Morning - Market shopping
Cooking starts with shopping. At a neighbourhood market you choose the vegetables, tofu, pork and dried spices for the class, and your teacher explains what to look for: which peppercorns still smell of citrus when crushed, how to tell fresh tofu from a tub that has been sitting, and why a Sichuan kitchen keeps at least three kinds of chilli.
Late morning - The class
In a teaching kitchen you cook three dishes that carry the whole cuisine. Mapo tofu teaches the combination of fermented bean paste, chilli oil and ground peppercorn that gives Sichuan food its numbing heat. Kung pao chicken is the sweet-sour-salt balance in a single wok. Dan dan noodles is about the topping and the sauce rather than the noodle. Each dish is cooked by you, at a wok, with the teacher correcting as you go.
Lunch
You eat what you have cooked, with rice and a light soup.
Afternoon - Tea and the written recipes
The afternoon is quiet: a tea session covering the main Chinese tea families, and a printed recipe card for each dish with the ingredient weights, in English, so the dishes work in your own kitchen.
Evening - Free, with suggestions
Your guide returns you to the hotel with a list of nearby places to eat, from street stalls to a full Sichuan banquet.
Meals
Lunch, Dinner
Accommodation
Day tour - no hotel night included.
