Take a Cooking Class in Vietnam

We saw or heard of cooking schools in Hanoi, Saigon, and Hoi An. You’ll learn a bit, but a lot of them seem to be more about the show – you do a little cooking, but you watch a lot and don’t end up taking home a ton of reusable info.

There’s a woman named Miss Vy, who runs the Cargo Club in Hoi An. Her regular classes have a good reputation, though there’s still a lot of demo time and a pretty big class. We’d heard you can talk her into doing private classes, and she actually rescheduled a regular class to give two of us a morning of completely hands on cooking. We made a ton of stuff (invite friends to come help eat it after!), asked a hundred questions, and learned a ton. Do it – i can’t recommend it enough!

I like to travel and when travelling I’ve tried lots of meal…I adore Vietnamese cuisine and it would be great if I could cook those dishes by myself!

It turns out that there are a variety of cooking classes on the tourist track in Viet Nam. They are generally good fun and good value. My recommendation is to take a few in Hoi An while you are waiting to get your clothes tailored. Fair warning however, none of the classes we took in Viet Nam was as good as the Chiang Mai Cookery School program in Thailand. They have terrific facilities and great program. If I had to pick one cookery school in SE Asia it would be the one.

No matter how nice a cooking class you are taking… you should still be weary of raw foods and always wash your hands very very well before starting. Our instructor was fantastic but neglected that one little detail and one of us got sick that night.