Ecuador Food Tour

My family of 4 absolutely loved Maria's cooking class. We made empanadas and ceviche - so good. Maria has a beautiful and welcoming home. It was nice to get out of Quito and see how an Equadorian family lives. We were able to make a last minute booking, were picked up at our hotel and returned to the hotel after. I highly recommend spending an afternoon with Maria, learning to cook a couple of local dishes and learning more about Equador.

Maria took me to the market and then to her house to make ceviche and empanadas. The tour was really fun. We walked around the market ate a whole bunch of different things. Wow this was my second trip to Ecuador, I tasted a whole bunch of different foods that I didn’t taste on the first trip. The vendors were all really nice and willing to hand out samples. Then we went to Maria’s house in the suburbs of Quito and cooked together. She made sure to use ingredients that I could find at home and nothing was extremely complicated such that I couldn’t re-create it with tools I have at home. I did this tour solo, but I think it would be great for couples or families and people of all ages.

Lovely culinary experience for 3 generations! Excellent hostess and instructor in Maria! Four teenagers enjoyed the entire cooking experience, from cutting the vegetables to crimping the empanadas!

Maria generously opened her own home and kitchen to my husband and I for this hands-on cooking experience. We learned how to choose green plantains and make cheese stuffed empanadas, which are delicious and healthy - a real game changer if you want to avoid gluten or typical wheat flour doughs. Pressing the empanadas was fun - we have already ordered a tortilla press for our home use and will make this recipe frequently. We also made fresh shrimp ceviche and learned that Ecuadorians cook the shrimp first. Many of the ingredients came from Maria's own backyard, which is an amazing array of fruit trees (50 foot avocado trees!) and herbs. The lemon verbena lemonade was amazing! We had Maria arrange a private ride for us from the Wyndham Quito Airport hotel for a very reasonable extra fee. I highly suggest this, as she lives in a gated community and our driver knew how to get in. The drive was beautiful and interesting - especially the neighboring town with all the guinea pigs hanging on the street. We did not eat any of these, but wow are they huge!

We spent an enjoyable afternoon with Maria. Upon arrival we toured her diverse garden to see some of the ingredients that would be part of our lunch – tree tomatoes, lemon verbena, etc. Her home, in a gated community, is comfortable and authentically decorated. Maria was quickly accommodating to adjust one dish to be vegetarian. She shared tips on making the dishes and provided the recipes to us later that day via WhatsApp. We intentionally scheduled this activity within the first 24 hours of arriving in to Quito. The pace was low-key which helped with our adjustment to the altitude. One day before the tour, she connected with us via WhatsApp and offered to set up a driver between our city hotel and her suburban home. We were grateful for her foresight and accepted her helpful offer. We paid the cost of the driver directly to Maria (in USD cash) when our afternoon was ending. Would recommend for a local, hands-on, slow paced experience.

What an incredible time! I was the only one signed up so I got lots of attention and got to learn and try so many things. It was absolutely delicious!

I asked Maria to arrange transportation for me from Downtown Quito to her home, and she did so. Her home is in a lovely gated community about 45 minutes outside of Quito. She toured me through her garden, explained some of the ingredients we'd be using, and we prepared ceviche and empanadas! I enjoyed it so much, I've just purchased the ingredients at home to prepare the dishes with my family.

Maria's cooking class was awesome! Very hands on which I liked. Very accommodating of dietary restrictions and we learned easy authentic Ecuadorian recipes to take back home as well as alternatives if we don't have the exact ingredients. Everything came out very tasty!

So much fun. I learned so much and the recipes we made were very authentic and fresh, yet simple enough that I can easily replicate them at home. Loved my time there.

Had a great time going through the market and making ceviche and empanadas. I would 100% recommend this class to anyone in Quito.

Had a great day with Maria in Quito visiting a local market and cooking a meal at her home. Maria is super nice, easy to talk with. She picked me up at the hotel and we headed to a local market where she introduced me to the local ingredients and dishes, great experience. She took me to her home to where we prepared together a wonderful meal. If you look for an individual private tour, learn about local cuisines and get an insight in Ecuadorian lifestyle reach out to Maria. I highly recommend her tour

I had an amazing time. I was picked up from my Airbnb and we went to the market. I was able to try lots of unique fruit and food. I had a great time making my meal and with the recipes she gave me to take home I look forward to trying to recreate the magic. I am glad that this experience was able to be made vegan. Since I am plant based. Highly recommend.

The tour was well organized, Maria is super nice, knows what she is talking about and her English is really good. Rhe ingredients were fresh and the results delicious.

My mom and I had such a great time with Maria learning to make traditional lunch and touring the markets with Maria! She was an excellent guide, very warm and welcoming. I would recommend a private tour with her to anyone who wants to feel at home in the Quito area!

We had an amazing time cooking with Maria! The empanadas were delicious and she made us feel extremely welcomed in her home. Highly recommend!

We loved our cooking class with Maria! We had veggie options of Ceviche and Llapingacho (soo delicious!) and got the recipes afterwards. Maria was lovely, she was very flexible concerning the date of the class. Even though we were one hour too late because of a traffic jam, she took a lot of time to tell us about ecuadorian food and the culture. We had much fun and learnt a lot, we can definitely recommend this cooking class to couples/friends, also to people not eating meat

Fantastic cooking class with Maria and the food was delicious. Quite intimate and really informative.

We had a cooking class with Maria, where we made ceviche and llapingacho. Maria was very nice and informative, she was able to have us over even though we called on the same day. She had no problem adjusting the menu to our diet ( we made the llapingacho vegetarian with quinoa kebab instead of a sausage). We also had a nice tequila drink to warm up and got the recipes afterwards so that we can make the dishes at home. Overall a very nice experience in a very nice environment

We had a great day in Quito with Maria and our Ecuador Food Tour. She picked us up at our hotel and took us to the market where we were able to see and taste several items. Then we went to an ice cream shop which was surprising (thought we wouldn't like any of the flavors but that wasn't the case). The Ecuadorian food we tasted was mixed. It was good to try something new, even if it wasn't our to our liking (just the cuy, everything else was tasty). Finishing up with our cooking class was a great way to finish the day.

My cooking experience with Maria was an absolute pleasure. She has a lovely kitchen and the food was amazing. Maria was a pleasure to talk to and ensured I was comfortable before and during the experience. She even sent the recipes for the amazing dishes we made. I would highly recommend this cooking experience for something tasty and authentic while you’re in Ecuador.

I really enjoyed making empanadas and llapingacho with María. I learned a lot about how to cook these foods, and also had the opportunity to get to know Maria better (she even helped me practice my Spanish). Also her kitchen and garden were beautiful. I highly recommend this experience!