Luang Prabang Cooking Classes

Several Luang Prabang restaurants not only serve tasty Lao food, but also teach you how to cook it yourself. Classes cover Lao cuisine and its cultural influences, and the restaurants provide ingredients for recipes that students cook and then share as a meal. Daytime classes include a visit to a local food market to learn about the ingredients and how to select them; evening classes, which are shorter, lack this component. Class sizes are limited to a dozen or fewer students. The classes cost between 160,000 kip and 285,000 kip depending on the school and the length of the class. Tamarind Restaurant and Cooking School is by far—and deservedly—the most popular choice. Especially during high season, make reservations well ahead to ensure you get a space. Tamnak Lao, another good option, has been open since 1999.