Four Seasons Bali Cooking School Experience: One of my pet peeves with travel is the last day in a resort destination. If your flight leaves too early, it’s a hectic morning rushing to get things together and get off to the airport… defeating the very relaxation you’ve been trying to accomplish. But a flight departing in the afternoon inevitably means waiting around and pining, “we have only X hours left” rather than relaxing. So I’ve found it’s helpful when taking a late afternoon flight to book activities during the day.

We decided to book a cooking class over at the Four Seasons Jimbaran Bay roughly next door to the Intercontinental. Monday morning is the Balinese cooking class (other days feature different cuisines, but when in Bali…)

The day started off at 8am in the lobby of the Four Seasons. We took a cab over, INR20,000. Cost for the class was US$90pp.

The class is taught by the hotel’s sous chef, and staff first take you to a local market to see all of the local vegetables, and the local fresh fish catch. Naturally water bottles and cold towels are provided for this lttle hour-long excursion five minutes down the road.

Back at the hotel golf carts take you down to the cooking school kitchen and dining room for a light breakfast, and class begins. It’s hands-on, everyone cooks most everything on the menu for the day, but all the preparation has already been done. Staff provide you pre-measured ingredients for each dish, and clean your station for you.

We made Balinese chicken satay, pickled vegetables, grilled red snapper wrapped in banana leaf and a Balinese pumpkin dessert.

Then it was back to the hotel to pack and off to the airport.