What do a couple of master home cooks from Montego Bay, an instructor at the Tokyo Sushi Academy, and the heir to a restaurant dynasty in New Delhi have in widespread? All of them host digital Airbnb cooking courses and may train you create thrilling new dishes from the consolation of your personal kitchen.
As avid vacationers hungry for native experiences, we might incessantly guide cooking courses by means of Airbnb in no matter nation we have been visiting. So when the world successfully shut down in 2020 as a result of pandemic, placing our globetrotting on maintain, we have been delighted to search out that the platform had introduced all of these culinary experiences we beloved on-line. And similar to their IRL choices, every class is designed and led by vetted hosts who’re deeply educated about their native cuisines and cultures; simply bookable on the positioning’s platform, which lets you filter by location, time, language, value, and variety of individuals; and fairly reasonably priced, beginning at round $18 per particular person.
Since discovering the digital courses, we’ve taken a handful. And whether or not they have been taught by an Italian nonna with a long time of expertise or an off-duty restaurateur, every one was immersive, interactive, and nicely organized. Earlier than the courses started, every teacher emailed us a listing of kit, elements, and prep duties, which ensured seamless classes each time. And on the finish of the category, we’d have a great date night time feast to take pleasure in from the consolation of our front room.
Take it from us: deciding which class to take is the one tough half. So, from Poland’s iconic cheese and potato-stuffed pierogies to chewy chapatis from Kenya, we’ve combed by means of the three,000-plus digital Airbnb cooking courses to carry you 9 which can be all assured to take your style buds on a world tour—no passport crucial.
On this almost two hour class—which takes a 15 minute “noodle dance” break on the midway level—you’ll learn to make Chinese language hand-pulled noodles from a few bonafide cooks in Shanghai. Brenda and Lee will train you make the wheat dough from scratch after which put together the noodles in two methods—BiangBiang (broad, belt-like noodles) and Xinjiang Lamian (skinny, strand-like noodles)—earlier than dressing them in a sizzling and bitter sauce. The flavors are daring on this class, and so are the vibes. Take it from this reviewer: “6 out of 5 stars!!!”
{Photograph} by Val Latifi
On this 75 minute class, Bruna, a proud Italian nonna, will train you make ravioli and tiramisu. Along with having spent a long time cooking for her household, she additionally occurs to be an alum of the Paul Bocuse Institute, a culinary faculty in France. Whereas there, Bruna refined her household recipes—that are what you’ll discover in her class. We took Bruna’s in-person course just a few years again, and the web iteration was simply as a lot of a blast. She nearly welcomed us to her dwelling in Milan, breaking the ice with a few hilarious tales and a spherical of Aperol spritzes. Bruna then went on to run the category with clockwork effectivity. A reservoir of suggestions and strategies, she taught us the correct strategy to seal the ravioli with out trapping air, and make the pasta sheets as skinny as humanly potential. And by the top, we had loads of pillowy-soft ravioli and decadently wealthy tiramisu to take pleasure in. Cin cin!
Cooking tamales from scratch is a tall order, even for a seasoned dwelling cook dinner. However having chef Arturo at your facet makes the duty method much less intimidating. When he isn’t head cheffing for a restaurant group in Mexico Metropolis, he’s internet hosting his two hour tamale tutorial on Airbnb. He’ll first information you thru the method of constructing masa dough after which the varied filling choices like rooster, pork, or greens. You’ll additionally learn to make contemporary salsa to serve alongside these steaming, corn husk-swathed delights. The category is popping, and so is the meals. “These have been, indubitably, the most effective tamales I’ve ever eaten,” wrote one reviewer.
{Photograph} by Val Latifi
Each Sunday, Montego Bay-based dwelling cooks Latoya and Delroy train a one hour cooking class on the signature Jamaican patty. They’ll stroll you thru the fundamentals of constructing the traditional flaky pastry in addition to the deeply savory beef filling it encloses, interspersing historical past and cultural storytelling alongside the way in which. And, in contrast with an in-person class, we had full management over making ingredient substitutions to swimsuit our vegan dietary desire. (We used a few Not possible burgers as a substitute of beef.) But it surely was Latoya and Delroy’s private touches that set their class aside. Despite the fact that we had simply met them, our hour collectively felt like hanging out within the kitchen with previous buddies. We cooked, we ate, and on the finish of the category, they despatched us a playlist of reggae jams, together with 50 Jamaican recipes. If patties aren’t your pace, select from 11 different Jamaican dishes—like ackee and saltfish or banana porridge—that Latoya and Delroy train all through the week.
On this 90 minute class, you’ll learn to make not one however three Kenyan dishes. Josephine, a proficient dwelling cook dinner from Nairobi, teaches varied menus all through the week. The one that basically caught our fancy was her class on chewy chapatis; fragrant beef, rooster, or vegetable curry; and ugali with steamed cabbage. A fervent believer that the most effective meals are those you make for your self, Josephine has shared her treasured household recipes with 7,000 college students and counting. “We had essentially the most wonderful night with Josephine,” one current reviewer wrote. “Our chapatis have been completely scrumptious. We took a lot inspiration from Josephine’s class, that we’re nonetheless speaking about our expertise days later.”
Workforce constructing workouts used to contain gathering in violently lit fluorescent rooms, sipping Folgers, and ‘trust-falling’ into the arms of your colleagues. Now, due to the miracle of on-line conferencing, you may study to stuff samosas along with your coworkers as a substitute. In response to the evaluations, host Jd’s 75 minute class, which he teaches from his dwelling in New Delhi, has been attended by groups from Google, Tesla, Apple, and Fb. His household has been within the restaurant enterprise for 3 generations, and he’s taught over 6,000 Airbnbers make his potato samosas with vibrant cilantro chutney. We additionally beloved that he supplied varied substitutions—like air-frying as a substitute of deep frying—to accommodate all kinds of kitchens.
Kazari maki, which interprets to ‘ornamental roll,’ is the place artwork meets sushi. On this hour-long class, Aya—an teacher on the Tokyo Sushi Academy—will train you make Instagrammable sushi that resembles Renaissance-era stained glass. The rolls are mind-blowingly attractive and scrumptious, with the tamago and pickled-vegetable fillings forming flowers and stars. Awarded the 2020 Certificates of Excellence on TripAdvisor, Aya has instructed over 4,000 college students on creating these edible canvases. We love any type of artwork you get to eat afterwards.
{Photograph} by Val Latifi
Istanbul is a road food-lover’s paradise, and lahmacun—cracker-thin flatbread topped with a layer of spicy floor meat—is among the historic metropolis’s most quintessential bites. From her dwelling in Turkey, chef Fatma shares her household’s kitchen secrets and techniques together with her digital pupils. This was an expertise we personally discovered genuine and rewarding despite the display screen separating us, principally due to chef Fatma’s heat and interesting persona and endurance. In 90 minutes, Fatma walked us by means of the steps of constructing the crispy crust, the meaty topping, and herby garnish. Per the category description, her lahmacun recipe can be simply adaptable to a vegetarian, vegan, or gluten-free food regimen. (For a vegan variation, we used a zesty, sumac-laced herb garnish to high our flatbread as a substitute of the meat.) On the finish, the meals was scrumptious and the dialog pleasant, and every chunk transported us again to Turkey, the place we spent our honeymoon.
Streaming from their dwelling in Kraków and carrying conventional garb, Monika and Tomasz will acquaint you with their grandmother’s recipe for Poland’s favourite stuffed dumpling: the pierogi. Along with getting ready and rolling the stretchy dough, on this 90 minute class you’ll learn to make the traditional potato, white farmer’s cheese, and fried onion filling. However that is greater than only a cooking class; it’s an invite to relax, too. Like the good hosts they’re, Monika and Tomasz encourage you to have a drink—ideally Polish vodka—when you cook dinner. Your complete class is a deep digital dive into the tradition with a pinch of folks custom, a splash of meals historical past, and a sprinkle of Polish idioms.
