EXPERIENCE — HANDS-ON
Private Cooking Classes in Your Villa or Home
The chef comes to your kitchen, not the other way round. You cook, you eat, you keep the recipes.
Fixed itemised quote before you pay a deposit · Reply within 1 hour, 08:00–20:00 SAST.
A myCHEF cooking class is a private, hands-on session in your own villa or home kitchen — one chef, your group, a menu you choose, and a meal you cooked yourself at the end of it. Group-size pricing is quoted itemised before you book.
The story
A myCHEF cooking class is a private, hands-on session in your own villa or home kitchen — one chef, your group, a menu you choose, and a meal you cooked yourself at the end of it. Group-size pricing is quoted itemised before you book.
Venue cooking schools run fixed menus at fixed times to a room of strangers. The private format inverts that: the menu follows your group's taste and skill, the pace follows your wine, and the kitchen is yours — no commute, no audience, no sharing the tongs. For visitors in self-catering villas, it also solves the what's-for-dinner question for the night.
Couples book classes as the date that actually teaches something. Families book them for villa weeks. Corporate teams book them as the off-site where nobody checks their phone.
Three classes, three crafts
Each class runs about three hours including the meal. Menus are tuned to your group in the consult.
- 01Cape Malay Classics — bobotie and geelrys, bredie technique, koesisters from scratch, spice handling
- 02Braai Mastery — coal management, wood selection, lamb and snoek on the grid, braai broodjies done properly
- 03Seafood & Fire — linefish over coals, apricot glaze timing, kreef handling in the licensed season, pan sauces
How a class runs
The chef arrives with the shopping done that morning and a workstation plan for your kitchen. You cook in stations or as one team, knife in hand from the first ten minutes — this is a class, not a demonstration.
Technique is taught at your level: beginners get the fundamentals done right; confident cooks get the restaurant versions. Every recipe leaves with you, written for a home kitchen, not a pass.
Then you sit down and eat the syllabus. The chef serves the meal you made, talks through what worked, and leaves the kitchen cleaner than they found it.
Braai Mastery runs outdoors at your own grid — we bring the wood and the coal discipline, you bring the apron. Cape Malay and Seafood classes run in the kitchen; the seafood class moves outside for the fire courses when the weather plays along.
Private beats venue
Venue classes in Cape Town run to published per-person rates for a seat in a shared room. A private class costs more per head at small group sizes and less than you'd think at six or eight — and buys you the whole chef, your own menu, and your own table at the end.
Your quote shows the arithmetic by group size: chef time, groceries at cost with receipts, and travel as separate lines. VAT treatment is stated, and festive multipliers are published on the pricing page.
For teams of twelve and up, the class becomes a team-building event with additional chef support — our corporate catering page carries the format, or start with one WhatsApp message.
Who books this
Couples on a Cape holiday who want one evening with a skill attached. Villa-week families looking for the rainy-day plan that isn't a museum. Food-forward travellers who read the journal's Cape Malay and seafood guides and want the practical version.
Gift-wise, a class converts better than another object — our gift cards can be set against any of the three classes at the same quoted prices.
Classes run year-round, with braai and seafood at their best in the summer half. Ke Dezemba and the festive villa season book out first; a date, a headcount and your kitchen's rough size is all we need to quote.
Make it a pairing
Sommelier-hosted pairings from small Cape producers
A hosted pairing matched course-by-course, from R450–650 pp.
Questions, answered.
More Cape experiences
Tell us the date, the guests and the place.
We handle everything else — menu, shopping, cooking, service, cleanup. Guaranteed.
Replacement-or-refund · Fixed itemised quote · Published cancellation tiers