Turkish Cooking Tours in Cappadocia
Village dishes, desserts and stories, cooked and shared with local hosts.
Cappadocia Cooking Classes: Discover Turkish Cuisine
On this Cappadocia cooking experience, you can learn about regional recipes and prepare a meal with local hosts. Depending on the menu agreed in advance, the experience may introduce dishes and cooking traditions from Cappadocia and the wider Central Anatolia region. The format, host, location and menu are discussed in advance so you know what to expect and can choose an experience suited to your interests.
How the day works
We pick you up from your hotel in the morning. In the village, your hosts greet you in traditional clothing and the cooking begins, following a menu agreed in advance. While the food cooks, there are local stories and conversation. Afterwards you eat together with your hosts at a low table.
Transfers, accommodation, tours and other activities are extra. Special prices are available for interested guests, so please contact us.
Half-day Cooking Class in Ürgüp
The meeting point, start time, transport arrangements and menu are agreed before the experience. Depending on the host and selected menu, guests can discover regional ingredients, home-style preparation methods and Turkish food traditions in or around Ürgüp.
1. Dolma
Stuffed bell peppers. You remove the seeds, fill the peppers with a mix of meat, rice and spices, and cook them. In Central Anatolia dolma is usually served hot as a main course; in the west it is served cold as a meze.
2. Sarma
Sarma means “wrapping”: vine leaves stuffed and cooked in olive oil. Local women supervise you and teach the tricks of choosing the leaves and rolling them.
3. Turkish Coffee
Coffee in Turkey has its own history, coffeehouses, rituals and rules, and even a tradition of fortune-telling from the grounds. You learn the history and the preparation of this much-respected drink.
At lunchtime you enjoy the dishes you have just prepared, together with side dishes and traditional desserts. The activity runs from 10:00 until about 13:30, when we take you back to your hotel.
Prices (lunch and hotel pick-up and drop-off included)
- €65 per person, based on 2 people
- €55 per person when paying in cash (a €10 discount)
- €85 for a single person
Dishes of the Cappadocian village table
Your menu is agreed in advance. Dishes you can choose from include:
Soups
- Tongue and brain soup
- Bulgur soup
- Tarhana soup
- Öveleme soup
- Kesmehamur soup
- Minty chickpea tarhana soup
- Lentil soup
- Clay-pot soup
- Tripe soup
Main courses
- Çirleme
- Köftedokya
- Cabbage rolls
- Chickpeas in a clay pot
- Yalancı köfte
- Silğıç-stuffed tomatoes in a clay pot
- Dry beans in a clay pot
- Peravi manti and steamed manti
- Muhacir mantısı
- Olive-oil stuffed grape leaves
- Papaz yahnisi
- Gendime
- Dolma and kabak gülü dolma (stuffed zucchini flowers)
- Lamb shank (clay pot or baked)
- Lamb ribs with okra
- Şipsi
- Güveç
- Tandır-baked mumbar dolma
- Bulgur pilaf
Desserts
- Baklava and zazete baklava
- Bulamaç
- Grape compote
- Roasted apricot
- Dolaz
- Pumpkin dessert
- Gömeç
- Kedi batmaz
- Aşure
- Walnut and cinnamon quince dessert
- Firekbağı dessert