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A Sichuan cooking class in session, guests in chef hats and purple aprons around a long dining table with the museum's chefs

Food / Sichuan cooking day

Private cooking day

The Sichuan cooking day.

A full day out of the city at the Sichuan Cuisine Museum, twenty kilometres west of Chengdu — the history and the ingredients in the exhibition halls first, then a working class with a Sichuan chef, and a lunch you cooked yourself.

  • Duration1 day
  • GroundSichuan Cuisine Museum
  • LearnCut · season · fire
  • LunchWhat you cooked
Ask about this itinerary

Class in session at the Sichuan Cuisine Museum · runs year-round

ClassHands-on

every step shown, then done by you

You learnCutting, seasoning, fire

the three skills the cuisine runs on

You eatYour own cooking

lunch is the lesson, served

SeasonAll year

classes run at lunch and dinner time

Why this day

Cook it before you claim it.

The dining hall of the Sichuan Cuisine Museum, its name in characters above the room
The museum doubles as the classroom — the name over the hall says exactly where you are

Sichuan food — Chuan Cai — is one of the four great cuisines of China and the one with the deepest bench: hundreds of dishes, dozens of flavour profiles, and more than chilli, whatever the reputation says. The surest way to understand it is to stand at a stove and make it move.

The day runs at the Sichuan Cuisine Museum west of the city. The morning goes to the exhibition halls — where the cuisine came from, how the ingredients work, what the techniques actually are — so the afternoon class starts from understanding rather than imitation. Then a Sichuan chef takes your group through a dish end to end: the cutting, the seasoning, the fire, every step shown and then done by you.

The verdict arrives on a plate. Whether your Sichuan cooking is any good, you find out at lunch, because lunch is what you cooked. Afterward there is tea in the museum and the drive back to the city in the late afternoon.

The route

City, museum, stove, back.

One day out and back — a morning of history, an afternoon at the stove, and the city by early evening.

  1. MorningChengdu → Sichuan Cuisine Museumthe drive west, then the exhibition halls
  2. AfternoonThe cooking classa Sichuan chef, one dish end to end, then lunch
  3. Late afternoonMuseum → Chengdutea first, then the road back

Day by day

The one day.

Twenty kilometres west, a museum, a kitchen and a plate of your own cooking. The day is deliberately single-stranded: everything serves the dish.

  1. Day 01

    History in the morning, fire in the afternoon

    Chengdu → Sichuan Cuisine Museum → Chengdu

    The drive from the city takes under an hour. The museum opens the day: halls of exhibition on the cuisine's history, its ingredients and the skills behind it, which is time worth taking before anyone touches a wok.

    The class follows, with a Sichuan Food Chef, and covers the whole process — the cutting, the way ingredients are used, the handling of fire. Then you cook the dish yourself, and whether your Sichuan-style cooking is any good is settled at the table, because you are going to eat what you cooked.

    After lunch and the lesson the afternoon is unhurried: tea in the museum, the grounds if the weather holds, and the drive back to the city in the late afternoon. Classes can be arranged at lunch or at dinner time — tell us which suits the rest of your week.

    • MorningExhibition halls, with the guide
    • AfternoonHands-on class, then lunch
    • EndsChengdu, late afternoon

What's included

What is included, and what is not.

The day is essentially all-inclusive from the city. The left column is arranged before you arrive; the right column is either yours or a question we are glad to answer.

Included

Arranged and paid for before you arrive.

  • An English-speaking guide

    From the Chengdu pickup to the drop-off.

  • Museum admission

    The exhibition halls and the class.

  • The cooking course

    A Sichuan chef, ingredients and equipment for the day.

  • Lunch

    The meal you cooked, plus tea in the museum afterwards.

  • Transfers

    Chengdu hotel to museum and back — your own vehicle for the day.

Not included

Yours, or yours to ask us about.

  • Accommodation

    A day trip — no hotels involved.

  • Getting to and from Chengdu

    Flights and trains are yours to book.

  • Tips for guide and chef

    Optional, at your discretion.

  • Chinese visa fee

    Yours to arrange before travel.

  • Personal expenses

    Everything else the day produces.

The class suits everyone and runs all year — ask about pairing it with the food quarter walk or the rest of your journey.

Enquiry

Ask us about this one.

Tell us your date and whether a lunch-time or dinner-time class suits, plus anything the day should connect to. We will come back with a written outline and a price.

Response time
One business day
Private tour
Your own date
Pairs with
The food quarter walk

Read next: The Chengdu food quarter walk · Food adventures · Chengdu after dark · Chengdu: the front door

Trip details

Fields marked are required. This enquiry is filed against this itinerary, so you do not need to repeat the outline. There are no fixed departures to pick — this route runs to your dates, so put them in and we build around them.