Article written by Wendy Helfenbaum.
Most travellers enjoy indulging in delicious food while on vacation, especially when it’s prepared with fresh, local ingredients that turn every meal into an unforgettable experience. And when you take a cooking class during your trip, that enjoyment turns into an immersive, hands-on cultural adventure.
In addition to connecting with people eager to share their love of food, visitors can gain new skills while discovering new flavours, learn about a region’s history and take authentic recipes home with them — the ultimate souvenir. As a bonus, many cooking classes include market tours, tastings or full meals, and sometimes samples of spices to take with you. Here are a few places where you can learn to make scrumptious Caribbean food while also supporting local chefs and food producers during your travels.
Dominica – Cooking with Daria
Enjoy the stunning views from Chef Daria’s home while learning about the flavours of Dominica. Photo courtesy of Cooking with Daria.
Known for its hearty Creole cuisine influenced by the island’s volcanic oil and tropical weather, visitors to Dominica are in for many yummy treats including the national dish, Callaloo, a thick soup made from dasheen leaves, coconut milk and spices and Bouyon, a one-pot stew.
Those looking for a family-friendly food activity will love Cooking with Daria, a 3.5-hour class held in Chef Daria Eugene’s private mountain home tucked into Dominica’s lush hills, 500 meters above sea level. In an open-air kitchen, guests will hear the stories behind the region’s most renowned dishes — including coconut rice and peas, Creole fish, spice-battered plantains, and tropical salads — while preparing a mouth-watering lunch.
Participants will learn how to use aromatic herbs with colourful local organic produce and enjoy the meal with a frosty glass of island rum punch. Visitors will also taste native fruit and sample Caribbean-infused rums and finally, devour a classic Caribbean dessert like passion fruit mousses. Best of all, you’ll enjoy a buffet feast overlooking a UNESCO World Heritage Site-listed rainforest landscape. The class is for up to 10 participants and includes transportation to and from multiple hotels and is open to anyone aged 8 and up. Group buyouts are possible, too.
Antigua and Barbuda – Nicole’s Table
Nicole, explaining the use of herbs and spices in traditional Antiguan cooking. Photo courtesy of Nicole’s Kitchen.
Offering hands-on cooking classes from her hilltop home overlooking Dickenson Bay in Antigua and Barbuda, Nicole Atherton encourages guests to explore a variety of Caribbean flavours. Nicole’s Table, features small-group classes that prepare an appetizer, main course, dessert and rum punch. Menu items range from curries to jerk to rum-infused treats such as key-lime rum cake or barbecued steak with a rum blaze. Visitors also learn how to make their own vanilla extract: Simply steep vanilla beans in good-quality dark rum.
Foodies can choose from four different classes: All About Jerk, where you’ll make starters such as coconut crisps and green plantain chips with pineapple salsa while learning the authentic Jamaican way to prepare and cook meat, plus get to bake a coconut custard tart; Cooking with Rum, which explains the history and influence of rum since the 17th century — and make things like sweet potato soup with rum-and-brown-sugar-marinated chicken kebabs along with butter rum cake; Coordinating Curry, which traces the history of this iconic ingredient with menus including West Indian curry, dhal puri roti, roasted pumpkin and spinach cooked in coconut milk; or From the Sea, a fish-to-fork experience featuring dishes like grilled ginger lime mahi-mahi with pineapple salsa and garlic shrimp in a crispy wonton cup. And because Atherton’s home is just 15 minutes from the cruise port, this is a great activity to try during a port visit.
Editor’s Note: I participated in one of Nicole’s classes – and it was fantastic. When Nicole had us make some coconut tarts, she had a large bottle (looked like rum!) of vanilla sitting on the table. Well, it was actually both. Nicole mentioned that she adds vanilla bean to her rum and uses that when vanilla is required in a recipe. When I returned home to Canada (with a bottle of rum!), I added vanilla bean and have been happily using this DELICIOUS rum/vanilla mixture in all my baking. I hope you enjoy it too…we have Nicole to thank for this tip!!
Sint Maarten – Creole Culinary Classroom
A fun activity to do with family and friends – although everyone is family at the end of this cooking class! Photo courtesy of SXM Creole Culinary Class
Guests headed to Sint Maarten will likely sample the island’s unique, locally sourced guava berry, which is used in everything from traditional jams and juices to its spiced rum liqueur. Here, guests devour dishes highlighting Creole and French culinary influences such as savory grilled meat and fresh seafood like crab backs.
Caribbean Sip’n’Cook Cooking Class is just one of 13 four-course options available from the chefs running the Creole Culinary Classroom, which is located in Paradise Mall in Cole Bay on the Dutch side of the island. The Creole Classics workshop includes a menu of fish fritters – salt fish accras with Creole sauce, Christophine with crabmeat mahi-mahi topped with mango salsa and a pina colada crème brulée.
There are vegan and gluten-free courses as well. The Indonesian Rice Table menu features pickled cucumbers, veggies in coconut gravy, tofu sate with peanut sauce, sambal – Indonesian hot sauce – and jackfruit. No Creole meal is complete without rum punch, of course, and guests get to take home their own chef’s hat.
Martinique – Culinary Workshop with Chef Lucie
Chef Lucie doesn’t like to have her picture taken, and lets her creations speak for themselves! Photo courtesy of the Martinique Tourism Authority.
This country’s vibrant cuisine blends African, French and Indian influences and is known for its aromatic, spicy, tropical flavours. Take a culinary workshop with Chef Lucie, which takes place in her Fort-de-France home in Martinique. Here, visitors will learn how to cook typical Martinican dishes according to which seasonal produce is available, including cod fritters, stuffed vegetarian peppers, cream of vegetable soup with prawns, fish court-bouillon, fish colombo and Creole rice, Christophine stuffed with prawns, chicken curry, coconut flan, and coconut or fruit sorbet.
Beverages include planteur, a Martinican alcoholic cocktail, Ti-punch, which is made with rum, or freshly made juice. Hotel pickup and drop-off is available. Children are also welcome to participate and class size is limited to 10 people for an intimate, relaxed experience. Guests are free to enjoy their lunch or dinner onsite or take their dishes with them — if you choose to join Lucie for your meal, you’ll also get great travel advice about your time in Martinique. The menu is customizable according to visitors’ preferences.
Editor’s Note: A visit to Martinique is not complete without visiting one of the many markets, the largest of which is in downtown Fort-de-France. The variety of spices was wonderful to see and made great gifts to friends and family. The colombo spice mentioned above is now used often in our home! And I will admit to having a new favourite cocktail – Ti-Punch, which seems to taste so much better when enjoying it in one of the lush gardens in Martinique!
Article by Wendy Helfenbaum.Wendy Helfenbaum is a Montreal-based freelance journalist who writes about travel and lifestyle for dozens of publications.
Throughout her career as a journalist, freelance writer and television producer, she’s written and produced print or television features on a wide variety of topics, including news, business, health and fitness, parenting, celebrity profiles, art, home decor, entertainment, sports, consumer affairs, philanthropy and corporate incentive travel.
Wendy is President of Take Two Productions Inc., a freelance writing, television production and translation solutions company in Montreal, Quebec. She works with clients in Canada, the U.S. and Europe.
