Cooking Classes in Nepal

Thamel has the most classes, and they follow a similar pattern. You meet at the school or are picked up from your hotel, walk to a local market to buy vegetables and spices, then cook in a small kitchen or on a rooftop. Most teach momos (buffalo, chicken or vegetable) with a tomato and sesame dipping sauce, dal bhat with tarkari, and sometimes sel roti, the ring-shaped rice doughnut made for festivals. You eat what you make at the end. Kathmandu Cooking Academy is one of the longest-running, with a momo class from about USD 15, or around USD 35 to 40 with private pickup.

Vegetarian and vegan versions are easy, since much of Nepali home cooking is vegetarian. Ask for the recipe sheet and a list of spice names in Nepali, so you can buy the right timur (Sichuan-style pepper) and jimbu (a dried Himalayan herb) to take home.

Most classes cook for four to eight people, so there is plenty of time at the stove. Recipes are scaled for home kitchens, and schools usually explain substitutes for buffalo, mustard oil and jimbu if you cannot find them abroad.

Guided food walks through the old city start around Asan, Indra Chowk and the lanes toward Durbar Square, stopping for momos, samosas, jeri (syrupy fried spirals), lassi and milk tea. A three-hour tour runs about USD 15 to 50, with most of the food included. Evening walks show the city at its busiest, when the momo shops are full and the street stalls light their stoves.

The Newars, the original people of the valley, have the most elaborate cuisine in Nepal: beaten rice (baji), spiced buffalo choila, bara lentil patties, chatamari rice crepes, yomari dumplings filled with molasses, and bowls of rice beer. Food walks in Patan start near Patan Durbar Square and duck into the courtyard eateries locals use. In Bhaktapur, try juju dhau, the “king of curds”, a sweet set yoghurt sold in clay pots around the squares.

Lakeside in Pokhara has its own cooking schools, usually smaller and calmer than Thamel’s, plus organic farms outside town that combine a garden visit with a cooking session. Classes cover the same core dishes, often with a Gurung or Thakali twist: buckwheat bread, gundruk (fermented greens) soup, and the Thakali dal bhat that trekkers rate as the best in the country. Expect similar prices to Kathmandu.

The best home cooking is in village homestays, where you help in the kitchen as a matter of course. Bandipur, a Newar trading town between Kathmandu and Pokhara, and the Tharu villages around Chitwan both have community homestays that include meals and cooking. Gurung villages such as Ghandruk on the Annapurna trails offer the same on a trek.

In the far east, the tea gardens around Ilam produce orthodox tea that is often compared with nearby Darjeeling, and estates welcome visitors to walk the slopes and taste. On the Annapurna Circuit, Marpha in the Kali Gandaki valley is Nepal’s apple capital, with small family distilleries making apple and apricot brandy and lodges serving apple pie.

Classes can usually be booked a day ahead in person or online; morning sessions include the market walk while produce is fresh. Tell the school about allergies in advance, and check whether buffalo is used, since buff momos are the default in Kathmandu.