BEST Singapore Cooking Classes (Non Sponsored)

Singaporea street food is delicious. If you want to learn to cook it at home, here are the best hands-on Cooking Classes in Singapore (I've tried many of them and personally paid for them myself.)

Jump to:

• Food Playground (3 hours)
• Pulau Ubin Cookery Trail
• Palate Sensations (Depends)
• Market to Table
• Commune Kitchen
• Making Nyonya Dumplings with Kim Choo Kueh Chang
• Hainan Cooking Class at the Esplanade
• Hokkien Cooking Class

When people talk about Singapore, a small island in Southeast Asia, they never fail to mention the good food that's grown out of the melting pot of cultures here.

From the cheap and delicious street food found in food courts and hawker centres (recently added to the UNESCO Heritage list) to the many Michelin star restaurants, Singapore's food culture is famous.

Local Singaporean food is super delicious. If you want to learn to make it back in your home country, here are some of the best cooking schools in Singapore (I've indicated which ones I've personally tried and tested- there are a few for whichI couldn't meet the minimum number of attendees):

Note: all the classes were non-sponsored. I paid for them myself so the reviews are objective

Not suitable if you:

• want to take a class by professional chefs (you won't really be learning new techniques)
• .... don't want to meet tourists...? (I was the only local when I attended- but can you tell I'm struggling to think of negatives?)
• want an intensive cooking class (think Cordon Bleu) with lots of science and theory behind the cooking - this is more a home cooking style class

The Food Playground cooking session was held at a historic shophouse in Chinatown (Smith Street aI think) and started with an introduction to Singaporean food.

This is geared towards tourists: for example, we were quizzed on the difference between Singaporean and Western carrot cake, the former being savoury and the latter, a dessert, of course.

Once we got down to cooking, it was 2 to an induction cooker but we both had the opportunity to cook. Together with a lovely Japanese lady, I made:

•  chicken curry
• ang ku kueh 
• roti jalal

After we'd stuffed ourselves on our cooking, the class came to a close and Food Playground had another surprise in store: we were all allowed to choose from either an ang ku kueh mould or a roti jalal pouring cup.

Very thoughtful, I must say, as it ensured that we could continue our cooking adventures at home without having to hunt down potentially difficult-to-find (for tourists) kitchen tools. (I chose the cup and, yes, I have used it!) 

Click here to see other people's reviews and the daily schedule: over 1000 5 star reviews at the time of writing! (Different dishes, such as nasi lemak, char kway teow, kueh dadar etc, are cooked on different days.)

Note: I actually had to cancel my first booking as something came up, and the cancellation process was super easy and fuss-free. All in all, it was a 5-star experience and I definitely want to return to try the cooking classes for the other dishes! (Food Playground has a fixed class schedule where each day of the week corresponds with cooking a dif

Note: this was a fun class, but it's not held often. Whilst you can visit Pulau Ubin independently- it's a popular Singapore day trip- you can't arrange this class on your own.

Good for:

• Learning to cook Singaporean recipes: we make them in small groups of 2-4
• people interested in learning more about Singapore's useful herbs and plants
• Malay food lovers
• people who want a unique experience: a hands-on experience cooking and foraging
• suitable for all levels of cooking skills

Not suggested if you:

• have problems walking 
• hate the heat and mosquitoes (nothing is air conditioned on this trip! Although I loathe hot weather, I would be happy to go on this little adventure, anytime!)

This is 1 of my favourite cooking classes in Singapore. It was a real culinary adventure as you take a boat to the island of Pulau Ubin, forage off the land, and then learn to make 3 dishes (Nasi Ulam, Prawns, and Ice Kachang) at an old kampong (traditional Singaporean wooden house.)

The owner of the house, had grown up on Pulau Ubin but now lives on the Singaporean mainland, greeted us with traditional Malay snacks. There was an interesting short talk on the culinary and medicinal properties of various common plants growing in Singapore.

For example, did you know that in the old days, people used to dye their hair using banana peels? (I love making the most of kitchen scraps and recipes that use kitchen leftovers.)

After that, the guide took us on a short walking tour around the very small island, foraging and gathering some Asian herbs which we later added to our Nasi Ulam (a Malay rice salad) that we made, such as cashew leaves and turmeric leaves.

Do note foraging is illegal in Singapore but our guide has a special permit.

At the end of the walk, we went back to the kampong and, in teams of 2-4, assembled our nasi ulam, fried some prawns in butter and curry leaves before ending with a cooling dessert of ice kacang made using an old school ice grater. 

Unfortunately, the Pulau Ubin Cooking Trail isn't held often enough for my liking! (It is also very affordable- all of the above for only S$50!)

To check if there's 1 when you're in town, visit the Malay Heritage Centre. (The centre, which is located in Kampong Glam, is where the tour commences.)

The experience is also offered independently by Cookery Magic, a local cooking school, but I do not recommend their classes- it is quite difficult to coordinate with the person in charge who isn't the friendliest. (The booking process is also not straightforward and you need to find a really large group of participants on your own.)

Not recommended for:

• people who want an in-depth cooking experience. (The Palate Sensations cooking class was run more like a demonstration with opportunities for participation, something I was quite disappointed by- all of the great food were made as a group with the instructor sharing 1 cooker so we didn't get to cook any dish from start to finish.)
• In fact, whilst the recipes were good, I have not returned to the school.

Note: the class targets locals, not tourists- there is no intro to the foods if you're not familiar with them. However, they also do a tourist class specifically for visitors to Singapore, where you can also visit a local wet market for a cultural immersion experience, if you wish - click here to read more.

Our instructor at Palate Sensations Culinary School, Chef Low, was very generous both with her advice and resources- I mentioned that a friend had asked me to make laksa without prawns and she kindly passed me some vegetarian shrimp to experiment with!

Apparently, her Grant Aunt used to cook for the Thai Royal Family! (I would love to try her Thai cooking class!) Under her expert guidance, we cooked these 6 delicious dishes collectively:

• Singapore Hokkien Mee
• Singapore Hainanese Chicken Rice (I haven't shared a recipe for this yet but I did use some of my takeaways from the session in my Singapore Hainanese Chicken Rice Porridge recipe. For an easy rice cooker version, click here.)
• Chwee Kueh
• Singapore carrot cake (both black and white)
• Laksa (This was the only dish I did not take a photo of- maybe because it was my least favourite of the 6- it needed more salt, in my opinion.)
• Chicken Satay

For example, when cooking the chicken rice in an open kitchen, Chef Low first showed us how to poach the chicken before Isabel, the French lady in our class, showed us how the French debone their poulet.

Another classmate blitzed the chili ingredients in the blender, whilst I toasted the rice in chicken fat, pandan and other aromatics after which the rice was cooked in the water that had been used to poach the chicken.

I was rather disappointed to find that we added Maggi chicken seasoning- instead of good old-fashioned homemade chicken broth- to the stock as all hawkers do, or so I am told. 

Making Nyonya Dumplings with Kim Choo Kueh Chang

A part hands-on, part demo session, you get to eat your dumplings at the end.

Unfortunately, you need to form your own group of 5 to take this Kim Choo Kueh Chang class, which is why I've not been yet! I do stop by to buy their kueh whenever I'm in Katong though

Note: don't forget to visit Rumah Bebe next door, which is where 1 of my true blue Peranakan besties gets her produce! (She's 1 of the best cooks I know too.)

Singapore Chicken Rice is the most famous Hainanese dish but, in this class, you learn to make 2 other Hainanese dishes too! (Click through to find out more about the other dishes.)

In addition to the cooking, you are also brought on a walking tour to explore the area, known to be Singapore's theatre district.

Have I missed out on any of the best cooking classes in Singapore? If so, let me know in the comments. 🙂 I'd love to hear from fellow foodies!