Paon Bali Cooking Class review: our experience in a Balinese cooking class

Traveling to a new place and trying new food is one of my favourite things to do. But why stop at eating a dish, when you can learn how to make it? For a few years now, I try to sign up for a cooking class whenever I visit a new country. That is why I joined a Balinese Cooking Class in my latest trip to Indonesia while I was staying in Ubud, Bali. While researching for the best possible class in the area, I was looking for a cooking class that was 1. local and authentic, 2. affordable and 3. offering a cultural perspective. All of this led me to Paon Bali Cooking Class. In this article, I will share my Paon Bali Cooking Class review.

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Paon Bali Cooking Class review: practicalities

Location

Paon Bali Cooking Class takes place in Petulu, a village very close to Ubud, Bali. That is why it is an ideal choice if you’re based in Ubud, since they provide the transportation. If you are staying somewhere else in the island, you’ll have to arrange it yourself.

Schedule

Paon Bali Cooking Class offers two sessions: a morning class (8.30am to 12.30pm) and an afternoon class (4pm to 8pm). The morning class includes a visit to the local wet market (which operates from 6 to 9am only), which is not included in the afternoon session.

Price

The price for the class is 350.000 IDR (almost 24€). It includes the transportation (if you’re based in Ubud), visit to the market (if taking the morning session), the class, all ingredients, a full meal of what you cooked and unlimited water, coffee and tea. This is a very cheap price for a cooking class, and the value was very good.

Group

I am not sure if there are limitations in the amount of people that can participate in one class. In our case, the market visit was done separately, with only 9 people in our group. However, in the cooking class we were almost 20 people. In general, I prefer my cooking classes to have fewer people. This allows for a more focused teaching and a more intimate feeling, and it helps create stronger bonds with other people in the class. I must say that being 20 people did not affect the teaching of our class, but it felt less intimate to what I am used to.

Paon Bali Cooking Class review: market visit

Market visits are something that I usually appreciate when participating in a cooking class. It allows me to know where everything comes from, it gives me the feeling of a more local experience, and it makes it easier for me to find the right products back home. Most of all, it is an introduction to some of the rarer ingredients that we will see later in the class. This was also true with Paon Bali Cooking Class, when we visited the Morning Market, although I must say that some of it was too basic. I am talking “these are tomatoes” basic. While I understand that not everyone is as experienced in the kitchen, I am pretty sure everyone can recognize a tomato.

Overall, the market visit was entertaining, although a bit too long in my opinion. Also, it ended in a no-so-subtle attempt to make people buy spices from a specific vendor. This, again, is something that I understand, although it would have made more sense to me if this happened after the session, where I would have been more inclined to buy things that we used during the class.

In any case, I have had more memorable market visits in other cooking classes. Regardless, it was an enjoyable experience, and it allowed us to get some vibe of the local market.

Paon Bali Cooking Class review: the “classroom”

After the market visit we were taken to the place were we were going to have the class, which is the family home of Mama Puspa, the chef, and her husband Wayan. First of all, cooking classes must pay well because OMG. They have a gorgeous and massive home, with a beautiful family temple that they let you visit. This is a great start, as it gives off an energy of Balinese serenity.

We got a welcome tea and were led into the cooking area. Again: gorgeous. It is an open space, with covered sections and with big lustrous wooden worktops and tables, many gas stoves and a charcoal barbecue.

Paon Bali Cooking Class review: the cooking

Now, what you’ve been waiting for in this Paon Class review: what we learned. During our cooking class we learned and prepared 6 main/side dishes and 1 dessert, as well as 1 sauce that can be used for many of them. In total, 8 recipes, which is a very good number for a cooking class of this kind. You can have a look at the recipes we learned by clicking on the links below:

• Base Gede recipe (basic yellow sauce)
• Sate Lilit Ayam (ground chicken bamboo skewers)
• Gado Gado recipe (vegetable peanut salad)
• Pepes Ikan recipe (steamed fish in banana leaf)
• Tempe Kering recipe (deep fried tempeh in sweet soy sauce)
• Jukut Urab recipe (coconut snake bean salad)
• Kare Ayam recipe (chicken in coconut curry)
• Kolak Pisang recipe (boiled banana in palm sugar syrup)

Overall, the recipes are really representative of Balinese cuisine specifically and Indonesian cuisine as a whole. They include sate and gado-gado, two of the national dishes, as well as other staples such as the chicken curry. The recipes are all fairly easy, so you don’t need any particular cooking experience. Most ingredients are common, so it would be relatively easy to replicate at home. For those that aren’t, you get an alternative.

One thing that I really liked is that they made us process and cook our recipes using traditional Balinese utensils, such as the lesung (Balinese mortar) or a coconut charcoal barbecue.

Paon Bali Cooking Class review: the chef and staff

In my opinion, here’s the true value of the cooking class. Mama Puspa is the chef behind Paon Bali Cooking Class. She’s a Balinese woman with a fierce personality and a sassy sense of humour and with clear chops at cooking and teaching how to cook. Her husband Wayan is a very welcoming and funny man, but at least during the class he was very hands off. The team of helpers were really kind but discrete, performing all the tasks that we didn’t and ensuring a good result at the end.

All in all, it is very clear that Puspa and her team have been doing this for a long time. They function as a well-oiled machine, working seamlessly so the class has no interruptions at any point. Things are being done continuously in the background without taking attention away from the learning and the current task at hand.

The best: Mama Puspa herself. She manages to simultaneously give off caring mother, big boss and greatest show-woman energy. Puspa makes the class quick-paced but easy to follow, gives cultural hints but without making it a history lesson, and makes witty jokes without making the class about herself. In summary, she is a queen!

Paon Bali Cooking Class review: the veredict

Paon Bali Cooking Class is a really fun experience. The recipes are good and plenty, Mama Puspa and her team work constantly and discretely to make the class work and there is overall a good vibe during the activity. It lasts for half a day, which is not too overwhelming, but it gives you a sense of integration to a Balinese family life, with the market visit, cooking together in traditional ways and eating as a group. For the price of this class, the value that you get is really high.

I think the menu is perfectly good for a beginner in Indonesian cuisine. However, if you’ve already taken an Indonesian cooking class, you should make sure that you don’t already know these recipes or book a class somewhere else, as these are common dishes in many basic Indonesian cooking classes.

But most of all, join this class for Mama Puspa. You will not regret it. She is a force to be reckoned with and will make a permanent mark in the memories of your trip. Certainly, this is one of the best cooking classes in Ubud and one of the best cooking classes in Bali.

You can book your class here, through Paon Bali’s website or phone number (+62 813-3793-9095).

If you’re planning a trip to Indonesia, have a look at these posts:

Perfect 3 days itinerary in Ubud, Bali

11 top things to do in Yogyakarta, Indonesia

What to do in North Sumatra, the secret Indonesia keeps from you

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