Mastering Mexican Salsas Cooking Class And Market Tour

We participated in the salsa making class with Pamela(Pame). Such a great experience from start to finish. In such a short time, you get a great experience. Introduction to the how and why for one of the main ingredients(chilis) followed by tasters in the surrounding neighborhoods(tortillas and some Oaxaca. Snacks) before ultimately putting it all together to make your salsas. Immersive, engaging, educational. You will be well fed so come hungry. The salsas are amazing and I truly think this was a highlight of our trip. On our return, we would come back to try their other courses.

For those looking to dive deeper into the types of chilis, how they are used, and how to properly make authentic salsas look no further. Chef Maria and her assistant were great in explaining and showing the 4 different ways to make salsa, and how to even pair them with certain tacos. The market tour was fun, educational, and even had a fun little surprise! Overall the class is well worth the time and money for those looking to dive deeper into Mexican cooking culture, and to up their taco game. Fun and friendly experience, and come hungry.

The culinary experience at Aura Cocina in Coyoacan was by far the highlight of our recent trip to Mexico City. The facility was impecable and Lorena was the best instructor! Our group consisted of 9 girlfriends and we were able to prepare and taste the delicious tacos, salsas and even margaritas! Lorena played salsa music for us (Puerto Ricans) and we even danced while cooking! I highly recommend this activity to any person who wants to enjoy a delicious and fun culinary experience in Mexico City!

This was the first cooking class that I have ever taken and it was fantastic! Lorena started by giving us information on the fruits and vegetables (including the many peppers) commonly used when making salsa. She then discussed the various ways to prepare and handle the peppers. After a trip to the nearby market which included a sampling of insects and chocolate, we returned to the kitchen to make 10 different salsas - each delicious. Lorena took the time to explain each step and made sure we all got a chance to participate in the preparation and cooking. One of the best parts was tasting the salsas which were paired perfectly with a variety of taco fillings. I can’t wait to take another class with Lorena.

We had an incredible experience at this Masterclass Salsa Making Class and Market Tour in Mexico City. Netzi was an amazing teacher—warm, knowledgeable, and so much fun to learn from. Our experience began with a short walking tour where we saw fresh tortillas being made and explored a local market where we could buy ingredients (definitely bring cash!). Back at the kitchen—a charming, cozy space—our group of eight (two families: four adults and four teens) dove into making ten different salsas. Netzi walked us through every ingredient and prep step, and while we were out, her helper had already roasted what needed roasting. We chopped, mashed, blended, and cooked as needed, and she let us choose the level of spiciness for each salsa. We were honestly blown away not only by how hands-on and engaging the class was but also by how distinct and delicious all ten salsas turned out. The experience wrapped up with us enjoying ten tacos topped with our ten creations—a perfect finale. Without question, this was the highlight of our entire trip. We loved it so much that we’re already planning to come back and try another one of Netzi’s classes. Highly, highly recommend!

No notes. This class was so well done. The kitchen space is inviting and beautiful. The tour through Medellin market was great, especially the stop at the Oaxaca specialty stand to try different cultivated and prepared bugs. We also stopped at multiple tortillerías to try hot fresh corn and flour tortillas. Back in the kitchen we had a master class on ingredients and techniques. Our group of 2 couples ranged from novice home cooks to professionally trained chefs. The class was approachable and riveting for all of us. Come hungry!

The best cooking class I have ever taken! Chef Netzi taught us how to make wonderful salsas after a market tour. I can't wait to use the recipes that were provided. Her wonderful kitchen staff prepared delicious food for us, to accompany our salsas. As someone who enjoys eating more than cooking, this particular class was perfect. However, I'm sure that every class at Aura Cocina Mexicana is fantastic!

Myself and daughter decided to book the Salsa cooking class during our trip to Mexico. It was 10 different salsa’s and a visit to the market. First, Chef Pame is wonderful! She displayed professionalism, knowledge, energy, engagement and personality. We definitely will be adding another class on our next trip to Mexico. Highly recommend taking a cooking class. Pame much success and blessings to you!!!

come hungry to the cooking class. The food is excellent and plenty. Lorena took us on a journey of tastes and very interesting stories about food in Mexico. It was not just learning to cook 10 delicious sauces, but what you can have with them, a real experience. I am really glad I booked this event, and a warm thanks to Lorena and Dulce for an amazing time.

My husband and I enjoyed the class. The tasting and taco making was delicious. The instructor was thorough and patient. We plan on taking more classes at Aura next time we are in Mexico City.

I had an incredible time learning how to make 10 different salsas. Totally worth the money as it was such a rich experience and I have learnt so much that I will take with me.

Phenomenal experience! We did this with our 12 year old daughter and she really enjoyed participating, too. Our host was kind, fun, and incredibly knowledgeable. Her engaging personality got our group of strangers talking to each other like friends. She exposed us to how a dozen salsas are made - I have so much respect for the process after this experience! Very high degree of professionalism from the hosts and the food was made with love for sure. Be sure to arrive HUNGRY because there is So Much Delicious Food! Side note, our daughter has a very high sensitivity to food and our amazing host was very gracious and accommodating. Because of that, our daughter was able to eat nopales tacos with salsa for the first time… and loved it! It was a standout moment that helped her build confidence. They also involved our daughter in helping to prepare the food which made her feel valuable. It was a very special event for our whole family. Highly recommend… just do it! And it is 100% worth the price - this is a true local experience.

This was my second cooking class with Aura Cucina, and it was just as good as the first one. We did 10 different salsas as well as a market tour (and had the opportunity to pick up a couple of things for those who are interested). The instructor was excellent – enthusiastic and very knowledgeable about the history, culture, techniques and ingredients. And the setting was great – very nice designed and decorated kitchen and dining area in a great part of the city, very close to the market and shops.

Pamela was host/chef for the group that I joined. She was fantastic! I signed up for Spanish speaking, but the group were English speakers so Pamela offered and proceeded to speak in very good English for the duration. I was a bit hesitant about committing 4 hours to this class/tour, but it flew by. Very enjoyable and I learned a lot, not only about salsa making, but food culture, the neighborhood and CDMX in general. Highly recommended. Pamela was very professional, knowledgeable and created an environment that was very comfortable and fun.

Hands down our favorite activity when we visited Mexico City! We had an incredible morning making these salsas and enjoying a delicious meal with them. We loved this class so much we bought a molcajete and have been making these salsas every weekend since we visted! Chef Pame is amazing, and we had such a wonderful time cooking and going on the market tour with her. The tortilleria and the market were amazing to experience, especially our taste test of bugs and chocolate (Pame gave me the muy guapo beetle). We got to learn about classic mexican ingredients and meals that made me excited to cook even more. If you do any cooking class when you visit Mexico City, make sure it's Aura Cocina Mexicana! You'll have an amazing time.

My husband and I really enjoyed the Salsa making class with Krystal. We made 10 Salsas and she explained every step and had us make the salsa. We loved the fresh taste and feel that we gained a skill for life. Coming home with the recipe for everything we made will really help when we do this on our own. Overall great experience and would recommend it to anyone who loves Salsas!

Hands down, the best cooking class I’ve ever taken! Chef Pame is an absolute gem that really immerses you in the experience. Learned so much and had a fantastic day of cooking, tacos and refreshments!! 🙂

Pame, our chef, was so informative, friendly, hospitable, and engaging. She was enthusiastic about our stay and showed us all over the market, and was very considerate of our preferences and needs. You can tell she genuinely cares about what she does, and your experience, and she ensured we have a great time. With the market tour this class is very long, so if you want to just dive into the cooking, or are short on time, I suggest just doing the cooking portion.

This was one of our favorite experiences in our week in Mexico City. We did it our first morning, and unfortunately, for everyone else, this experience at the bar. The facility is absolutely beautiful and extremely clean and well run. Every aspect of this experience was top notch and wonderful. During the salsa class, there is a table for eight people, and each person makes one salsa during the time frame, and then the group together makes the other two. We were a little unsure how we were going to make 10 salsas each, but this makes a lot more sense! I don’t think that part was made very clear, and the reservation, only that you will make 10 salsas. The class starts off, taking a small street tour, trying some of the different street foods, along with a tour of the Medellin Mercado. All of which was super fun and very informative. We returned back to the kitchen to start the construction of the salsa. One thing to mention here is the fact that you are able to sit down during the entire process if you would like to add your barstool. This was super important for me, as I have a bad knee, and did not know how I could stand at a kitchen counter for so long. Some of the people did stand, but others sat so either is acceptable. The salsa experience was amazing, and the step-by-step instructions to each of us was really unique. It is amazing how well run these hours were. Clearly, there is a reason that this class at the Aura kitchen is the number one place to go. It is just so well run and managed and done that it will blow your mind when you are done. We could not recommend this enough. It’s a little more pricey then some other experiences we did, but it is so worth the money. Do not hesitate to do this, as you will not be disappointed.

My spouse and I had a wonderful time. 10 salsas and 10 tacos, plus Mexican beer and mezcal. Our guide took us out on the street, where she had arranged for us to have freshly-made quesadillas of our choice. Wonderful! We also watched tortillas being made, and the market tour was fascinating! So many peppers, fruits, vegetables. She even had a sample plate of....insects! (We passed on that, but others on our tour found them surprisingly good.) We all enjoyed making salsas. It was fascinating to see how much the locals eat tacos, and that they all make their own salsas at home. Breakfast tacos and salsas, lunch tacos and salsas, and meatier dinner salsas. Only 2 of the 10 salsas were spicy, so don't be afraid to try this tour.

Far exceeded our expectations. Gaby was a great team leader. Came home with recipes for 10 great salsas, experience in how to make them, and ideas for a salsa party. Thank you, Gaby!

We had a fun tour of the market and learned a lot about ingredients, especially different kinds of chilis. We enjoyed making 10 salsas all very tasty and using different techniques. Gaby was a great teacher. The class is so well organized and I know I will use the recipes and cooking techniques at home. Much fun. Would highly recommend this class.

Great experience. Aura is very professional and makes the class fun. Learned a lot about authentic Mexican cooking. Definitely recommend this tour.

The Salsa class tailors well to more advanced cooks and the culinary curious alike. If you just want to try different recipes, there are lots to choose from but if you are wanting to learn the fundamentals, Gaby teaches you how to riff on the recipes when you go back home. I'm excited to experiment! I love to take cooking classes when I travel internationally and this one was very well run. Gaby ran the class with us while her team took care of shopping and doing the heavy lifting of the prep in the kitchen. We got the chance to try quesadillas from a family that has been working a stand for decades and go to the market to try different fruits and insects (surprisingly good!). Come hungry and leave stuffed!

Amazing, fantastic, warm, friendly, intelligent, gracious! Those adjectives and so many others describe Graciela and her fantastic team including her beautiful sister, Chef Lore. You instantly feel at home, as they truly live their slogan, mi casa es tu casa. This was second time at the cooking school and every person in the group said it was THE highlight in our trip to Mexico City. The team at Aura is so professional, the setting brings you into the warm atmosphere of a family kitchen, and you unravel parts of Mexican cuisine and its multi-layered history. Graciela is passionate about Mexican food. You come away with a greater appreciation of everything Mexican! A must experience for anyone....serious foodies or dabblers alike.

Learned so much about salsas! Ate some great tortillas, quessdaillas and authentic gorditas. Terrific maket tour. The whole team is terrific.

The market tour and cooking class were fun and gave us a great foundation for making salsas and understanding how to cook with some key Mexican ingredients. Our chef/guide provided a relaxed and richly informative setting. Every minute of the 4 hours was well spent. The focus on our interests, questions, food preferences (allergies and spiciness included) was appreciated.

AURA Cocina Mexicana is a gastronimical experience with photo opps Yes, AURA’s cooking class is much more than that. Once the blue door on Avenida Medellin opened, I felt I had entered into a Mexican fairy tale. The space is creatively decorated with an authentic Mexican taste. We learned the recipes of salsas, and all the different kinds of chiles to make “salsas típicas,” the region where they are from, and the type of salsa that is best combined according to the meal. The five-hour how to make salsa class started with a warm cup of Mexican coffee while geographical facts about where each chile comes from in Mexico and how to cultivate a “milpa” were shared by our Chef. We went to the Roma neighborhood to get the ingredients at “Mercado Medellin.” On the way, we stopped to watch the beauty of a busy “tortilleria” and a “quesadilla” stand. Since I hadn’t had breakfast, the“flor de calabaza quesadilla” was a perfect comfort and energizer starter for the day before the market tour. We touched and smelled “chile pasilla, chipotle, de árbol, ancho, guajillo”, and many others at the Chile stand. I didn’t pass up the opportunity to buy a packet of Mole already sealed to travel and take a few close-ups of the beautiful chiles and their textures. At the Oaxaca stand, a tray of bugs was passed around for everyone to experiment with the exotic taste of insects like “chapulines, gusanos y escarabajos”. However, this new strong flavor felt closed to strong salty pistachios. The fruit stand offered us a piece of sweet mamey, while I also bought a mature one to eat later. Finally, the flower shop gave us a pretty blooming flower. I really valued being able to shoot my camera with the vendors' permission, with whom AURA has a relationship. The Mercado experience was great, but it was time to put hands-on at the cooking studio. The recipe booklet included salsa “diabla, morita, verde, roja, borracha, ranchera, de mango,” and more. We did everything, from dicing the onions, garlic, and other vegetables to dissecting, roasting, grilling, and blending the chiles. Finally, we had to peel them and find the vein used to control the spiciness of the killer salsas we prepared. So fun! The class ended up with an excellent “taquiza” with high quality organic mini tortillas and delicious dishes made by the AURA chefs, like “carnitas, tinga, chicharron” and cooked vegetables. We proudly added our salsas to each taco we ate; I enjoyed each bite and wished I could come back “a la hora de la Comida” every day. The experience included “Cerveza, zezcal, and postre.” AURA is a cultural gastronomical experience that goes beyond the kitchen. No te lo pierdas if you are in CDMX.

Fantastic - highly recommended! Graciela was kind enough not to cancel the class after a couple of other people dropped out, and is a great teacher - patient, knowledgeable, fun and has endless helpful hints and tips to make sure you get the most from your class The venue is spotless, well equiped and is a really friendly, intimate venue to learn and taste some great Mexican food. Book now, it will be a guaranteed highlight of of your trip to Mexico!

We had a great time and learned so much! The space was beautiful and the market was great. I am very excited to try the recipes now that we are home!

I'm a passionate amateur salsa cook, so I was eagerly awaiting learning about salsa techniques from Chef Graciela. My wife and I were also hoping to have a little break from the hectic Mexico City tourist circuit and take in local culture in a more relaxed way. The class met our big expectations in every aspect! We took the salsa class and market tour, which began with a trip to a tortilla maker and a quesadilla stand. It was a real behind-the-scenes experience, especially at the tortilleria. Whether you're a serious salsa chef or just starting out, Graciela will give you plenty of tips that really just aren't available online. As a teacher, Graciela was very generous with her explanations and advice, and made the class fun for all experience levels. If you're looking for the perfect Instagram picture, this class is great as well. Graciela was always taking pictures of people, and even introduced my wife and I to the concept of a "boomerang" pic. One thing we hadn't anticipated was that most of the salsas need to be paired with food, meaning that Graciela and her team cook up plenty of great tacos while you work on the salsa. You get a great meal out of it! We spent a week in Mexico City, and this was one of our favorite experiences from the entire trip. I would recommend the salsa class or any of the other classes to anyone who's either interested in Mexican cuisine or culture.

This was the highlight of my trip to Mexico City. Graciela Montana is a phenomenon. The experience was visually stunning, tasty, and very friendly. My group had 5 of us, some with some professional or hobby cook connection to food culture but some total non-foodies. Everyone had a great time. If you’re a hobby cook or a good professional, you’ll get a ton of details on salsa history and preparation and great practical skills and recipes (with handouts!). If you’re a total newbie and think of a kitchen as where you keep your plates for eating your take out, you will find this easy and inviting and interesting. I’d do this experience again in a heartbeat.

My son and I took this salsa making class last week on our trip to CDMX and it was one of our favorite activities we did. Graciela's kitchen was so lovely, warm, and inviting. It was fun to meet other travelers and residents who share the same interests. We walked around the neighborhood to check out how tortillas were made in different types of shops, ate a delicious street taco, and then went to the market to learn about the relation of food to Mexican history, chiles, corn, etc. My son and I even tried chicatanas and found that they were actually tasty. Then we went back to the kitchen and we all worked together to make 10 different salsas. I learned how to clean a chile and tomato and have already made 3 of the salsas back home. After all the work, we sat down to a beautiful table and enjoyed the salsas on the kinds of foods they pair best with. I think I had a smile on my face from start to finish; my son and I had a great time together. I am confident I can make any of the salsas from the recipes we left with. If you are considering taking a cooking class, this is the one to start with. Absolutely worth the time and money!

Graciela is a wonderful hostess and chef. She and her staff truly made us feel at home in the lovely Aura cooking studio. We had such a great time visiting a traditional Mexican market, learning about the history of different foods, and making ten different delicious salsas. Graciela goes above and beyond to create memorable experiences for her gusts and we are truly appreciative! Can't wait to come back for another class.

I took this class with my girlfriend when we visited Mexico City in December. If you are looking for a fun, interactive yet informative cooking class, then this is a great choice. The class taught us a lot of the history of Mexico, how to evaluate chiles, how to cook specific chiles, and so much more. The atmosphere was welcoming, warm and enjoyable.

Two of us took the salsa cooking class recently and very much enjoyed the experience. The class was very well put together, the meal served was very good and the journey & time spent in the market close by was very informative. I would very much recommend this class.

Excellent experience. We made salsa, tamales and white mole. Graciela is a teacher and explains very well. Totally recommended.