Visit Riga

The Simple Pleasures Gastronomic Tours take the interactive cooking club itinerary one step further, by allowing the clients to join the chef on a tour of Rigas central market while foraging and haggling with vendors and learning first hand about common and not so common product in Latvia. Your chef/guide will not only allow you to see the bounty and diversity of product  available here in Latvia, but also inform you of the traditional and contemporary uses of it in Latvian cuisine. Once we have searched every last corner of the market for the days freshest and tastiest ingredients, we will return to our fully equipped "kitchen" laboratory located in the historic Swedish Barracks to enjoy our spoils. The client will have the opportunity to work side by side with the chef and his assistants as they prepare a tailor made menu, while enjoying a great vintage of course :),  and learn some tricks of the trade in the process.....

Once again.....this is not exactly a 100% hands on cooking class, but rather an interactive dining experience that will allow the clients to understand the techniques and “short cuts” that chefs use in a professional kitchen while enjoying a personally cooked meal. For reasons such as time constraints, inability to predict client skills and effective execution of delegated tasks, the majority of the prep work will be completed in advance by myself. The remaining 10% of the work will be carried out by volunteers as we engage on a Q & A of the menu as well as basic culinary techniques and theory, much like what I experienced in my year at Culinary School.....