Cooking Schools in Chengdu

[MelissaSF]

HI, We are headed to Chengdu this fall and have been researching cooking school options. I've gathered some information from various travel agents who have been able to set up private classes for us to learn about Sichuan food. I'm wondering if any of you guys have heard of these two schools:

BaiYi Cooking School or Chengdu Cooking College (not sure what its called in Chinese).

We also have an option to take a class as the Sichuan Culinary Institute, which I am familiar with.

Its hard to tell from afar what the quality of experiences will be like and I can't seem to find anything on the Internet about these two places. The travel agents I've been working with have been helpful, but the language barriers are making it difficult to get in depth info.

Any info would be most appreciated!

Melissa

[shaogo]

Here's the Lotus Culinary Travel website:

http://www.lotusculinary.com/index2.html

I've been looking for a long time for a company like this to tell people about who're planning to go to China -- and who're 'hounds (or ought to be)...

They can hook you up in China, and Seoul, South Korea, too!

[IPcook]

if anyone is interested in a two week program in Chengdu at the Sichuan Culinary Institute ( Institute for Higher Cuisine ) have a look at www.cookingschoolinchina.com

[foodfirst]

This thread is very old but I thought I'd update it by adding that Lotus Culinary Tours (you'll have to google it, I'm in China and my connection is super slow at the moment) can arrange tailored individual/small group classes at Sichuan Culinary Institute, where Fuschia Dunlop trained.

[pepper_mil]

There was a pretty good Chengdu trip report that included a day at a cooking school on Egull*t recently, not sure if it corresponds to one of your choices. It was not the Culinary Institute, which the poster had avoided because of cost iirc. What in depth info are you looking for? If you have the names and addresses in Chinese it would help.

Most hostels have English speaking staff and will do cooking classes for cheap, usually in their own kitchen. I am sure you could arrange whatever kind of class you wanted and a translator. Include a farmer's market visit if you can.

[MelissaSF]

Thanks. It turns out that two of them are at the Sichuan Institute. The classes sounded interesting, but fairly pricey. (About $500 a day - half day classroom and half day hands on). Since we're only going to be in Chengdu for less than a week, we opted for shorter, private classes from a chef in his restaurant. Should be interesting.

[Diane Drey]

Melissa...

How did it turn out???

We want to go to Chungdu for an extended period and would like to enroll in some sort of cooking school. Problem is of course we don't speak chinese.... any info you can give us on your experience is appreciated.

Diane and Mel

[MelissaSF]

I'm about 9 months late in responding, but wanted to share. We had a fabulous time! We ended up working with a travel agent who set up a private class with a chef in a restaurant. Just the two of us, Master Wong, and about 10 curious staffers. We went to the restaurant around 2pm after their lunch rush. We cooked 5 dishes each day, with Master Wong showing us how first, and then we got to replicate it. It was a a bit frenetic with the translator having to talk really fast because everything moves so quickly. We spent two afternoons with them. Then we had our translator/guide take us to a market and she walked around with us helping us buy chilies and peppers to take home with us.

The travel agent we worked with had an office down in Mountain View. She spent part of her time here and part in Chengdu.

It looks like their website is no longer active, but here is her contact info:

Ashley Tan
Chinabackroads, LLC
Director of Sales
415-235-2105
www.chinabackroads.com
[e-mail]

[Lina]

Hey Melissa, how much did all of this cost? Sounds great--I'm heading that way myself next week.