Half-Day Steamed Buns (Bao) Cooking Class with Local Market Visit

Last week we took the half-day Baozi cooking class in Chengdu and we absolutely loved it! A Day before the tour, we were contacted via WhatsApp and WeChat. They asked about allergies or anything we don't eat, and sent us the meeting point details again. Our guide Lance and his colleague picked us up on time at the easy-to-find meeting point. After a short walk, we first visited a local market. We got to look at fresh local produce and chat about everything we saw. Lance and his colleague (both speak excellent English, by the way) told us lots of interesting things about some of the products. Lance even bought us some mandarins and pomegranates to try. Delicious! Then we went to the cooking school, where we started with a relaxed cup of tea, ate the fruit and had a lovely chat. After that, we learned how to knead the dough for the baozi properly, what goes into the filling and a few tricks along the way. The Auntie patiently showed us how to shape the baozi, which is definitely much harder than it looks! With her years of practice she makes it look easy. There was a lot of laughter and we had so much fun, despite the language barrier. As a farewell, we received a "diploma", the recipes and a pair of chopsticks as gifts. We've been using them a lot at home! We would come back in a heartbeat, both to Chengdu (love this city!) and to Lance and Chili Cool. Maybe next time to pick up some secret tips for dan dan noodles from Auntie. Thank you, Chili Cool, for this amazing day!

It was great! Tour of Market was wonderful. Samples of some new fruits and learning about how the market works was wonderful. Tour guide so sweet. Helpful and kind. Way more than expected. For sure would do it again.

In July I took a private class where we focused on both dumplings and baozi. I had such a wonderful time with Lance and the chef. Both of them were helpful, enthusiastic, and we made some very delicious food! I would definitely recommend their classes. The facility was also really nice and clean which I appreciated. I am thankful for the memories and for what I learned.

An incredible experience to share Chinese culture. The perfect complement to culture and nature. Perfect for families. A spectacular walk through the market where you will discover unknown products and an exciting and delicious bao workshop. A 10 for our guide Lance

Litchichi, the guide, was truly incredible and made the experience fun and interesting. She first took us to taste local specialties at the market, then led us to enjoy some excellent tea, and finally to the cooking class where, together with the chef, we had fun preparing some amazing Bao! Absolutely highly recommended!!!

We did the half day steamed buns and market visit tour with Lance. The market tour was extremely interesting and Lance was very informative. Our steamed bun class was so much fun. Unfortunately I can’t remember the woman’s name that demonstrated the steps of making the steamed buns but she was delightful and even though she had no English she was able to help us out especially with the wrapper folding, which was particularly hard to get right. My partner had difficulty with this bit but herself and Lance had patience with him and continued to demonstrate with a smile on their face. We had a lot of fun and it was great to immerse ourselves in the Chengdu culture. The only thing I will say is that there was only two of us on the tour and we made so many buns as if it was a whole class. We felt bad as we ate a couple and took home one or two but there was a lot leftover which could have gone to waste. Other than that it’s a great tour to do and would highly recommend it.

Litchichi was a very friendly and informative guide. We started off with a tour of the local food market, tasting a few snacks, with Litchichi answering all my questions of the food items on sale I was uncertain of, before heading to Chilli Cool China's well laid out kitchen situated nearby. I got to prepare and cook 5 local Sichuan dishes all cooked in a wok - including vegetarian, pork, and tofu options guided by Aunty Lee with Litchichi translating. They all tasted great, and I was provided with recipes to try again at home at a late stage. Definitely a fun course, and worth considering whilst visiting Chengdu!

This was a great experience and definitely worthwhile. We had Jerry and Helena take us around the market and then do the bao class. They were fantastic company in that they had lots of knowledge and are so passionate and enthusiastic about what they do. They were entertaining and interesting and kind which really made the whole experience so much better. The local market was nice and then serving tea and fruit was great, along with making the baos, which are not so easy to make but hey made it fun and then sent through photos after. I would highly recommend this a a great experience with people who are so passionate about what they do and about the local food.

We did tour reviews with Chili Cool China in the same day, which were both amazing, but I’m going to leave separate reviews for both. We met our first guide, Jerry, for this bao bun making class in our first morning in Chengdu. He started off by walking us around the city and introducing the cuisine. He got us a few street foods to try, which were really unique and interesting. Then he took us to the market, and shared his vast knowledge on staples of Sichuan food, from spices to meat to vegetables. Rather than only tell us bao bun specific foods, he took us all around the market explaining Chengdu’s amazing food as a whole, and giving us tastes of different things like pickled vegetables, special cooked meats, and the like. Then, we went to Chili Cool’s location near there and were given some tea before starting the cooking class. They showed us the different spices and fillings we could choose, and helped us pick what we wanted in our bao buns. We helped make the filling and the dough, and were taught how to close the buns and cook them. They also gave us side dishes we could try, and we had a feast at the end and took home the leftovers. It was so tasty and fun, and our guide Jerry was hilarious and lively for the whole experience. He made the class really fun and enjoyable! Chili Cool is fantastic, and given that we did two tours in one day I can confidently say that this is a company that does amazing work and strives to give a great experience every time.

+13

We attended the cooking class as a family (parents + teenager boy). We can say that this was one of our highlights on our 14 day trip to China. Our guide Lance picked us up on time at the agreed meeting point. We then walked around a local market together. We particularly liked the many goods on offer. Lance went to a lot of effort to explain everything to us, as many foods and dishes were completely unfamiliar to us. Then it was time to cook. We really had a lot of fun and laughed a lot. It's really harder than we thought ! Of course, you get the recipe and the list of ingredients and we have already cooked the buns at home. Thank you very much for this wonderful day and best wishes from Berlin!