Cooking class in Barcelona

If you only have a weekend to spend in Barcelona, I will recommend the following itinerary:

Day 1:  Get an overview of the city by visiting all of Barcelona’s highlights—very doable in one day; and
Day 2:  Immerse yourself in a more hands-on activity like learning what the Spaniards possibly do best: cook amazing food.

This is exactly the itinerary we followed on our weekend in Barcelona.  After visiting the must-sees, we spent a big chunk of our second (and last full day) in the city holed up in a bright buzzing kitchen in Barri Gotic, learning the secrets of Spanish cooking.

COOK & TASTE BARCELONA

We booked the activity via Cook & Taste Barcelona.  It was my second time to attend the class—the first time was during my first visit in 2009.  I had a very specific agenda this time around: Learn to cook vegetarian paella.   (Growing up I only knew of paella valenciana with chicken or pork and paella de mariscos with seafood.)

The day started with an 8:30AM trip with the cooking group and our teacher and head Chef Ignacio at La Boqueria.  The trip to the market served both as a quick tour (ideal for those who have not seen it yet), as well as a shopping run.  Whilst there, we bought all the ingredients we will need for our class.

We got back to the kitchen at Barri Gotic at 11AM and the kitchen immediately turned into a flurry of sounds, aromas and activities:  Roasting of vegetables.  Cleaning of mussels.  Beating of eggs.  Searing of fish.  Toasting of saffron.  Torching of sugar.  Chopping.  Slicing.  Dicing.  And drinking of wine—lots and lots of amazing Spanish wine.

After 2 hours, our group has prepared 4 appetizers, 1 dessert and 2 kinds of paella: one big paellera of paella negra, and a small vegetarian paella for KD which he made all by himself and was hands-down the best dish of the day.  :)