3 hours cooking classic Taiwanese dishes brought us closer as a family and taught us more about Taiwan
Small, budget friendly, English-speaking cooking class with kids
The four of us stood around a broad wooden work table and waited our turn to breathe in the aromas of fresh, whole spices. Throughout Taipei, the subtle aromas greet you almost everywhere you go: savory, with a hint of star anise and cinnamon stick. Already we knew: Our Taipei cooking class with kids would be a highlight of our family’s time in Taiwan.
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“When our travels include activities and interests close to our hearts, we connect all the more deeply with each other as a family, and with the people and culture of the place we are visiting.”
Watch us get schooled in the ways of beef noodle soup, soup dumplings, and more
Check out our Taipei cooking class family travel video
What did our Taipei cooking class teach us to make?
Taiwan’s cooking schools offer an array of cooking classes, tea tours, night market tasting tours, and more food-centered activities. We chose CookInn Taiwan, just south of Jiancheng Park.
Our own 3-hour cooking class centered around making a home-style “enjoyable and rewarding feast” of 4 signature dishes:
- Xiao Long Bao, or soup dumplings
- Braised Beef Noodle Soup
- Smashed Cucumber Salad
- Bubble Milk Tea
During the time we’d already been in Taiwan, we’d gotten to know these dishes in various restaurants or grocery store versions. Now, from mixing dumpling wrapper dough from scratch to learning how to soak and simmer bubble pearls for the ideal chew in a bubble milk tea, we were going to get up close and personal with four dishes that go hand in hand with Taiwan.
“Every time we take a cooking class, we cooperate side by side, work with our hands, and create something tasty that we all share.”
Why did we want to take a cooking class in Taiwan?
We love dumplings. So when we visited Taiwan with our two kids, we wanted to learn to make soup dumplings from the best cooking school in Taipei. Then we realized: Why stop at dumplings?
All in one class at the best public cooking school in Taipei, we realized we could learn how to make soup dumplings and unlock the secrets of keeping them from leaking, just like they do at Taiwan’s iconic Din Tai Fung dim sum restaurants.
We could also learn how to make Taiwan’s iconic beef noodle soup. And we could tie in a cucumber salad, something both the kids greatly enjoy.
Not only that, we’d been getting used to regular trips to many of the bubble tea shops around Taipei, including the three within about a hundred meters of our front door.
Now we could learn to make all four iconic dishes, gaining a better understanding not only of these Taipei foods, but of Taiwan itself.
Are cooking classes a good idea for families?
When our travels include activities based on interests close to our hearts, we connect all the more deeply with each other as a family, and with the people and culture of the place we are visiting.
Food activities define a lot of our travels. A major reason we wanted to visit Taiwan? The food culture of this incredible island off the southeast coast of China.
Because our family travels so much, we often miss the take-the-day-and-braise big cooking sessions we used to do more often. When we visit another country, cooking classes give us a chance to go deep on cooking, get to know the culture better, and spend more time in a really awesome, well-equipped kitchen (that’s way better kitted out than even the coolest vacation rental).
Above all?
Cooking classes bring us together as a family. We’ve made gelato in Italy, cookies in Morocco, and green papaya salad in Thailand. Every time we take a cooking class, we cooperate side by side, work with our hands, and create something tasty that we all share. These simple acts strengthen our bond as a family, build our children’s cooking skills for their own futures, and instill us, time and again, with experiences that become some of our best memories of our time in that destination.
“What stood out to me was the joy of us working together, around a big prep table, delighting not only in the food to come, but in each other’s company here and now.”
Was our Taipei cooking class guide friendly?
The measure of a good cooking class is how capable and confident the students feel throughout each step. Our Taipei cooking class guide was friendly, capable, and able to break down whatever a student needed help with.
We’re decently experienced in the kitchen, but we always keep an eye out for how the instructors do with our kids. Do they help our children find their way and trust their ability? Do they break things down just right, so the kids can build a skill or make a cognitive connection?
Every class we’ve taken has been with guides and instructors who put great joy and care into what they do, both in cooking and in teaching. Time and again, we have seen that same joy and care, along with patient guidance, come into play when our kids need a hand.
And at CookInn Taiwan, our teachers showed that same joy, care, and patience, not just with our kids, but with each student.
Did our cooking class guide speak English?
Between them, our cooking class guides spoke 3 languages:
- Mandarin Chinese
- English
- Japanese
They spoke excellent English, and we were always able to understand them and communicate effectively with them in turn.
Why did we choose CookInn Taiwan for a cooking class in Taipei?
We chose CookInn Taiwan given the breadth of the cooking class, plus their online reviews that noted not only how great the staff and facility were, but how much fun people had in the class.
We also saw in reviews that guides were good with kids—an essential since we travel with our son and daughter, who were 13 and 10 respectively at the time we took our Taipei cooking class with kids.
CookInn Taiwan’s location was also convenient. We could easily ride the bus to just a few blocks away.
Since the guides spoke a range of languages including English, we also knew we’d be able to understand each other well and communicate well throughout the class.
Would a cooking class be a good fit for kids?
We’ve done cooking classes, but each one is a little different. CookInn Taiwan offers a few options, including a slightly shorter one. We decided the 3-hour class with 4 dishes would work for us. Here are some things we considered in our choice:
- Not only the age, but the maturity of our children to stay engaged in the class, follow guidance from our instructor, and be shape around raw food, sharp knives, and hot stoves
- The dishes offered had something for everyone. Things such as chiles in the smashed cucumber salad were easy to adapt to be kid friendly: The kids just passed me their chiles.
- Since the instructors spoke English, we could communicate well and understand one another
- The class would be a good challenge for the kids, but one they could lean into and learn from
We also knew our guide would be there as a sounding-board to discuss any questions or concerns. Naturally, every family has to make their own choices about whether or not a class is right for them, but evaluating the factors above helped us make a good choice for our family.
Our family friendly Taiwan cooking class in Taipei, from a beef noodle soup to bubble tea
We arrived in a bright, expansive space full of woodwork and Taiwanese crafts. The clean, broad workspaces have plenty of room for us to work all four at one table. We sipped tea and went over the day’s menu and got right to work.
A few highlights:
- The kids mixing dumpling wrapper dough
- Giggling as we mixed minced ginger and garlic into ground pork with chopsticks
- Stirring tapioca pearls as they begin their one-hour soaking journey to become bubble tea
- The sharp scent of slicing and pounding cucumbers to make smashed cucumber salad, and laughing when the kids gave me their sliced red chilis
- Weighing, rolling out, and filling dough to make our steamed soup dumplings
- Pinching our folded dumplings and hoping the hot soup would stay inside and not spill out
- The savory aromas of low-and-slow simmering beef and spices filling the air throughout our time cooking
- Sitting down to our final meal at the end of class: beef noodle soup, soup dumplings, smashed cucumber salad, and fresh bubble milk tea
At the end of the meal, our guide presented us with take-home, easy-to-follow recipes.
Our favorite part of our Taiwan cooking class in Taipei
The soup was savory and sumptuous, full of tender vegetables and flavorful beef.
Bright, tangy flavors reset our palates with each bite of cucumber salad.
Try though we did with creasing our soup dumpling wrappers so the goodness might stay put, many of our dumplings did leak. But they were still delicious.
And each sip of bubble milk tea brought delightfully chewy tapioca, along with a sweet and bitter balance of tea.
All of these things were a delightful, delectable, tasty way to spend a drizzly morning in Taipei.
But they were not our favorite.
Our favorite part of our Taiwan cooking class in Taipei?
Working together.
As a family who loves to travel but also loves being in the kitchen, we seek out cooking classes to help us go deep on a big cooking session. The kids smashed cucumbers, sliced garlic, poured tea, stirred tapioca pearls, and folded dumpling wrappers around its filling. What stood out to me was the joy of us working together, around a big prep table, delighting not only in the food to come, but in each other’s company here and now.
“Already we knew: Our Taipei cooking class with kids was going to be one of our highlights of our family’s time in Taiwan.”
Should you take a cooking class in Taiwan?
Cooking classes have become one of our favorite ways to experience a destination. For starters, we totally travel on our stomachs. Food is a major part of how we get to know a new country, city, or culture.
A cooking class serves many purposes though.
Since we travel as much as we do, cooking classes also get us more in-depth into cooking the way we used to do at home. We have access to more tools and ingredients, and the experience feels almost like cooking in our own place.
As a family, we find that cooking classes get us working together, and that leads to fun stories and interactions that stay with us long after we ate our last bite and said good-bye to our instructors and classmates.
Above all, a cooking class in Taiwan gave us context on the background of each dish, and how they weave through day-to-day life in Taipei.
Should you take a cooking class in Taiwan? You bet. Not only will you have a delicious day, you’ll be all the more connected to an amazing country and culture.
