Your driver will pick you up from your hotel and take you to Faro’s bustling indoor market, where you meet your chef for your private cooking class. The market is set in a modern building and has a vibrant atmosphere. Stalls are piled high with fresh vegetables, seafood, cured meats, olives of every variety, nuts, spices and traditional local pastéis (custard tarts).
Your chef will guide you through the market, stopping at various stalls to explain how local specialties are produced, point out new ingredients, and teach you how to choose the best seafood and shellfish for your dish.
Together, you’ll select the ingredients for the meal you’re going to prepare, before heading to a restaurant in the heart of historic Faro to begin your class.
After walking through the winding medieval streets, it’s time for a change of pace as you enter a quiet professional kitchen. As your chef demonstrates how to prepare the seafood and shellfish needed for the dish, you’ll learn more about the history of cataplana and why it has become such an emblematic dish.
You’ll help prepare the vegetables and learn how to combine the spices and, crucially, how to use the cataplana pot.
Once your dish is cooked, you’ll sit down together with a glass of wine to enjoy what you’ve made before being collected by your driver and taken back to your hotel.
Start planning your tailor-made trip by contacting one of our Portugal specialists
These activities are designed to give you the most authentic experiences around where you're staying. We work with local guides, who use their knowledge and often a resident's eye to show you the main sights and more out-of-the-way attractions. Our specialists can suggest tours and activities that will introduce you to the local ways of life.
Lagos coastal walk and Sagres visit
Explore Portugal’s southern coast on this full-day walking tour from Lagos. The hike takes in the city itself as well as the cliffs at the Ponta da Piedade, before heading for the remote village of Sagres overlooking the Atlantic.
You can enjoy this activity as part of the suggested tours below, or we can weave it into a trip shaped entirely around you.
