STEPS Traditional Cooking Class

STEPS Traditional Cooking Class runs from a teaching kitchen in the Barrio de Guadalupe neighborhood of San Cristobal de las Casas, in the Chiapas highlands, and has operated as a small hands-on program for visitors wanting an introduction to Chiapaneco home cooking. The three-hour session is built around three stages rather than a walking route: participants begin by preparing masa and folding it into wrappers for tamales, move on to grinding and seasoning a fresh tomato-chile salsa by hand, and finish by tasting a pox-spiked hot fruit punch alongside the shared meal the group has just cooked. The balance leans savoury, with the tamales and salsa forming the bulk of the hands-on work and the punch serving as the sweet, warming finish. The price of MXN 600-850 (roughly USD 35-50) includes all ingredients, the cooking instruction, the pox tasting, and the communal meal at the end; it does not include transport to Barrio de Guadalupe or additional alcoholic drinks beyond the punch. Classes are kept to a small group size so each participant gets hands-on time at the comal and grinding stone, are conducted in Spanish and English, and run at an unhurried pace suited to first-time cooks. Vegetarian substitutions for the tamale filling can typically be arranged with advance notice, since the base of masa, salsa, and punch is naturally free of meat. The class suits visitors staying in San Cristobal de las Casas who want a practical, participatory alternative to a restaurant meal, and it works well paired with a morning market visit earlier in the day.