Vietnamese Cuisine Crash Course

Join us for the most in-depth course on Vietnamese cuisine in Ho Chi Minh City. Our goal is simple, to help quickly get you comfortable and knowledgable with the cuisine so you can enjoy your trip to the fullest. Beyond that we will convey some classic dishes, important techniques and the “Vietnamese mindset” for you to incorporate into your own cooking when you return home. This is unlike any other cooking class in the country, it is a crash course into the entire cuisine. We highly recommend joining us as early as possible into your trip, to help you eat to your fullest potential while exploring this incredible country.

In this course, you will explore the unique Ingredients and techniques that define Vietnamese Cuisine. You will see and taste, every herb, every fruit. every sauce and every noodle common to the cuisine. You will become completely comfortable with fish sauce as a cooking and dipping sauce. You will learn some powerful techniques that will open your mind to create truly delicious dishes for your friends and Family when you see them next.

When we were designing this class we wanted to make something truly unique. We know how hard and intimidating it can be while traveling through a foreign country, so we wanted to offer complete tastings of all the key components to the cuisine. That is why we felt it was crucial to share such a deep and in depth tasting experience.

Herb Tasting

Herbs are uniquely crucial to Vietnamese cuisine, no other cuisine utilizes herbs in such abundance as Vietnamese cuisine does. With the cuisine being so herb focused there are an abundance of varieties commonly used throughout the country. During our herb tasting we will identify and taste over 10+ of the most common varities

Rice Paper

Another truly unique Vietnamese Ingredient. Most people think that rice paper is relatively simple and are only familiar with 1 or 2 shapes/varieties. But the truth is that there are dozens and dozens of different styles from different shapes, to different thicknesses, and even different ingredients, all created to suit a different purpose.

Summer Rolls / Salad Rolls

The Summer roll aka “Salad Roll” aka “Spring Roll” is an incredibly versatile technique that is as delicious as it is healthy. We will utilize all of tasting knowledge to roll our own summer rolls. We will make 3 commonly available sauces usually served alongside this dish. We will also discuss how you can utilize this Uniquely Vietnamese dish with more western flavors that you will commonly have at home.

Mother Sauces

Just like French cuisine, Vietnam has it’s own set of unique “mother sauces” We will taste or way through the most common “core” sauces that are used to create hundreds of Variations.

Fruit Tasting

Being a tropical country, fruit is an abundance here. We will have a large tasting spread of common, less common and seasonal fruits for dessert. We also have our local Banana vendor drop off some of their incredible crispy fried bananas.

To Request A Booking, Please Email us with your group size and desired dates

Class Structure

  • Herb Tasting

  • Noodle Tasting

  • Rice Paper Tasting

  • Fish Sauce Tasting

  • Flavor Bombs

  • Summer Roll Introduction

  • Mother Sauces

  • Intro To Viet Salads

  • The Kho Technique

  • Fruit Tasting

Noodle Tasting

Even with rice being the number 1 starch in Vietnam, this is still a land of noodles. It is very common for dishes to be named after the noodle used in the dish, so we feel it’s important for you to see and to taste all of the noodle varieties that you are likely to discover during your trip.

Fish Sauce

Perhaps the most important ingredient to Vietnamese cuisine. Fish sauce is something that can intimidate people who have never cooked with it or who have never tasted good quality fish sauce. There is a drastic difference in fish sauce produced in Vietnam VS. in other countries. During our tasting we will blind taste different qualities of fish sauce for us to better understand what makes great fish sauce great. We believe that when you understand how to use and appreciate Fish sauce your cooking will never be the same.

Into To Viet Salads

The way that salads are approached in Vietnamese cuisine is completely different to their western cuisines counterparts. While Western Salads are all “Fat” based dressings either Oil or Mayonnaise, Viet style salad dressings are all incredibly light with their “water” bases. These salads will be crunch and flavor forward. We hope to completely change your thinking on what a salad can be.

The “Kho” Technique

“Kho” aka Braising/stewing is done in every cuisine but Vietnamese cuisine utilizes a unique technique with caramelized sugar to bring a deep complex flavor to every portion. We will discuss and demo this technique in depth.

Class Details:

  • Open group classes available on Mondays only

  • Private Groups and Corporate booking available upon Request

  • Classes start at 10:30 am and last around 4 to 5 hours

  • 3.5M VND (140$ USD) Per Person

  • Max Group Size 12

  • No children under 12 years old

  • Classes are held at our private cooking studio in District7, HCMC, VN

  • Classes are suitable for meat eaters and vegans alike but please give us a heads up about any and all dietary restrictions

  • Be aware that all though we can accommodate most food restrictions there will be pork and peanuts used by other participants in the class.

  • Spots are very limited as we only serve 12 people a week so there is 20% non refundable deposit to lock in your booking.