The Perfect Cooking Class in Mexico City for Traveling Foodies
When we travel, one of our favorite things to do is to recreate some of our favorite foods that we had on the trip in our kitchen at home in San Francisco. What better way to learn how to do that with Mexican food than a cooking class in Mexico City?
We looked at several different classes (all of which were able to accommodate my Celiac needs) and landed on Aura Cocina Mexicana based on the reviews, the fact that it included a market tour, and the fact that it was an authentic four course Mexican feast.
If you’re looking for an amazing cooking class in Mexico City, look no further.
We booked it through Airbnb experiences, which is quickly becoming one of our go to travel tools. On
You can find the cooking class that we did with Aura here
Oh, and this is not an ad. I paid for the class, and this is my honest take on an amazing cooking class in Mexico City. Affiliate Disclaimer: if you click through the links in this post and book an experience, I do get a little bit of money at no additional cost to you.
Aura Cocina Mexicana: An Authentic Cooking Class in Mexico City
We have done cooking classes before, both while traveling like in Valparaiso, Chile, and at home in the Bay Area. We cooked a ton at home, so cooking classes are one of my favorite ways to explore the food culture of a new city or place that we’re exploring.
For this class, we arrived at 10 AM to their lovely space in Roma Norte and were taken to our kitchen on the third floor. It’s a lovely three-story building with lots of natural light, colorful decorations, plus a gas stove to drool over (I hate electric stoves with a passion).
As we waited for the class to start we introduced ourselves to the others in our class over a (delicious) agua fresca. We were a group of six, with an American couple from Denver and a Swiss couple.
I also took some time to talk with Lorena and confirm that everything would be gluten free. The only two ingredients that will contain gluten are bread for the mole (which we omitted) and flour for dusting the cornbread pan (we used rice flour).
Our host, Lorena, took some time to explain what was about to happen in the class, and we headed out on our market tour at nearby Mercado Medellín.
The Market Tour (+ Snacks)
On the way, we made a few stops. My favorite stop was easily the corner of Coahuila and Medellin. Two things happened on that corner. The first was an amazing squash blossom blue corn quesadilla, which quickly became one of my favorite foods of the trip. The Quesadilla stand has been there for decades, and the owner, an 84 year old Mexican woman, is still out there making quesadillas most days of the week.
The second thing that happened on that corner, is our introduction to tamales dulces. There was a man with a bike and a big metal drum full of tamales, which Lorena explained to us are often a breakfast food in Mexico. Or lunch. Or dinner. Whenever, really. Tamales dulces are exactly like regular tamales, except fruit flavored and bright pink (totally natural color, I’m sure). We went back three times for breakfast – they were that good.
After basically filling our bellies to the brim with tamales and quesadillas, we entered the market to learn about Mexican cuisine and produce. We stopped by a fruit stand, a stand with every kind of chile imaginable, and a stand with traditional food from Oaxaca, where I had the most delicious chocolate of the trip.
My biggest takeaway from the market tour with Lorena? Did you know that fresh chiles, like poblanos and serrano, become ancho chiles and chiles de arbol when they are ripened until they are red and then dried? I certainly didn’t. Mind blown.
After walking through the market with Lorena’s informative commentary, it was time to head back to the Aura kitchen, roll up our sleeves, and get cooking.
The Four Course Mexican Feast
The first dish we made (also the last dish we ate) was corn bread. But not the kind of corn bread you’d find here in the US. It was made with tons of fresh corn kernels that need to be removed from the cobb within 24 hours of baking for best results. It’s a dessert rather than a side dish. Although after the amount of butter and honey I slather on cornbread at home, it’s basically a dessert, isn’t it?
Next up, we learned how to prepare roasted chiles for salsas. We removed the charred skin, cut them open, and took out the seeds and veins to minimize the spice levels (keeping the veins so we could add them back in to bump up the spicen later if needed).
We created two delicious salsas, one green and one red. The salsa verde was SUPER simple – chiles and lime that were blended together to create a tangy and spicy salsa. Next, we used a molcajete to make the red salsa, mashing the garlic and chiles into the side of the molcajete before adding tomatoes and using the juices to bring it all together.
I found it interesting that we ended up with three versions of the salsa that were completely different, based on the spice level of the individual chiles that went into it. We thought our version would be super spicy based on the smell of the peppers, but it turned out to be the most mild and tomatoe-y of the three. Still, fresh salsa is SO MUCH BETTER than store bought, and it’s incredibly simple to make. Which I already knew, but this class confirmed.
The first course we ate was sopes – a thick tortilla that is molded to be more like a bowl to hold all of the toppings. We had tried to make this at home before, but I learned exactly what we were doing wrong (they turned out horrible). You need to cook them first, and mold them when they come off the stove and they’re still warm. We had been forming them raw and cooking them in the bowl shape, which led to all sorts of raw masa dough in the final product. The more you know, right? We topped them with beans, lettuce, cheese, and salsa. Delicious.
The next course was Mextlapiques, which is essentially a tamale without the masa. We took corn husks and stuffed them with all sorts of veggies (including nopales, the cactus leaves), cheese, and an amazing spearmint sauce that I proudly made.
By made, I mean dumped some whole ingredients into a blender, added salt, and hit “blend.” Super easy to make, and absolutely delicious.
They were wrapped up like tamales, and cooked over the comal until the veggies were cooked through, the corn husk was a little charred, and the cheese was the perfect amount of melted.
Next, we moved on to the main attraction – the mole blanco. We took turns dry toasting sesame seeds, pine nuts, peanuts, almonds, and raisins before blending them together with chiles and chicken broth to create the creamy base. We ended up adding all of the pepper veins we had to bump up the spiciness, but it didn’t end up terribly spicy. We simmered it for a few minutes to thicken it, and got ready to eat.
Finally, once the mole was done, it was time to eat.
The Final Product (aka the food)
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so here’s a few thousand words worth of pictures of the food we got to enjoy with our group of six, plus Lorena. We also got to try some Mexican craft beer and a mezcal distilled exclusively by women in Oaxaca (aka a double serving of mezcal for me!).
Overall, I love cooking classes as a way to get to know the food culture of a place you’re traveling, and Aura went above and beyond to make the experience amazing for the six of us. Lorena was a fantastic host, and I would highly recommend this class for foodies
traveling to Mexico City. They also have other activities and cooking classes in Mexico City, which you can check out here.
Final Thoughts: Aura Cocina Cooking Class in Mexico City
Overall, I would recommend this class to basically anyone. Whether you’re an avid chef at home or you find yourself ordering Grubhub more than you’d like, you’ll learn something, eat some delicious food, and meet some like-minded travelers with this cooking class in Mexico City.
Looking for more information on Mexico City? I’ve got you covered.
We did this class today based on your blog post and loved it!!! Cannot recommend enough – thank you!
Glad you enjoyed it! I dream about heading back to CDMX and taking another class with them on a weekly basis.