Sharing Traditions Clases de Cocina — Local services in Mérida

We had a wonderful time taking the Sharing Traditions cooking class and market tour. We would highly recommend it to anyone looking to get a crash course in Yucatan food and culture. Our guide and chef were both smart, helpful, and very fun, and we got to make some of the best food we had while visiting Merida.

The experience takes place in the Santiago neighborhood which has a deep local history. The mercado Santiago has many excellent vendors for fresh produce, meats, and spices. It is not part of the tour, but you owe it to yourself to try Taqueria La Lupita while you are there. The tour also included a stop for a cool chocolate drink at Cafe Montejo, another excellent local eatery.

Our guide & interpreter, Rodrigo, walked us from the very nice Hotel Boutique Santiago to the mercado and back. Along the way he told us many interesting facts about the local history, including why buildings on street corners have special pictograms.

Once back at Hotel Boutique we got down to cooking with Chef Majo. She is a very cool and knowledgeable chef who is both funny and helpful about answering your questions.

In the hotel’s professional kitchen we made a number of tasty dishes: sikil pak, guacamole, codzitos, chayitas, longaniza Valladolid, poc chuc, and flan for dessert. Chef Majo took us through making each item step by step and showed us the best ways to do things (including basic knife skills). Rodrigo was an excellent and knowledgeable interpreter when we were not sure what Majo was telling us about the food.

Afterward we enjoyed the resulting Yucatan feast poolside. We highly recommend...

Highly recommended experience! Found it through airbnb experiences. We had a lovely evening making traditional yucatan food with chef Andres and translator Sebastian. It was only me and my partner attending. There was so much food(!) and it all tasted so good! It was the best meal we had in Mérida. We also got to take home some of the food as we didn’t manage to eat it all. My partner was feeling a bit unwell during the course, and they were so attentive and took good care of us both. They also helped out on planning our visit to Uxmal the next day, which we really appreciated. But back to the experience; the food is tasty with local ingredients, easy to prepare together with the chef, and the staff is wonderful. Plus; you get the recipes for making the...

The cooking course was really good, it's starts with a drink in the hotel reception and a chance to meet the chef (the day I was there it was Jamil who was great!) then on to the market tour. Jamil was an excellent guide not just for food but for some interesting facts about the city. Jamil bought all the ingredients needed for the lunch we were making and told us what to look for when buying each item.

Back at the hotel there is a good size kitchen, we were a group of 4 however any more and it might have been crowded. Collectively we made 3 starters, a main course and a dessert, my advice would be to have a small breakfast as you definitely won't be hungry afterwards! Jamil was a great guide and chef, would highly...