vegetables and fruits, featuring plenty of potatoes and corn varieties. In fact, in Peru you can find 3,000 varieties of potatoes and 300 varieties of corn. And at the back, the stalls for eating where they sell caldo de gallina, a local soup popular for breakfast, other breakfast items and more. 

Touring the San Pedro Market with Cusco Culinary

We were luckily a small group. Just myself and another couple from London alongside our chef, Dael. It was a Sunday, which so some of the fish and exotic fruit sellers were closed that day. So our chef had picked those items up the day before. 

Dael talked us through the set up of the market, the different areas and a brief history. He also introduced us to various products in each section. We tasted cheese and even got a chocolate of our choice as a souvenir. Dael did a good job showing us around. It wasn’t quite as magical as my experience in Guatemala with Anita, as it lacked a bit of personal connection with the shop owners, yet still this was my favorite part of the day. 

In fact, I returned after the cooking class to explore some more on my own. 

Cooking at the Cusco Culinary Studio

We walked a few blocks together to the Cusco Culinary Studio where we’d be making our lunch together. 

A Pisco Sour for Breakfast

It was just before 10 am and we started to make our first recipe, Pisco Sours, made with maracuja, passion fruit, instead of lime and a hint of hibiscus. This was my first Pisco Sour, and my first drink at altitude, and it was 10 am… let’s just say it hit quickly! But it still stands, we made the best Pisco Sour I tasted in all of Peru. 

Ceviche Three-Ways

Next, we prepared ceviche in three different styles, Ancestral, Classic and Superfoods. We each got a job in the kitchen and prepared the dishes together. We used trout as it is the most readily available in Cusco. It was exciting to see how quickly and easily you can prepare a ceviche at home. And I learned that you don’t need to worry about sushi grade fish for ceviche, so I’ll definitely be taking these recipes with me. The ceviches were my favorite part of the meal, also served with a delicious Chicha Morada. This is a sweet purple drink made from the purple corn grown in Peru and widely popular. 

Potato Soup

After that, we went into the main kitchen where we prepared a potato soup together. I learned more about the dehydrated potatoes, or moraya, and got to taste them raw. We made a light and delicate soup and topped it with purple corn chips and dehydrated alpaca. This inspired me later to buy some alpaca jerky for the hike. 

The Main Course: Rocoto, Salad and Potato

We made these cute little individual potato gratin style dishes with potato, dehydrated potatoes and lots and lots of Andean cheese. Then onto the Rocoto, basically stuffed peppers. We stuffed ours with loads of vegetables and made a delicious and vibrant pepper based sauce as well. The salad on the side featured kumquat, passion fruit and a hibiscus dressing. 

Exotic Fruits for Dessert

While we enjoyed our main course, our chef prepared the dessert. He sliced various exotic fruits like chirimoya, passion fruit, dragon fruit, lucuma, kumquat and sweet cucumber and plated them with a chirimoya sorbet, some baked lucuma gnocchi we prepared together, and a chocolate sauce. I could not get enough of the chirimoya sorbet. In fact, I bought an entire chirimoya for myself later that week. It’s so good. 

Final Verdict: Was Cusco Culinary the best cooking class in Cusco?

Cusco Culinary deserves the high ratings and five star reviews it has on TripAdvisor and other websites. I’m very happy I booked this experience and loved learning from our chef, Dael. I especially love a cooking class with a market visit, so that’s what originally drew me to this one. A cooking class is the perfect way to spend a day acclimating in Cusco. Minimal activity, and plenty of time for a long nap afterwards. Which is exactly what I did. 

It’s also a great initial introduction to all the different foods and flavors you can expect during your time in Peru or the Andes. Thank you, Dael for an excellent experience cooking in Cusco. 

Looking for more great eats in the Sacred Valley? Acclimate in Ollantaytambo. This turned out to be one of my favorite places in all of Peru, and there were excellent restaurants and cafes in Ollantaytambo too.