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Experience San Juan, Puerto Rico by Learning to Cook Like a Local (Part I – The Cooking Class)

Mom Central received a Food Tour from The Flavors of San Juan in order to facilitate this post.

If you are looking for a place to go that has amazing food, culture, history and gorgeous beaches, I highly recommend going to San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Whether traveling with the entire family, just the girls for a getaway or with your loved one for a romantic trip sans the kids, San Juan offers something for everyone. No matter how much time you’re visiting the island – one thing is for sure – you must experience the authentic cuisine.

I’m honestly someone that has never been a fan of organized tours and prefer to do the things the locals like to do when traveling, however, with a location so rich in culture, food and history, having some guidance and education is a major plus.

Traveling to San Juan, I wanted to learn more about the food and actually how to prepare some of the signature dishes and I found The Flavors of San Juan Food & Culture Tours. On behalf of Mom Central, I attended the Chef For a Day™ class and can’t say enough about it – it was amazing. The chef, Chef Kathy, was so informative and skilled, the information she provided was great and the food was unbelievably delicious.

I would highly recommend this interactive cooking class to anyone and everyone looking to enhance and expand your cooking skills at home, but mostly to experience the culture through homemade dishes, eat and meet new people also sharing your passion for cooking and learning while traveling.

The cooking class was held on the roof deck of the posh boutique hotel on the beach, The San Juan Water Beach Club Hotel.

As part of a three hour cooking class you not only learn about culinary traditions, you also learn about the fresh fruits, vegetables and spices that are cultivated on the island and used in many of the flavorful dishes.

Puerto Rican Chef for a Day Class– We’re all sipping on the mojitos we made to kick off the class.
The class was very personalized with a diverse group of travelers from all over celebrating a variety of occasions.

I met such amazing people during this class and learned so much. If you are traveling to Puerto Rico and have the opportunity to sign up for the course – you must! Who wouldn’t want to learn how to cook at a beautiful beachfront, roof deck with friends and family or even go solo if no one has the culinary curiosity you do to eat and enjoy the fruits of your labor?! It’s the perfect cooking class for the palette that wants to taste the Flavors of San Juan.

During the interactive class, we learned how to:

• Prepare a rum mojito cocktail

• Make sofrito (and how important it is to local cuisine)

• Prep and create mofongo and/or tostones rellenos

• Enjoy dessert and when it’s typically enjoyed (And eat it of course!)

Tostones Rellenos – These were absolutely delicious!

Everything we made I loved. At the end of the class when we were done eating, so I thought, and completely stuffed, we really weren’t done– there was someone in the group celebrating a birthday so Chef Kathy prepared a special Red Velvet Birthday Cake for the birthday girl and the entire group to enjoy!

The Flavors of San Juan Cooking Class really went above and beyond – it was such an incredible experience – one I will truly never forget. Also when the class wrapped, Chef Kathy provided us with recipes of everything so we could recreate the dishes when we returned home. Buen Provencho!

Read part two of Maryellen’s food tour of San Juan, Puetro Rico – Walking Food Tour of Old San Juan. (goes live 11/5/13)