Angelique M.
Google
We booked the cooking workshop with chef Margarida which includes - shopping for ingredients at the market, which was very small and had little produce on offer, for example no fish. Margarida told us some nice things and it was oké but not very special
The cooking workshop itself was very disappointing; the only things I had to do was chop 3 tomatoes and one pepper, and in the end I helped to clean some shrimps. My friends chopped some other veggies and one fried some fritters. The other helped to prepare a simple main dish and put some spices into a carrot salad.
We are quite accomplished cooks and expected to cook all the dishes of the 3 course meal and learn new techniques and recipes. The technical part was done by Margaride herself or was already prepared ahead. The carrots were cooked, the batter for the fritters prepared etc. We really feel we didn’t learn any new skills and we didn’t even get a pdf with recipes as is descibed on the website. We got the recipes later after asking.
The lunch itself was pleasant but we were surprised that certain dishes as the bean salad and the desert were prepared for us and we didn’t get to cook this ourself. The best thing of this experience is that lunch is served under this very impressive and beatiful 2000 years old olive tree.
It felt like the kitchen was very busy with a different cook preparing a farmers lunch for a group of 20 American guests. And there was little space and time to provide us with the attention and tasks you may expect when paying a whopping 150 euros per person!
Comparing this with the guests who got the farmers lunch for 60 euros per person who got more food and a tour of the property extra, we would advice you to choose this farmers lunch as it is much better value for money.
The cooking workshop is very simple and you learn no skills, just to prepare a small part of the very simple recipes. Definitely not worth the 150 Euro per person!