Barcelona Paella Cooking Class with Market Visit, Tapas & Sangria
Description
Join us for a top-rated paella cooking class that’s hands-on, social, and rooted in authentic Spanish cuisine. Suitable for beginners and confident home cooks alike, this experience is ideal for solo travelers, couples, families, and groups who enjoy great food and good company. Your local chef will guide you through the market, introduce you to fellow food lovers from around the world, and teach you the techniques behind this iconic Spanish dish. You’ll receive clear guidance, insider tips, and recipes so you can recreate the experience at home. We’re deeply passionate about sharing Spanish food and culture and take pride in creating welcoming, memorable experiences around the table. If you’re looking for a fun, authentic, and delicious way to connect with Barcelona, we’d love to cook with you.
Tour Options
Highlights
What's included
Traveller Ratings
Important Information
- Wheelchair accessible
- Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
- Service animals allowed
- Public transportation options are available nearby
- Transportation options are wheelchair accessible
- All areas and surfaces are wheelchair accessible
- Minimum drinking age is 18 years
- As everything is made fresh, food allergies will be confirmed at the start of the class.
- We do offer a chicken or vegetarian paella option
Reviews(3,115)
This was so much fun! We first visited the market where we learned how to distinguish fresh seafood. We headed back to the kitchen where they started off with some delicious appetizers and made sangria from scratch. The class was very interactive and hands on, with plenty of food for everyone. I wish I remembered the chefs names but they were incredible. Must do while in Spain!
Thank you Lizzette! What a fun experience to read about. We are so glad you enjoyed everything from learning how to choose fresh seafood at the market to getting hands on in the kitchen with the paella and homemade sangria. We will make sure your lovely words reach the chefs, even if their names escaped you after all that food and sangria. Thank you for recommending us, and we hope you get to recreate a little taste of Barcelona at home someday.
Gabriel of GAB Lab created an experience my family will never forget. His knowledge and craft in the kitchen, his gracious hospitality, the fantastic playlist, and the best paella of our lives were the ingredients for a perfect night of fun and fine dining.
Gabriel will be delighted to read this, Seth. Knowing that your family left with a night you will always remember is incredibly special to us. Great paella, warm hospitality, and the right playlist are a pretty good recipe for an evening together. Thank you for sharing such a thoughtful review, and we would love to have your family back around our table whenever Barcelona calls again.
Perfect experience. Gabriel charming and patient and very knowledgeable. Five stars
Five stars and such kind words for Gabriel. Thank you! We are so glad his patience, knowledge, and charm made the experience such a good one. We hope the paella makes another appearance in your kitchen at home, and perhaps we will cook together again one day.
Great class, Gabbi was excellent teacher. Good was delicious.
So glad you had such a fun class, Susan. Gabbi will be very happy to hear you enjoyed the teaching, and even happier that the food passed the most important test: being delicious. Thank you for joining us, and we hope you have fun making paella again at home.
I was nervous that this experience would feel too “touristy”. I was blown away by the flavors and experience.
We completely understand that concern, Ronald, which makes it especially lovely to hear that the experience surprised you in the best way. We are glad the flavors and the time spent cooking together felt genuinely worthwhile. Thank you for joining us, and we hope you take a little of that Barcelona flavor back to your own kitchen.
We had a fantastic time at our paella cooking class. The market visit was so fun. Lorenzo was so good with our kids (8 & 11), and we all had so much fun prepping the seafood and making our own sangria and paella—one of the best paellas we had in Barcelona! Absolutely highly recommend!
It sounds like the whole family got properly involved, Christa, from the market visit and seafood prep to making sangria and paella together. We are especially happy to hear how good Lorenzo was with your 8 and 11 year olds. And having your creation rank among the best paellas you ate in Barcelona is a wonderful result. Thank you for recommending us, and we hope your family tries recreating the recipe together at home.
Incredible experience! Our chefs Lorenzo and Yehia guided us in making the Sangria, the paella, and the tarta de Santiago in a family atmosphere. I also learned how to prepare squid, mussels, clams, and prawns, with little tips on how to choose them well at the market and make them easier to peel. The class is held in a small group of about ten people, with enough workstations for everyone to participate. The recipes are provided at the end of the class to recreate them at home; however, you must remember to bring a phone to take pictures of the QR codes. Obviously, all this work paid off and we were able to enjoy our tasty dishes. I highly recommend it!
Quelle joie de lire votre commentaire ! Nous sommes ravis que Lorenzo et Yehia aient su créer cette ambiance familiale tout en vous faisant vraiment participer à chaque étape, de la sélection des produits au marché à la préparation des calamars, moules, praires et gambas. C’est exactement ce que nous aimons partager : de bons plats, mais aussi des astuces que l’on peut ramener chez soi. Merci également pour votre remarque très utile concernant les QR codes. Nous espérons que les recettes vous permettront de refaire paella, sangria et tarta de Santiago à la maison et de prolonger un peu l’expérience barcelonaise.
The food was delicious and the chefs were great. Learned a lot about the seafood preparation. Very accommodating for those that didn’t eat seafood. The only negatives were the meeting point location in a quiet alley, (about 10-15 minutes walk in the heat to the market), and then an additional 15 minutes walk in the heat after the market to a different location than the meeting point. I would suggest just meeting at the market.
Thank you for such thoughtful feedback, Erin. We are very glad you enjoyed the food, the chefs, and especially learning more about seafood preparation, and that the team could accommodate those who did not eat seafood. We also appreciate your comments about the meeting point and the walks to and from the market. We understand that those distances can feel very different in the Barcelona heat, and your perspective is genuinely useful to us. We hope the delicious parts of the day stay with you, and perhaps you will put some of those seafood tips to work at home.
This was a fabulous tour. The guide was personable & informative. He pointed out sites of interest on our way to the market, explained how to select fresh seafood, & walked use through making paella / sangria. And everything was delicious! M
We are so glad you enjoyed the whole journey, Lisa, from spotting Barcelona sights along the way to learning how to choose fresh seafood and then turning it all into paella and sangria. It is wonderful to hear that your guide made the experience both personable and informative. Thank you for joining us, and we hope you get the chance to recreate some of those delicious flavors at home.
Alberto and Gabby were wonderful hosts/guides/chefs! We had so much fun with a small group of other travelers going to the market with Alberto and then leading how to make Paella! The Paella made is the authentic seafood version — mussels, clams, squid, prawns. We made a vegetarian version, too, by request of some of the guests, but don’t expect a chorizo/chicken version (“that’s not Paella, that’s just rice dish” per Alberto) or the Valencian version with chicken and rabbit! Make sure you like or are willing to try the seafood to truly enjoy the food that you’re learning to prepare! We also learned how to make Sangria and a simple almond cake. It was lovely and a highlight of our trip! Thanks Gastronomic Arts Barcelona!
