Bali Farm Cooking School Review | The Best Cooking Class In Ubud
Taking a cooking class in Bali was at the top of our priority list and after sampling many delicious Balinese dishes at local Warungs around the island, we knew it was going to be a highlight of our 2-month trip.
The only question was – where to do the cooking class? Ubud is famous for its culture, nature and abundance of good food! So naturally, we decided that a cooking class in Ubud would be the best choice. We completed a thorough search before deciding to go with the Bali Farm Cooking School and it’s safe to say that our research paid off!
The Bali Farm Cooking School is by far the best cooking class in Ubud. Not only for the amazing food we created but also for the immersive experience that included so much more than simply learning how to cook a dish or two.
In this post, we will cover everything you need to know about the Bali Farm Cooking School and by the end, we’re pretty darn certain you’ll be just as sold as we were!
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Everything You Need To Know About The Bali Farm Cooking School In Ubud
Why We Chose The Bali Farm Cooking School Tour
When we planned our trip to Ubud, one thing that we knew for certain was that we wanted to partake in an authentic Balinese cooking class.
We searched far and wide, checking through reviews of all the Ubud cooking classes we could find until we finally decided to book the Taman Dukah Bali Farm Cooking School experience. Ultimately, the driving factor that made us choose the Bali Farm Cooking School was due to the immersive experience they offered.
Not only does the Bali Farm Cooking School include a guided tour of the local markets, where you will learn about and assist in buying ingredients for your breakfast, but you will also receive a guided tour of their farm in which you pick fresh organic vegetables for your meals.
What We Loved About The Bali Farm Cooking School Tour
- Our guides were all fantastic, they were funny, professional and helpful throughout the whole experience
- The food was delicious and there was more than enough – and we eat a lot!
- It is a very reasonable price for what you get
- The included breakfast and fruit plates were delicious
- Our guided tour of the market was both educational and fun
- Both a vegan and non-vegan option for the cooking class
What We Didn’t Like About The Bali Farm Cooking School Tour
To be completely honest, there was absolutely nothing that we disliked about the day. Every aspect was well-planned and executed, and the premises were impeccably clean and well-equipped. Not to mention, the staff were all super friendly and fun, which made the enjoyable day flow seamlessly.
But while there was nothing we didn’t like, there are some negative points or suggestions for an improved experience that we’ll list below:
- Having to make our own way to and from the meeting point – we understand why this is necessary, but it could be difficult if you are staying far from Ubud’s centre.
- Having to choose between tea or coffee with breakfast – we wanted both!!!
- The mosquitoes are quite vicious as you tour the farm – we recommend wearing long pants and shirt if you can bear the heat, but the staff provided insect repellent and were very vigilant in helping. This isn’t a negative (it’s nature) but just something to be aware of.
- Some more clarity in the description of the tour, mainly around the inclusions – we were unaware we would receive a free breakfast and a fruit platter before commencing the farm tour. While this was a great surprise, if we had known, we wouldn’t have eaten before the cooking class began.
How Much Does The Bali Farm Cooking School Tour Cost?
A group tour at the Taman Dukah Bali Farm Cooking School costs 480,000 IDR to 550,000 IDR (approximately $50 AUD or $33 USD), depending on whether you book directly or if you use an external booking company. The price remains constant throughout the year, so there is no real advantage in travelling outside of the peak season.
To book the exact same group tour we took part in, book here with Get Your Guide.
The Bali Farm Cooking School also offers private cooking classes, but we would recommend sticking with the group tour. We met some amazing people and had a great time chatting and sharing our travelling adventures and mishaps.
*Prices as of March 2024
How To Book Your Ubud Cooking Class Tour
You can either book your tour directly through the Taman Dukah Bali Farm Cooking School website or use an external provider such as Get Your Guide or Viator.
Booking directly will save you roughly 50,000 IDR ($5 AUD) when compared with Get Your Guide. However, booking through Get Your Guide gives you the security of easily rescheduling your tour in the event your plans change.
Viator is another option to book this tour, however, they charge an additional $15 AUD without any added benefits. While we sometimes use Viator, we don’t recommend doing so this time as they don’t offer the best deal.
We booked our Ubud cooking class with the Taman Dukah Bali Farm Cooking School through Get Your Guide. We use Get Your Guide to book all of our tours and love how the platform makes it easy to plan, organise, book and alter any tour you purchase. Plus, the app is available offline which is highly beneficial while travelling!
What Time Should I Book For The Bali Farm Cooking School?
The Bali Farm Cooking School offers two times per day for their classes, these begin at either 7:15 am or 12:15 pm. Both tours cost the same, but the morning tour is the only one that offers a market tour as the market finishes before midday.
We highly recommend choosing the morning tour as the market experience was well worth the early wake-up time!
What Does The Bali Farm Cooking School Tour Include?
The Bali Farm Cooking Class in Ubud is an immersive experience that includes everything from transport to food, with some excellent extras that many other Ubud cooking classes don’t include.
Here is a list of inclusions in your Bali Farm Cooking School Tour:
- Transport for the day, departing and finishing at Pura Dalem Puri Peliatan – you will need to make your own way to and from this point
- Professional, funny and friendly guides for the entire cooking class tour
- A guided visit to a local market where the guides will buy several ingredients for your breakfast
- Fruit platters on arrival at the farm
- Local Balinese breakfast prepared for you with homemade coffee or tea
- A guided tour of the farm where you will pick some of your own ingredients for your cooking class
- A 3-course meal that you cook for yourself as part of the class – there was so much food!
- Continuous drinking water
- A recipe book with detailed instructions for what you cooked on the day (both vegan and non-vegan options available)
- There are extra drinks such as beer and soft drinks that can be purchased as an optional extra at the farm
Note: You will receive a free breakfast and fruit platters as part of the group tour. This is not mentioned anywhere in the details, so make sure you only eat a light breakfast before partaking in this awesome experience.
How Long Does The Bali Farm Ubud Cooking Class Go For?
The Taman Dukah Bali Farm Cooking School group tour begins at 7:15 am and concludes at approximately 2 pm.
There is a chance your tour will be slightly longer or shorter, depending on certain factors such as group size and how the actual cooking class goes. But for most groups, you should expect this Ubud cooking class to take 6 hours from start to finish.
We began our tour at 7:15 am and arrived back at the Pura Dalem Puri Peliatan meeting point at 2:30 pm, bringing our tour to a total of 6 hours. We had 11 people in our group (the maximum is 14) but we never felt that we were waiting around for the next task.
Where Does The Bali Farm Cooking School Tour Start And How Do You Get There?
The Bali Farm Cooking School begins and ends at a meeting point called Pura Dalem Puri Peliatan, which is located close to the centre of Ubud. You’re advised to arrive 15 minutes before the tour starts so your driver can account for everyone and depart on time.
The meeting point is only a 10-minute walk from the Ubud Palace and markets. We recommend walking if you are staying close by, but if you’d rather ride a scooter, there is a large area for you to park for free.
We walked from our accommodation, Kubu Tropis, which is on the other side of the Ubud’s centre and it took us roughly 20 minutes to make the trek.
Note: If you’re not keen on walking and don’t want to leave a scooter at the meeting area for the day, you can either organise a taxi through your accommodation or use the Gojek app to find a driver at an affordable price.
What To Expect From Your Bali Farm Cooking Class In Ubud
The Transport
You’ll start your morning bright and early by making your own way to the meeting point at Pura Dalem Puri Peliatan. Once you meet your driver at 7:45 am, the Bali Farm Cooking School will take care of all the transport from here on out.
Once your booking is confirmed, you’ll jump onto the air-conditioned 12-seater mini-bus to begin the journey to the Tegallalang Market – roughly a 30-minute drive north depending on local traffic.
The Tegallalang Market
Your first stop of the day will be a visit to the local Tegallalang Market. Here, you will experience what a day in a local’s life is like and mingle amongst them as they purchase their groceries and other goods to begin their day.
The market was buzzing with activity and our lovely guides showed us through, stopping and explaining everything from the food to the culture and even religious practices that the locals will visit the market for.
To conclude our educational and somewhat thrilling experience wandering through the tight market square, our guides purchased some traditional cakes and local fruit to add to our breakfast once we arrived at the farm.
The Farm
After you visit the Tegallalang Market, you will depart for roughly another 30-minute journey to the farm with the same bus and driver.
The farm is located on the border of a beautiful jungle, tucked away from the busy streets of Ubud, which creates a beautiful and peaceful setting.
On arrival, you’ll be guided into the kitchen and dining area to grab a spot at the large table filled with platters of local fruit and drinking water. This is where you’ll have the chance to relax and get to know each other while the guides prepare your breakfast and choice of hot beverage.
After finishing breakfast, you’re split into cooking groups (vegan and non-vegan) and paired with a partner for the preparation and farm tour. You’ll be provided with a wicker basket per pair to collect the vegetables for your meals as you walk around the gardens.
As we walked around the farm, our guides thoroughly explained each vegetable and answered any questions we threw at them regarding their growing process – and yes, they are 100% organic. Along the way, we engaged in friendly banter with the guides as they humorously compared the differences between our foods and cultures.
During your farm tour, you’ll also have the chance to climb a palm tree using a single stick of bamboo as a ladder and a hole only big enough for one toe to leverage. And yes, this is how they climb the trees to collect the sap for palm sugar. Needless to say, it’s not easy on your big toes!
After completing the farm tour and gathering the ingredients for your class, you’ll venture back to the kitchen to begin preparing for your delicious meal to come.
The Cooking Class And Food
If you’re worried about being a bad cook, don’t stress, the staff were extremely good at providing thorough and easy-to-follow instructions.
You’ll begin with the starter, which for us was a tempeh asam manis (tempe with lime and palm sugar) with sayur urab (vegetable salad with grated coconut and fried sambal). The instructor will explain all of the ingredients and why they use them before demonstrating the preparation for the meals.
After preparing the ingredients, you’ll move to the cooking stations and follow a very similar process of demonstration and explanation before jumping into making your masterpiece. For our group, we had one cooking instructor per 6 people (3 teams of 2) and he was extremely efficient at managing and assisting all of us to create the perfect meal.
Once your starter is ready, you’ll venture back to the communal table to indulge in the delicious meal and have a sticky beak at what the other team made.
The remainder of the cooking class will flow in the same way, but before you make your main, you’ll learn about the dessert – bubur injin (Balinese black rice pudding). One member will get to partake in its preparation, but clearly, the dessert is more time-consuming and harder to make so we didn’t have much to do with this process.
Once the dessert has been explained, you’ll begin to prepare your main dishes. When we did the class, these meals were opor ayam (chicken & vegetable curry), sate ayam (chicken sate) and ayam sambal matah (seared chicken with Balinese salsa).
We had such a lovely experience with everyone in our group and there was no shortage of food to go around. We sat across from others who cooked the vegan menu and we all shared our food so we could taste and compare the results (p.s. they weren’t actually vegan). They also had beers and soft drinks you could purchase while eating and continuously filled up our waters.
Our highlights of the food were:
- Corn fritters – vegan menu only
- Ayam sambal mata
- Opor ayam
The Staff
Aside from the delicious food, the most significant highlight of the day was our two guides. They were extremely organised, polite, funny and helpful. While they helped us create some amazing meals, the most memorable moments of the day were the small jokes we shared and the extremely inviting atmosphere they created.
We honestly couldn’t recommend the Bali Farm Cooking School tour enough. For $50 AUD each, we received incredible value for money. We also got to keep our recipe books to use in the future.
Other Important Information About The Bali Farm Cooking Class In Ubud
What To Wear And Pack For Your Bali Farm Cooking School Tour
There are no dress requirements for the Bali Farm Cooking Class, however, we highly recommend wearing – or at least taking – long sleeves and long pants for the farm tour. The mosquitoes on the farm were quite intense and even though our guides provided us with insect repellent on our short walk, those little buggers still had a feast.
Here is a list of things we recommend packing for your Ubud cooking class:
- Insect repellent – something strong like Bushman’s or Aeroguard
- Comfortable clothing – long sleeves and pants to help with the mosquitoes
- Camera
- Rain jacket – Bali is a tropical place and surprise rain storms are frequent
Note: The mosquitoes are only a problem on the walk around the farm and not so much in the kitchen area where you will spend most of your time.
I’m Vegan, Can I Still Do The Cooking Class?
Yes, the Bali Farm Cooking School caters to both vegan and non-vegan diets throughout the entire day.
There is an option to cook a vegan recipe or a non-vegan recipe and after determining your dietary requirements, the guides will split the tour into two respective groups, each provided with a cooking instructor.
We aren’t vegan so we cooked the non-vegan recipe, but in all honesty, the vegan menu had a slight edge over ours with more variety on the list. It’s because of this that we took both the vegan and non-vegan recipe books home with us.
Note: You don’t have to be vegan to choose this option, you can choose whichever recipe you want.
Is The Food Organic?
Everything grown on the farm that you will pick and prepare for your meals is 100% organic. They do not use any pesticides or other chemicals on the Taman Dukah Farm.
Will The Tour Be Cancelled If It’s Raining?
Bali is a tropical paradise, which means aside from being a beautiful, relaxing island, it rains quite regularly. Because of this, your Ubud cooking class will not be cancelled if it is raining.
The cooking studio is completely undercover so while you partake in the instructed class, you will remain protected from the weather.
However, as you wander the streets of the market and explore around the farm, you will be exposed to the weather. If it is raining or for peace of mind, we suggest packing a rain jacket to provide some protection if you are unlucky.
Best Time To Do A Cooking Class In Ubud
The Bali Farm Cooking School Tour is available all year round and has no seasonal discounts available. The fact that Bali supports a tropical climate means you won’t need to worry about potentially seasonal ingredients, though this may mean you might face more severe weather in the wet season.
In all honesty, the Bali Farm Cooking Class in Ubud is a great experience all year round. In the dry season, you will have a greater chance of better weather, though during the wet season, the amount of tourists will be significantly less.
We visited Bali during the wet season and we honestly thought the weather would be worse than it was. The mornings were consistently clear, with heavy rain more frequent in the afternoon and early evening. This was perfect for the tour as you finish just before the rain usually starts!
Best Time Of Day To Do The Bali Farm Cooking Class
As we mentioned above, the Bali Farm Cooking School offers two times per day for their cooking class. We highly recommend choosing the morning tour so that you can experience a local market, guided by a local.
Other Cooking Classes In Ubud
While we wholeheartedly recommend you try the immersive Ubud cooking class offered by Taman Dukah Bali Farm Cooking School, we understand that some of you won’t want a tour that will take up the majority of your day.
Below is a list of other cooking classes in Ubud that are favourites among travellers:
Final Thoughts
Taking part in a local Balinese cooking class was high on our list of things to do in Ubud. We are so glad we chose The Taman Dukah Bali Farm Cooking School as it exceeded our expectations in every aspect, leaving us with nothing but positive things to say about this tour.
If you are looking for an immersive cooking class in Ubud, where you will experience great people, great food and all-around great vibes, then we highly recommend you take part in this experience.
We hope this has helped you decide whether the Bali Farm Cooking School is the right Ubud cooking class for you. If you have any additional questions or want to share your review on the tour, please feel free to leave a comment below.
Happy Travels 🙂
