This is your quintessential Traveling Spoon experience where you learn to cook a seasonal and traditional Mexican meal with a warm and delightful Mexican grandmother. Isabel greets you at her beautiful home with a fresh margarita and a jicama and orange snack! Explore her garden and pick seasonal vegetables or herbs all while learning about the three sisters method of growing food. Next, join Isabel in her open kitchen to learn to cook pre-Hispanic Mexican dishes from recipes passed down through generations of Isabel's family. Learn about traditional pre-Hispanic cuisine and ingredients as you cook 3-4 dishes from scratch with Isabel in her kitchen. Isabel cooks seasonal, traditional dishes with a creative twist. Some of the dishes you may learn to cook depending on the season are nopales, ceviche, sopa de frijoles negros and pollo santo (chicken in green tomatoes, cilantro, and hoja santa - a traditional sauce) with a side of corn, mushrooms and squash blossoms. You might even learn to make salsa picante in a molcajete (Mexican mortar and pestle)! You will end your meal with a simple but traditional dessert called ate con queso and memories that last a lifetime.
If you choose the alcohol add-on, you will enjoy margaritas with Isabel! If not, Isabel offers agua de jamaica or horchata as non-alcoholic beverage options.
If you choose the transport add-on, you will be picked up from your location in San Miguel de Allende 30-min before the start time of your experience and be dropped off after your experience.
This is just a sample menu to give you an idea of the types of dishes the host cooks. Your menu will vary according to seasonal availability.
Margarita or non-alcoholic agua de jamaicaNopales salad (cactus, tomatoes, onion and cilantro in an oregano and vinegar dressing)Guacamole with chipsSopa de frijoles negros (black bean soup topped with crispy tortilla strips)Chicharron tacos with salsa picantePollo santo (chicken or rabbit in a green tomato, hoja santo and cilantro sauce)Side of corn, mushrooms and squash blossomsAte con quesoA warm, dynamic and delightful Mexican grandmother (and former pediatrician), Isabel loves to garden and cook! She lives in a beautiful home and garden that she designed herself, located a 30-min drive northwest of San Miguel de Allende. Isabel learned to cook from her mother - she has fond memories of being in the kitchen with her mother who taught her to cook on pre-Hispanic clay grills and molcajetes. Isabel is passionate about teaching guests about Pre-Hispanic cooking - you will learn about the ancient milpa technique of farming (aka the three sisters method of growing food)! Mostly, Isabel loves to eat and embrace friends and family with food.
"Incredible cooking class with Isabel - HIGHLIGHT of trip to San Miguel! The cooking class with Isabel was ABSOLUTELY amazing and was our highlight of the trip! I went with three of my friends in March 2024 and we still can’t stop talking about how wonderful Isabel is, how welcoming she was, and how much we learned. Prior to the class, Isabel was great to correspond with via email to set the car pick up time as well as the yummy menu. She picked us up in her car promptly from our AirBnB and we headed to her beautiful home where we were greeted with an amazing spread of vegetables and then headed to her garden to gather some additional vegetables we would use in the class. This garden was so serene and Isabel even let us cut the chard from its stem that we would later use - so fun! We then began cooking and Isabel is so knowledgeable - she taught us how to properly slice and dice veggies and how to charr a poblano pepper and properly peel. We made a vegetable soup, guacamole, chicken with tomatillo sauce and tamales and everything was INCREDIBLE. We even got to make some tortillas to snack on on the side. Isabel let us do the cooking and was a great instructor the whole way through. While the food cooked in the oven, we spent some time with Isabel in her backyard talking about life advice and learning about her family - it was one of the most impactful conversations any one of us had had in a while and we are so grateful for her medical background and general wisdom. We then all enjoyed a meal together at Isabel’s beautiful table and headed back to the city. From the four of us novice chefs, we cannot recommend Isabel enough! We were so thrilled, so safe the entire time, English speaking was impeccable, drinking water and bathrooms were very clean and she even accommodated our vegetarian friend and sent us all home with a treat for the road. Please book this tour, you will not regret it! Isabel - thank you!! You and your story are amazing!"
"What a delightful afternoon we spent with Isabel! She picked us up from our hotel in San Miguel de Allende and drove us to her house (about 25 or 30 minutes away), so we got to see how someone lives outside of the city. She has this oasis in the middle of the Mexican desert, complete with a garden where you can see what ingredients she grows and a quiet place to sit with Margaritas and chat. Isabel taught us how to make gazpacho and a layered nopales dish topped with a delicious sauce. I learned techniques for cutting an avocado and juicing a lime that I will take with me as I cook at home. But more so than the cooking lesson was the chance to spend time with an amazing person. Isabel is a retired doctor and healthcare administrator whose mission in retirement (besides teaching cooking classes) is water safety and she works with an NGO to improve water quality in Mexico. It was inspiring to meet and talk with her and learn about her life and her family. Such a pleasant travel experience that I will always remember"
"The cooking class my husband and I took with Isabel was a highlight of our stay in San Miguel. She picked us up and drove us the 20 minutes to her beautiful home. Once there, we got to work preparing a delicious vegetarian lunch. (Isabel communicated with us ahead of time to ask about our food preferences.) We learned some helpful cooking techniques to take home with us, and we enjoyed a margarita on the patio with Isabel and her husband while waiting for the chiles rellenos to cook. Isabel’s knowledge of traditional Mexican cooking resulted in a delicious meal. We learned some new cooking techniques and made a new friend in the process!"
"This was a great experience. Isabel and her home were charming and the food we made
together was delicious. This is one of the best cooking classes we've done!"
