Bali or Thailand: which cooking class to take

Short answer

Take both if your route allows; they teach different things. A Thai class is built around the wok and a curry paste. A Balinese class is built around base genep, the master spice paste, plus banana-leaf parcels, minced sate pressed onto lemongrass, and raw sambal matah. Prices are close.

What each class costs in 2026

Half-day classes in Chiang Mai run about 900 to 1,400 baht per person, usually with a market visit, hotel pickup inside a service zone, a personal station, and a recipe book. Thai Akha Kitchen, for example, publishes 1,400 baht for its morning class with market and 1,300 baht for the evening.

In Bali, published class prices run from about IDR 350.000 at village schools to IDR 600.000 and more at established Ubud schools, with hotel kitchens higher. The shared class at Warung Tumang Bali in Petulu is IDR 530.000 promo per guest, with free pickup in the main Ubud area.

What you actually cook

Thai classes typically cook five to eleven dishes: a curry from paste you pound, a stir-fry, a soup such as tom yum, a noodle dish, and a dessert. Many let you pick dishes from a list, and stations are often one wok per guest.

A Balinese class cooks from one paste outward. In Petulu, Chef Wayan Suryana has guests grind base genep first, then use it through the meal: sate lilit, pepes in banana leaf, vegetables in coconut, and dadar gulung, the green coconut crepe, to finish. The techniques that travel home are the paste and the leaf wrap, not wok heat.

Which one if you only have time for one

Pick Thailand if you mostly cook stir-fries at home and want speed and choice. Pick Bali if you want food you rarely find outside Indonesia, and a class that walks a morning market and working rice fields before you cook. The Petulu morning session does both, at eight guests at most.