Overview
This Nepali cooking class is a half-day of proper hands-on food, from the market to the table, with a pottery session to finish. At a friendly cooking academy in Kathmandu, your instructor takes you to a local market for the ingredients, then teaches you to cook a full Nepali meal, dal bhat, momo and a few dishes you choose yourself. You sit down and eat everything you have made, then try shaping clay on a potter's wheel, a craft the valley has been known for for centuries. It runs about three to four hours and suits all levels.
The itinerary
- Meet your instructor at the cooking academy, morning or afternoon
- Walk to a local market to pick up fresh ingredients
- Go through the menu and choose your dishes
- Cook a Nepali meal together, dal bhat, momo and more
- Sit down and eat everything you have made
- Try your hand at the pottery wheel, shaping clay by hand
Things to carry
- An appetite, you eat a full meal
- Clothes you don't mind getting flour and clay on
- Any dietary needs told to us in advance
- A camera for the market and your pottery
Good to know
From the market to the pottery wheel
The best way to understand a place is often through its food, and this class takes you the whole way, from the market stall to the finished plate, then adds a turn at the pottery wheel for good measure. It is a relaxed half-day at a Kathmandu cooking academy: you shop for ingredients with your instructor, cook a full Nepali meal from scratch, eat it together, and finish by shaping clay the way the valley's potters have for centuries. Easy, sociable and hands-on from start to end.
What the Nepali cooking class covers
The class runs about three to four hours and starts with a walk to a local market to buy the ingredients, with your instructor explaining the vegetables and spices as you go. Back in the kitchen you cook a full Nepali meal, dal bhat, momo and a few dishes you choose, then sit down and eat what you have made. The day ends with a pottery session on the wheel. If you are short on time or just want the dumplings, our momo making class is a shorter two-hour option focused on momo alone.
Dal bhat, momo and the food of Nepal
Dal bhat is the meal Nepal runs on, lentils, rice and a rotating set of vegetable and pickle sides, eaten twice a day across the country, and learning to cook it properly is the heart of this class. Alongside it you make momo, the dumplings everyone here grows up on, and a few dishes of your choosing. The instructor teaches the spice mixes and the order of the cooking, the things that make home food taste right, so you can carry the meal home with you.
The pottery session
The Kathmandu Valley has a long pottery tradition, most famous in the potters' squares of Bhaktapur and Thimi, where clay is still thrown by hand on spinning wheels. The class ends with your own turn at the wheel, shaping a simple pot or bowl. It takes no experience and a fair bit of laughing at your first wobbly attempts, and it is a lovely, tactile way to round off a day spent making things with your hands.
Who it suits and good to know
This is one of the most family-friendly activities in the city, and it works just as well for couples and solo travellers who want to meet people and dig into the local culture. No cooking or pottery experience is needed. Come hungry, since you eat a full meal, and let us know in advance if you are vegetarian, Jain or have other dietary needs so the academy can prepare. Wear clothes you do not mind getting a little flour and clay on. To pair the class with a walk through the old city and its markets, see our Kathmandu walking tour of the old city.
