If you’re wondering how to directly support a local community, why not consider attending cooking classes whilst you travel. It’s a brilliant way to get an intimate knowledge of local culture and give something back at the same time.
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Six Reasons Why You Should Invest In Cooking Classes
1. You support small communities & predominantly women
Taking cooking classes directly supports local communities and in particular women who usually run the classes. Women, especailly those in developing countries are disproportionately affected by poverty. By giving money directly to communities we can enable trickle down economics which further supports other people with the community. Trickle down economics does not happen with luxury travel (booked with international corporations) and does not happen when we don’t directly spend within local communities. if you’re conscious about the impact your travelling has on local people this is a brilliant way to contribute.
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2. You’ll see different parts of a country, city or town
Have you ever noticed that cooking classes are in areas you normally wouldn’t see or visit? A cookery class that we visited in Thailand was tucked into a house in a residential back-street that we’d have never seen otherwise and when we did one in Jordan, we travelled 15km out of the city into a rural village.
Travelling to different parts of towns and countries gives us more of an insight into how local people live their daily lives.
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3. You can understand culture through food
There’s no better way to understand a country and culture than through its food. Food is an integral part of all our lives but it’s so personal to individual countries, towns and villages and is mostly dependent on what grows in the local community.
By using local produce you also contribute to local farmers and their families.
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4. You’ll get to sample delicious food you wouldn’t usually eat
Not only do you get to sample delicious food but you’ll know how to recreate it when you leave. One of my pet hates is eating delicious food whilst we travel but never quite being able to recreate it when we’ve left.
Our cookery class in Thailand have us a recipe book each and we all still have them, treasure them and cook from them.
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5. You can learn some new skills
Whether it’s learning new knife skills or the names of vegetables you wouldn’t normally have access to, there’s an abundance of new skills you can learn and transfer to your own life. The easiest way to learn is through doing.
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6. You can improve your language
You can learn and practice new words in a nurturing environment and there’s nothing like building your vocabulary and communicating with different people in a new language.
Cooking Classes That We Can Recommend
If we’ve convinced you to take a cooking class, so far we’ve take the following:
Jordan
On the outskirts of Amman in a rural village called Iraq Al Amir, we cooked with women from the village
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Thailand
We booked our class through Sompong Thai Cooking Class.
Classes start at £22.65 and you can choose either a morning or afternoon class. Booking is essential.
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Guatemala
La Tortilla Cooking School in Antigua hosted us. They have classes every day at 10:30AM and 4:30PM. Pre-booking essential and you can learn to cook between 2 to 6 dishes.
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