Santa Cruz La Laguna, located on Lake Atitlán, is one of the quietest towns — but it makes up for its peaceful vibe with rich cultural experiences like traditional cooking classes.
Alicia's Cooking School is a little more than a cooking class, the experience is packed with meaningful cultural exchange and a glimpse into the traditional Guatemalan life.
Authentic Guatemalan Cooking Class in Santa Cruz La Laguna
The following is our review of Alicia’s Cooking School.
While starting our planning for Santa Cruz, one of the experiences that stood out was a traditional cooking class by Alicia. While there are a few other cooking classes available in the area, Alicia's Cooking class stood out because of the traditional and authentic style.
Alicia's Cooking Class
Location
Santa Cruz La Laguna
Duration
3 hours
Time
9AM–12Midday & 2PM–5PM
Cost
$32.50 (Q250)
Dish Options
Pepián, Jocón, Kaqik and Subanik
Other Details
Veggie friendly, group & private classes, English translator available
How To Get There: Alicia's Cooking Class
We opted for the morning class scheduled at 10:00AM–1PM since our cooking teacher had this class pre-planned. Since San Pedro was our home base, we took a boat at 9:00AM. The walk from the boat dock at Santa Cruz to Alicia's cooking class was around 20 minutes, so that might be worth noting. One of the other students in the class took a tuk tuk, so that's a good option as well.
Drinks Before The Cooking Starts
Alicia and her son welcomed us with traditional drinks: hot hibiscus tea or coffee. Hibiscus tea is locally known as Jamaica. My partner was so excited to tell her that the Jamaica tea was the best she's EVER tasted. My coffee was also ridiculously rich in flavor.
Choosing A Local Guatemalan Dish
Now comes the interesting part, we choose a dish and begin the preparation. We opted for Pepián - a local dish with nuts and seeds. Our version was a vegetarian dish with tofu as a replacement. This also made my partner do a quick happy dance since she hadn't seen tofu in a long time. The other half of our cooking group opted for Jocón which is a type of stew with greens and chicken.
Both dishes are very traditional Guatemalan dishes and are generally served only on special occasions.
Traditional Preparation Method
We kicked off the cooking class with some vegetable chopping and deleaving an interesting herb called Chipilín which is served in soups, tamales and salads. This time around, we're making some tortillas with the herb.
Alicia put us all to work and had some of us preparing the corn mix with the herbs while others chopped veggies. The colors for all the ingredients made us very happy. We had no idea Guatemalan dishes used so much greens.
For this cooking class, we also prepared tamales with the chipilín herb. The wrapping for the tamale was the same leaf from the corn plant. It can't get more authentic than that.
While chopping up and preparing the dishes, we also had a quick snack - fresh mangoes. There's nothing like ripe mangoes. Sour mangoes also pair well with some condiments which is how Guatemalans also like it.
The Big Guatemalan Lunch
After we finished cooking we sat down for the massive meal session. Everyone was beyond excited. The dishes looked & smelled phenomenal. Alicia asked us if we wanted her to serve us or make it a self-serve deal. We opted for the self-serve option.
There was so much food so everyone loaded up their plates and then the table went silent. The flavors in every single section of our plates were all singing to us. Our tofu pepián was sooo good. After all was said and done, I think we each had seconds or thirds. We also squeezed in tamales in our plates.
We were beyond happy at the end of the cooking class. The process was authentic, the food was bursting in flavor and we got to taste every single ingredient. It was also fun to learn more about Guatemalan culture from Alicia and her son who translated in English for some students.
Organic Ingredients
One of the things that surprised us about Alicia's Cooking Class was that all her ingredients were organic. She was very proud to inform us that there are no chemical condiments or canned ingredients in her recipes. Her sauces were all made from scratch so the sauces are all toasted, grinded and slowly cooked.
Truly Authentic Guatemalan Kitchen
Another one of the reasons we chose Alicia's class was the authentic pots and dishes she used in her class. The pots are made from clay (Barro). Even the mugs and cups are all made of the same material. I actually wanted one so badly! Maybe I should have asked if she could sell me one.
For the Pepián dish, we toasted the cacao nibs and pumpkin seeds which were then pulverized on the traditional rock grinder (Piedra de moler). In my country, Belize, the same traditional methods are used to prepare chocolate from cacao.
Vegetarian, Vegan & Gluten Free Options
Since we gravitate towards a vegetarian diet, we tend to choose classes that have veggie options. Alicia's class offers more than just veggie options. She also caters for vegans and those that want to keep gluten out of their diet.
Additional Services Offered
Overall, we were so happy with the cooking class session Alicia offers. As a bonus, she also offers a quick tour to her mother's textile shop where she shows how she weaves traditional clothes. This was passed on from generation to generation.
So these are the additional tours she offers:
- Walking tours (Upon request)
- Coffee tour (Offered by her family)
- Textile tour (Included in cooking class)
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