Seasons of My Heart Cooking School

This is more than a cooking class, it felt like someone opened the doors of their beautiful home, and let us into their world and rich history, what an amazing experience. From a tour of the Mercado de Abastos, to the beautiful hacienda, we learned about family history, oaxacan ingredients, and original cooking style, definitely recommended this class, Kaelin in my opinion is more than a renowned chef, is a human being full of empathy for everyone tourist and the local vendor. We enjoy tremendously our meal I couldn't believed we amateurs can prepared such a great dishes.

Two friends and I had a brilliant experience at Seasons of my Heart cooking school in August 2025. Kaelin brought us through Oaxaca’s largest food market where we tasted and learned about local dishes and ingredients, and later we were guided through preparing and cooking a five course meal. Every part of the experience was fun and interactive and we were made to feel completely at home at the family-run cooking school in the Oaxacan countryside. We thoroughly enjoyed the day and would highly recommend this to anyone with an interest in learning about Oaxacan cooking - thank you to Kaelin, Sofia, Norma and Mago for their incredible hospitality and teaching!

Our family had an unforgettable day at *Seasons of My Heart* with Chef Kaelin! From the deep dive into Oaxacan ingredients at the vibrant Central de Abastos Market to the hands-on cooking experience at their stunning ranch, every moment was packed with flavor and fun. The wood-fired comal was a dream to cook on, and our son got expert coaching on mastering the tortilla press. We wrapped up the day by enjoying an incredible five-course meal we made together—an absolute feast! If you love food, culture, and hands-on learning, this is an experience you can’t miss.

Our tour group recently spent the day a Seasons of My Heart... the attentive staff made it an amazing experience. It was awesome they way they broke us into groups and kept us engaged and having fun as we prepared our 5-course meal... all the ingredients we used were super fresh. YUMMMMMM!

We had an incredible day with Chef Kaelin and the amazing staff at Seasons of my Heart. We started the day at the largest market in Oaxaca, the Abastos market, where we learned about chilis and herbs and got to eat tamales and barbarcoa tacos, and drink tejate. At the cooking school, the participants cooked a delicious meal. I was on the mole station and learned so much. Chef Kaelin is a great storyteller and provided valuable historical insights into Mexican and more specifically Oaxacan cuisine. I am terrible at cooking—we did the class for my husband who does the cooking—but I left wanting to cook myself. It was wonderful.

A beautiful space where you can learn about and create beautiful food! Seasons of my Heart is a great way to get to know and appreciate Oaxacan culture.

Seasons of My Heart was such a special experience. It’s part food tour and tasting, part cooking class, part dinner. Most importantly, it’s run by a trained, professional chef. Chef Kaylen has led teams at famous Napa Valley and vNew York restaurants, so to watch him work, his skill, his communication…it is awe-inspiring and a privilege. You can tell his professional kitchen instincts kick in as he cleans up work stations and effortlessly buzzes around from group to group making sure they’re on target. You end with a deliciously huge 5-course meal. The food tour begins with some small tastings and samples, and goes deeper into cultural significance and meaning, as he explains how crickets are used, the different type of Oaxaca cheese. We have food throughout the tour, sampling tamales, sitting down for barbacoas. Kaylen knows exactly what goes into each of these dishes and frames it as such. We pick up a few ingredients that we taste later on, and we deeply understand the chilis that we’ll be using later to cook a mole. We get to the kitchen to debrief, understand the cooking techniques, pair up and make several dishes. While you don’t get to see a dish end-to-end, the overview is sufficient to make you feel learned and confident in what to do at home. We get together at the end to share the 5-courses, plated beautifully and framed with professional-level dining ware. I was recommended to take this by my chef mentor and teacher, who cooks with Rick Bayless of Chicago; they both took Seasons of My Heart with Kaylen’s mom many years ago. It’s great to see that her legacy carries on, with a modern twist, through her son inside their beautiful family kitchen.

Our bunch thoroughly enjoyed this excursion from Yolanda’s amazing trip through the market to the actual cooking! Great food, lots of fun (and learning) doing the cooking and the food turned out deliciously