Private Yucatecan Cooking Lesson in a Local Merida Home

We enjoyed in Sofia's dedication, new flavours, completly new ingredients, cultural insights. It was the best time in Jucatan. Every moment was fulfilling and joyful.

This was such an amazing opportunity. So thankful Sophia shared her culture and recipes. The food was authentic and delicious. Learned lots of tips and tricks too.

This was a wonderful experience! Sophia invites you into her kitchen and shares her Mayan knowledge and her grandmother's recipes, passed down through many generations. We had a wonderful time and know so much more about the Mayans

I enjoyed my experience very much. Sofia was full of knowledge in regards to the Mayan culture and of Mérida history. It was very hands on and she explains everything very well. Explains the difference in the foods found in the Yucatan. What we prepared was delicious. I especially loved the sopa de lima and the dessert caballeros pobres. One of my favorite experiences here. Thank you Sofia for your hospitality.

Sofía is a great host and she loves sharing her grandmother's recipes with people. During the cooking process she makes sure that alternatives are given so much that the recipes, which will be shared via the email after class can be re-cooked in when we you're back at home. And, for me the best, there are a lot of opportunities to try the foods while prepping it. Definitely a great experience.

It was fun and food was very delicious. Sofia is very friendly and moves efficiently. I learnt a lot about cooking in general not only about Yucatan dishes. She told me that she is not a chef and changed some ways of cooking traditional Yucatan dishes. Because traditional ways could take a few days sometimes... But I enjoyed her way of cooking and appreciate that she invented faster ways to cook. I found it's very practical, so I can make those dishes when I go back home. The whole cooking took us 3 hrs but she offered cold beer in between so it was fun! She also told me that I'm her first student in 1 year and 8 months because she had to close the business due to COVID. I could tell she was very excited to teach and that made me feel special. After we are done cooking, we had dinner together. She showed me how to serve in certain ways along with some more cooking tips. I highly recommend taking this cooking class with Sofia if you ever come visit Merida. She also offer home stay with meals included!

Great hospitality and fun experience, with a chance to try a big amount of Yucatan dishes. Would definitely recommend!

Sofia took my booking on a 12 hours notice, and managed to plan and shop for an amazing 5 course meal for us to prepare and eat over 5 hours in her lovely house. she is very focused on your health and safety, which is seen in her very clean house and kitchens, general handling of the food, and lessons on how to handle knifes. While cooking she'd not only teach me about selection and preparation of seasonal fruits, vegetables and meat in Yucatan, but she also told stories of Mexico, the european invasion, mayan history (both cooking and culture), stories of Yucatan, and her own stories. In the end of the class we enjoyed the meal we prepared in her lovely garden. Sofia is a very open person and even though english isn't her native laguage (like myself) her english is very good, so don't feel like you can't ask her questions because she is very happy to help you out. I will rate this experience as a MUST, if you have the slightest interest in cooking and love Mexican food.

This was my favorite cooking class I took when I was visiting Merida. Shes very informative and provides you with a little cookbook so you can attempt to make the meal at home.

So I have taken cooking classes in Italy and Thailand. Italy was in-home and Thailand at a class style kitchen. Both had groups. Italy was by a professional chef who owns a few restaurants and holds classes in his customized home kitchen. Very hands on. Not just prep and hand off. We would prepare something. Enjoy it. Return to do more. Great pace. In Thailand we would prep ingredients for a dish. Everything. Then go to our own cooking station. Make it. Eat it. Next dish. Total hands on end to end. Going into this experience, I anticipated a professional chef or very experienced home cook. Very hands on. Proper technique. Tasting as we go. This was our first experience with Traveling Spoon. A newer player to this space. We learned a lot about them through Sofia and exploring their web site later. I get the concept. Bring local foods closer to travelers in a real in-home experience. We got that....sort of. Sofia’s home is definitely off the beaten path. And you are in her home. We were greeted by her housekeeper. We were scheduled to start at 11am. We sat in the foyer until Sofia greeted us about 1110am. The patio table was set for our meal in simple, basic white settings. I liked it. When Sofia greeted us she seemed disjointed, harried and ill-prepared. Scattered introductions and in to the kitchen. On the very small kitchen table were three work stations. Small cutting boards. Two knives. A platter with prep ingredients. Sofia handed us a few aprons. And was just skittering around the kitchen. Grabbing pots and pans. Alternating talking to us and to herself. Between English and Spanish. Firing off orders to her housekeeper to get more tomatoes, limons and cilantro from the market. Just a flurry of activity. We weren’t sure what we were supposed to do. I expected her to be more prepared. Then we started preparing this and that. Net, we were basically her prep “chefs”. We cut and chopped a lot. If she didn’t like how we were cutting or chopping she let us know in a terse way. Sometimes just taking over and doing it herself. And even if you followed her orders, if it turned out different then what she expected, we got blamed. She told me to put the juice of a whole limon in the guacamole. After the first half of juice, I thought it was plenty. She insisted on using the other half. Ok. Well, it was to soupy and she blamed me. The few efforts at applying common sense or my expertise and technique were dismissed so I just stopped. Her knife skills were ave