The short version: Eddie runs private, hands-on cooking classes in your villa kitchen along the Pacific coast. You learn a few dishes worth keeping, from a real casado to fresh ceviche to tres leches, and the class ends with everyone eating what they made. It works for one person or a full group.
What you learn to make
The class most people ask for is the one that sends you home able to cook Costa Rica. That means a proper casado, the plate ticos eat every day, built from rice, beans, a protein, sweet plantain, and a fresh salad, with the small techniques that make each part sing. Fresh ceviche comes next, cured in lime while you learn how to read the fish and balance the acid. Dessert is tres leches, the soaked sponge cake that ends nearly every Costa Rican celebration. Not every group wants the tico set, though. If yours would rather master a Thai curry or roll fresh pasta, Eddie builds the class around that, since the menu is planned with you before he ever shops.
How a class actually works
It happens in your villa kitchen, not a rented classroom across town. Eddie shows up with the ingredients already sourced from the local markets and a plan for the session, so you are learning on the same counters you are cooking on all week. The format is hands-on from the start: you chop, you season, you taste as you go, and he explains why a step matters instead of just telling you to do it. Beginners are welcome, and so are confident home cooks who want a few professional habits. He reads the room and sets the pace to whoever is standing at the counter.
Who it suits
A cooking class flexes to the group in a way a restaurant reservation never can. Couples get a focused, unhurried session and a shared thing to do that is not another beach. Solo travelers get real one-on-one time with a chef who has cooked all over the world. Families and friend groups turn the class into the whole evening, cooking side by side and then sitting down together to eat the result. It slots naturally alongside a chef dinner too: cook with Eddie one night, let him cook for you another. See what an evening of his food looks like on the full menu.
The souvenir you can actually cook
Most things you carry home from a trip end up in a drawer. A dish you can cook does not. Long after the tan fades, the casado you learned on the coast turns up at your own table back home, and it brings the trip with it. That is the real payoff here, more than the meal itself: a skill and a story you keep, not a magnet on the fridge. Guests tell Eddie about it months later, which is why the classes have become one of the more requested things he does.
Booking and timing
Classes run on the same rhythm as the private dinners. Lock your dates early, especially in the December to April high season when the coast fills up, and settle the menu at least 48 hours ahead so Eddie can shop the ingredients fresh that morning. Pricing tracks the private dining tiers and scales with your group; the pricing and payments page has the numbers, and if you are still weighing options, how a private chef compares to dining out covers the wider trip math.
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Cooking class questions, answered
What do you cook in a Costa Rica cooking class with Eddie?
The core class covers the dishes people actually want to take home: a proper casado, fresh ceviche, and tres leches for dessert. If your group would rather learn a Thai curry or handmade pasta, Eddie builds the class around that instead. It is planned with you before he shops.
Where does the cooking class happen?
In your own villa kitchen, along the Pacific coast from Manuel Antonio down through Ojochal. Eddie arrives with the ingredients and the plan, so you learn on the counters you are already cooking on that week, not in a rented classroom across town.
Is the class hands-on or a demonstration?
Hands-on. You are chopping, seasoning, and plating, with Eddie guiding each step and explaining why it works. It suits complete beginners and confident home cooks alike, since he pitches the pace to whoever is at the counter.
How many people can join one cooking class?
Anywhere from one person to a small group. Couples and solo travelers get a focused session; families and friend groups turn it into the evening itself, cooking together and then sitting down to eat what they made.
Do we eat what we cook?
Yes, that is the whole point. The class ends with everyone sitting down to the meal you just made, so it doubles as dinner. Bring an appetite, not just curiosity.
How far ahead should we book a class?
As soon as your dates are set, especially from December through April when the coast is busy. Eddie needs the menu settled at least 48 hours out so he can shop the ingredients fresh.
Cooking where you are staying? Eddie teaches and cooks across the coast: Manuel Antonio, Dominical, Uvita, and Ojochal, and at villa rentals up and down the Pacific.
