4-Hour Guided Panamanian Cooking Class and Markets Experience

I started with a nonchalant attitude since I rarely cook. However, it turned out to be quite an experience. The chef and the staff were excellent. The owners came over and chatted it up with us. We also enjoyed the neighborhood and market tour. This was organized by the best tour guide in Panama City, Noris

I will tell everybody about this experience. This was one of the best we’ve ever had here people were fantastic. Food was great. Cooking class was great. Would actually do this again.

What an excellent experience. Noris our tour guide and translator explained everything about traditional Panamanian cooking as she walked us to the 3 markets and the local Fonda restaurants. Jorge our chef was very pleasant and helpful as we prepared our meal. We enjoyed the delicious meal we prepared and learned a lot of cooking tips such as cooking with a low flame, the purpose of certain seasonings and you can’t rush a Panamanian meal. My favorites were the sweet plantain and the fried cassava. My husband like the tamales and plantain chips. I recommend this tour for everyone who is curious to learn about Panamanian cooking.

The manual transmission is a lot of fun. The team was friendly and helpful. It was hot, no rain or overcast well but worth it. I’m looking to buy one of these toys when I return to the states.

Great chef, excellent atmosphere and delicious food. Would repeat 10/10!

The class was great! The staff and his assistant, Norris, did an amazing job. We enjoyed everything about the course and really learned a lot. Just a heads-up, it is a little lengthy, so make sure you have some time set aside. Overall, it was well worth the time and a great learning experience.

This was one of our favorite experiences in Panama City! I highly recommend it! First, the food is amazing, we will definitely return to the restaurant. But this is so much more than just good food! We learned about how the food relates to the Panamanian culture and how families often prepare it together, making healthy and delicious dishes from scratch. Everyone participates in making the food, doing different parts of the dishes, as you learn techniques to make your food more flavorful than what you are likely preparing at home! The chef also provided information on different ways you can personalize the dishes to your specific tastes, with simple alternatives to have different takes on the recipes. It was really fun and informative, and we all ended up chatting together as we went through the afternoon. While some of the ingredients were simmering, we walked to the public market and the fish market, about 2.2 km in total. If you are able bodied, this is an easy loop on sidewalks. The chef showed us the different parts of the markets and provided lots of information on fresh ingredients that are available in both locations. This is where the locals shop for very reasonably priced food. The food is sourced nearby and vendors are from local farms and fisheries. Both markets were very clean and are checked several times a day to make sure everything is up to the appropriate standards. You are supporting the local economy when you shop and eat here, not the giant corporations. You are welcome to purchase items while you are there, but there is absolutely no pressure to do so from the chef or the vendors. You can ask the chef as many questions as you like and get tips on how to pick out produce or fish that will fit your cooking needs! Once we returned to the restaurant, we finished preparing the dishes with the fresh food the chef purchased. Again, everyone is able to participate and ask questions. At the end, we had a delicious meal with several different Panamanian dishes! The only downside is that you have to be careful or you will be too full to try everything! A special note: To those with food allergies or celiac, this food experience was safe for us! We had two people with celiac and one with a serious allergy in our experience (two groups of two people). When you register, there is a place where you can provide comments to the provider. Once we arrived, we let the chef know again and the recipes were adjusted to be safe for us. It's rare for us to be able to do any type of food experience and knowing that we were safe was greatly appreciated. Additionally, we did not lose any of the flavor of the food - it was not bland or boring - all the delicious flavors were there, just with slight modifications to keep everyone safe! Overall, I would highly recommend this experience! If you can't fit it into your schedule, definitely try the restaurant for lunch or dinner - absolutely delicious!

This was hands-down one of the best cooking classes I have ever taken, and I have already recommended it to multiple people visiting Panama City. The experience was very thoughtfully organized. We started by preparing parts of the meal first, and while the dishes were simmering and cooking, we went on the market tour. We walked through parts of the city, including Chinatown, before arriving at one of the large local food markets. That alone was such a cool experience because it felt authentic and gave us a chance to learn more about local ingredients and everyday Panamanian food culture. There is also a prepared foods section at the market where vendors sell dishes until they sell out, usually by midday. Everything looked incredible, so I would definitely recommend stopping by early one day if you want to try more authentic local food. Chef Jorge was absolutely fantastic. He explained everything clearly, made the class approachable for all skill levels, and checked in about dietary restrictions before cooking. He was very accommodating to anyone who did not eat fish, gluten, etc. We made everything on the menu ourselves, and afterward he sent all of the recipes so we could recreate the dishes at home. One detail I really appreciated afterward was how thoughtful the pre-arrival information was. He included helpful travel tips, cab phone numbers, and recommendations that were genuinely useful during our stay. Our class was very small, only four people, which made the experience feel personal and interactive. We were very well taken care of with fresh sangria, water, and delicious food throughout the class. The chicken tamales were especially memorable. Everyone was friendly, relaxed, and engaged, and we learned a lot not only about cooking techniques but also about Panamanian ingredients and food traditions. I would absolutely recommend this class to anyone visiting Panama City. It felt authentic, welcoming, organized, and genuinely special from beginning to end.

This tour was really fun but it's more enjoyable if you don't mind being in the kitchen. You get to learn about some traditional Panamanian dishes and assist in cooking them. The free drinks to the experience and walk to the markets, including the fish market make it more enjoyable. At the end you get to sit and enjoy the meals your prepared. They are quite filling so go with an open appetite !

What a well run and organized operation! The class moved along efficiently and we all were busy helping to prep the food and learning about different ingredients and techniques. It was so cool to walk to the fish, meat and produce market and see Jorge interact with the locals while teaching us how to maneuver. The food we prepared tasted even better because we knew the ingredients and effort put into each dish. I highly recommend this excursion. We were a family of parents and two teen boys. There was another group of four with us, and once we finished preparing the dishes, we sat all together in the dining room and got to chat amongst ourselves so we got to meet new people too!