One of our favorite things to do when we travel is to take a local cooking class. Food and travel go hand and hand, and what better way to learn about a country’s culture than to learn about its food?
One of the best cooking classes we’ve done in Costa Rica was one in La Fortuna, one of the main farming towns in Costa Rica. I highly recommend it for anyone who loves food, agriculture and farming. You’ll learn all about Costa Rican food during this fun and interactive 3.5 hour La Fortuna cooking class tour.
Interesting in doing the same La Fortuna cooking class and farm tour? Click here to book it and get a discount!
La Fortuna Cooking Class and Farm Tour
This La Fortuna cooking class and farm tour is an exclusive tour run by our tour partner and they take you to their own private farm and outdoor kitchen.
One of the coolest parts of this La Fortuna cooking class is that it starts at their organic farm to learn about the cultivation and harvesting process of the fruits, herbs and vegetables.
Once you understand how difficult it can be to grow something to eat, you learn to appreciate your food much more and think more consciously about putting healthy, natural foods in your body.
The Farm
Our guide took us around their organic farm, showing us staple crops such as yucca, cacao, plantains, bananas, pineapples and other fruits and vegetables. If you’ve never seen a pineapple plant, guava tree or oregano bush, you will love this part.
During the presentation, we picked some of the ingredients we needed for our meal, such as oregano, lettuce, culantro and yucca.
Learning how to harvest yucca was super fun. It’s definitely a bit harder than it looks, and experiences like these always make you appreciate your food and the farmers even more!
This La Fortuna cooking class really gives you the true “farm to table” experience. You will leave feeling more connected to your food. Furthermore, you will have a stronger appreciation for the hard working farmers.
After we picked our ingredients, we headed back to the kitchen to prepare lunch.
To the Kitchen
The kitchen for the cooking part is a covered, outdoor old style traditional Costa Rican kitchen, using a wooden fire. All of the dishes we made were cooked on this fire stove top.
La Fortuna Cooking Class Menu
The menu for our La Fortuna cooking class was chicken in annotto sauce (pollo achiotado), yuca and plantain chips, corn tortillas, salad, patacones (smashed fried plantains), platano maduro (fried plantains) and pico de gallo.
Annatoo is not a well known condiment in the US or Canada, but it is a common ingredient in Central America and Mexico.
It doesn’t really have a flavor, so it’s used more for coloring. Back in the day, annatto was used in makeup and cosmetics thanks to its bright red color that is hard to get off.
We made the chips from the yuca we picked and seasoned it with the oregano we gathered. We also learned how to make corn tortillas (using corn flour), a staple in Costa Rica.
I loved how this tour was super hands on, with your local Costa Rican cook and translator guiding you along the way.
Then they showed us how to plate it to make the traditional casado.
As we enjoyed our delicious meal, it felt so rewarding to eat fresh food that we picked ourselves right from the farm!
The flavor of the chicken from being cooked on the stove was delicious. It tasted super fresh and had a nice smoky flavor.
La Fortuna Cooking Class Video
To see the whole cooking class and farm tour experience, check out our video below.
They also have menus for vegetarians and vegans and they change the menu according to the ingredients of the season. I really liked that they printed out the menu to let guests take home. I thought that was a nice touch and souvenir.
If you’re interested in booking this tour, visit our La Fortuna tours discount booking page to reserve it with our discount.
In case you’re looking for more fun things to do in La Fortuna, check out the following posts
The Springs Hot Springs Day Pass
Plan your trip to La Fortuna
We have lots of blog posts about La Fortuna to help you plan your trip!
La Fortuna in 1, 2, 3 and 4 days
Dwight H. says
My wife and I booked this class last minute, for the next day, after having a good experience with the same tour company the day before. It was to be a group class, but we were the only ones at this time, so we got a private session! It’s on a small organic farm a very short distance out of LF. You go into the fields to learn about and pick/cut/pull the necessary ingredients for the meal beforehand. You then prepare the meal step by step, with the help of a local woman (does not speak English), and the naturalist guide who provides lots of useful information, answers my incessant questions, and translates when necessary. Very fun and delicious.
Nancee Davis-Sharkey says
I have limited mobility and can only walk about 2 miles and was considering an ATV tour in La Fortuna. Is that worthwhile to do? Is there a hike that can be done that is worthwhile that is 2 miles or less that would give a volcano view?
Sammi says
Hi Nancee, I think the Arenal Volcano National Park Peninsula Sector + Lake Arenal boat ride is a great option for you. This tour goes to the lake sector of the national park and the trail is completely concrete and paved and it is only about a 1.5 kilometer trail to the observation point. Then you take a leisurely boat ride on the lake to see the Arenal Volcano up close. You can see a video of the tour here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEisvPL8uM0 and we also offer a small discount for this tour here: https://mytanfeet.com/special-deals/la-fortuna-arenal-tours-discount/
Lizzy Rojas says
What is the name of the tour company that runs this cooking class & farm tour? I would love to join!
Sammi says
Hi Lizzy, you can book a tour with our discount using the booking form here: https://mytanfeet.com/special-deals/la-fortuna-arenal-tours-discount/ it’s called Pura Vida Cooking Class
Michele Brown says
Approximately how long did this class last? We are debating between this cooking class and the 2 hour chocolate making class. Thank you so much!
Sammi says
Hello Michele, it’s around 2 hours!
Nancy says
I have read on another site that the cooking class has been bad and not as described. Have you had any more recent feedback in this? My daughter really wants to do
Sammi says
Hi Nancy, there are several cooking classes in La Fortuna, this one is exclusively run by our tour partner on their own farm. We’ve had nothing but good feedback about the tour and we highly enjoyed it ourselves.
Megan says
We just did this tour and cooking class yesterday and loved it! It’s actually one of the best things we’ve done on all three of our trips to Costa Rica. It was like a private tour because there was no other people in our group, and our guide Cindy was awesome! We learned tons about Costa Rican culture and growing food during the farm tour, got to harvest lots of what we cooked, and had such a great time. Cindy was also an excellent translator, so even though we don’t speak much Spanish (yet) it didn’t even feel like there was a language barrier between us and Lucy who taught us how to cook Costa Rican dishes. I don’t eat meat but love seafood, so they graciously switched the menu to fish for us. Everything we made was SO delicious, and we really loved learning how to make our own tortillas! It was an amazing experience, and we’re so glad you recommended it on your blog!!
Sammi says
Thank you so much for the feedback and nice comments Megan, we’re very happy you had a good time and enjoyed the cooking class! We feel that this one in particular goes more in-depth compared to other cooking classes we’ve done in Costa Rica so we’re happy to recommend it on our site.
Jess says
This looks so fun, what’s the name of this place?
Sammi says
It’s an exclusive tour run by our partner, in case you’re interested, you can get more information and request to book with our discount in this link https://mytanfeet.com/special-deals/la-fortuna-arenal-tours-discount/
Jelena says
That looks amazing! I’m actually reading this while visiting La Fortuna! Tomorrow we return to Canada, but this will be an amazing option for when (not if!) we come back. Pura vida!
Sammi says
Hope you can check it out next time 🙂