Can dietary restrictions be accommodated in the cooking class?

Yes. Vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, and halal options can be arranged if notified at least 24 hours before the class. The instructor will substitute ingredients and teach alternative techniques. Nut allergies should be declared in advance as many Turkish desserts contain pistachios or walnuts.

Are vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free or allergy adaptations possible?

Yes, all of these are possible with at least 48 hours advance notice. Vegetarian versions of Mantı are filled with spiced potato or lentil instead of meat. Vegan versions of Dolma and Sarma use only olive oil and rice with herbs, no meat or dairy. Gluten-free adaptations are possible for some dishes (vegetable-based dolma, sarma, some main courses) but not for the dough-based dishes (Mantı, Baklava, Börek, Ekmek) which require wheat flour. Nut allergies are accommodated by adapting Baklava (substituting other fillings) or by recommending a different dessert dish. Notify the booking team of any dietary requirement or allergy when you reserve, with at least 48 hours notice so the cook can plan the menu and source ingredients appropriately. The cook also adapts portion sizes for children and provides children-friendly tasks for guests aged 6 and above.

Which sessions are available — midday or late afternoon?

Two private sessions run daily. The midday session begins at 11:00 with arrival, welcome and tea, runs the cooking from approximately 11:30 to 14:00, and finishes with the shared meal between 14:00 and 15:00 — total four hours. The late afternoon session begins at 16:00 with arrival and welcome, cooking between 16:30 and 19:00, and the shared meal from 19:00 to 20:00. Both sessions are private to your group, no sharing with strangers, and the kitchen reserves one cook exclusively for your group for the full duration. Select your preferred session at booking. The midday session is more popular in autumn and winter when daylight shortens; the late afternoon session is more popular in summer when daytime heat in Cappadocia is high and an early evening session is more comfortable.

How does transport to the Ürgüp garden work and is it included?

Transport is optional and priced separately at a transparent transfer rate. The cooking class fee covers the class itself; transfer to and from the Ürgüp garden is offered as an add-on with no markup added by us. Typical 2026 transfer costs from central Göreme, Uçhisar or Avanos to the Ürgüp garden are 10-20 EUR total for the group regardless of group size (sedan for 1-3 guests, minivan for 4-10), and we share the actual transfer price upfront so there are no surprises. If you have your own car or are staying in Ürgüp itself, no transfer is needed and you save the transfer cost. Guests sometimes also share a taxi from their hotel to the garden which is usually under 15 EUR. Tell the booking team if you want the transfer included or if you will arrange your own arrival.

What is the cancellation policy?

Free cancellation up to 72 hours before the session, full refund. Cancellation between 72 and 24 hours: 50% refund. Cancellation within 24 hours of session or no-show: no refund. If we cancel for any reason on our side (cook unavailability, kitchen issue, force majeure such as weather emergency, road closure, government restriction), you receive a full refund of any payment made plus the option of free rescheduling. Optional add-ons (Turkish breakfast, transport) are refunded under the same terms. Force majeure events qualify for full refund regardless of timing. All cancellation requests must be sent in writing to the reservation contact. Refunds are processed within 5-7 business days to the original payment method. The garden kitchen operates year-round but reduces sessions in late January and early February for annual maintenance.

What payment methods do you accept?

We accept all major credit cards (Visa, MasterCard, American Express), PayPal, bank transfers, and cash payments. You can pay 50% deposit online and remaining 50% on tour day. All transactions are secured with SSL encryption.

How do I book a tour?

Booking is simple: 1) Select your tour and date 2) Fill in passenger details 3) Choose payment method 4) Confirm booking 5) Receive confirmation email with pickup details. You can also book via WhatsApp or call us directly.

What is your cancellation policy?

Free cancellation up to 24 hours before tour start. Cancellations within 24 hours: 50% refund. No-shows: no refund. Weather cancellations: full refund or reschedule. Refunds processed within 5-7 business days.

How can I contact you?

WhatsApp: +90 555 123 4567 (24/7), Phone: +90 384 271 2525, Email: info@westtravel.com. Our office in Goreme is open 8:00-20:00 daily. Emergency contact available 24/7 during your tour dates.

What dishes are cooked in the Turkish cooking class?

The class covers a full Turkish meal: a meze or soup starter, a main course such as mantı (Turkish ravioli), kebab variations, or stuffed vegetables, and a dessert like baklava or lokma. The exact menu may vary by season based on available local ingredients. You eat everything you prepare at the end of the class.

Can I take the recipes home?

Yes. Every participant receives a printed recipe booklet with all the dishes prepared during the class, including ingredient measurements adapted for home kitchens. The instructor also shares tips on where to find Turkish ingredients abroad. You are welcome to take photos and videos throughout the class for your own reference.

Is the cooking class hands-on or a demonstration?

The class is fully hands-on. Each participant has their own workstation with ingredients and utensils. The instructor demonstrates each step first, then guides you as you prepare the dish yourself. You chop, knead, roll, and cook under the instructor's supervision. It is interactive and designed for active participation.

Are the ingredients locally sourced?

Yes. The class uses fresh, locally sourced ingredients typical of the Cappadocia region. This includes local butter, hand-rolled yufka dough, regional spices, seasonal vegetables from nearby farms, and locally produced cheese and yogurt. The instructor explains the origin and significance of key ingredients during the class.

Which of the eight dishes can I pick and how does the dish selection work?

The eight dishes on the menu are Mantı (40-60 hand-folded dumplings), Testi Kebabı (sealed clay pot kebab broken at the table), Çömlek Kebabı (slow-cooked earthenware stew), Dolma (stuffed vegetables and grape leaves), Sarma (rolled cabbage or grape leaves), Baklava (paper-thin yufka layers with walnuts), Börek (savoury pastries with cheese, spinach or potato) and Ekmek (sourdough village loaf or thin yufka). At booking you select one to three dishes you want to cook — most groups choose two complementary dishes that fit a meal (for example Mantı + Baklava, or Çömlek Kebabı + Börek). The kitchen then prepares the exact ingredients for your selection so nothing is wasted. The selection determines the schedule and pace of the day: simpler dishes like Sarma take less time than multi-stage dishes like Testi Kebabı. Tell the booking team your preferences and they will confirm which combination fits your three-to-four-hour session.

Where exactly does the cooking class take place and what's the setting?

The class takes place in a working household kitchen at the centre of a large walled garden in Ürgüp. The garden has its own vegetable greenhouse where tomatoes, peppers, courgettes, parsley, dill, mint and basil grow, free-roaming chickens whose eggs go into the dough, fruit trees including apricot, mulberry, walnut, almond and fig, and flower beds that attract local bees. The kitchen itself is a working stone-walled space, not a demonstration studio. The setting is functional, not decorative: the garden is the kitchen's pantry and what you cook depends on what is in season. Welcome happens under a grape arbour with tea and Turkish coffee, cooking happens at counter stations in the kitchen, and the shared meal is served either at the communal table in the garden or indoors depending on the weather.

What is included in the Turkish Night show?

The show includes traditional folk dances from different regions, belly dancing, a whirling dervish performance, and an open buffet dinner with local dishes.

Can I keep the pottery I make in the workshop?

Of course! Your handmade pottery is yours to keep. We carefully pack it so you can safely take it home as a unique souvenir.

How long is the cooking class?

The cooking class takes about 3-4 hours. You will learn to prepare several traditional Turkish dishes and enjoy eating what you cook.

What's the best time to visit Cappadocia?

April-June and September-November are ideal with mild weather and fewer crowds. July-August: hot but longest days. December-March: cold but magical snowy landscapes and lower prices. Balloon flights operate year-round except extreme weather days.

How do I get to Cappadocia?

Fly to Kayseri (ASR) or Nevsehir (NAV) airports. Kayseri is 70km (1 hour drive) to Goreme, Nevsehir is 40km (45 minutes). We can arrange airport transfers. Alternatively, fly to Istanbul then domestic flight, or bus from major Turkish cities.

What local foods should I try?

Must-try: Pottery Kebab (Testi Kebabı) cooked in clay pot, Manti (Turkish dumplings), fresh Turkish bread, Cappadocian wine, Turkish delight, and local honey. Our tours include traditional lunch at authentic restaurants. Vegetarian options always available.

Are tours covered by insurance?

Yes! All tours include comprehensive liability insurance up to €1,000,000 coverage. This covers accidents during tour activities. We strongly recommend personal travel insurance for medical expenses, trip cancellation, and baggage protection before traveling to Turkey.

Cappadocia Cooking Class 2026 — Ürgüp Garden, 8 Dishes You Pick | Max 10

per person

Why a Turkish Cooking Class Tastes Different When the Recipe Comes from the Cook's Mother — A Private Ürgüp Garden Kitchen with Its Own Greenhouse and Chickens, Eight Anatolian Dishes You Pick Before You Arrive, Up to Ten Guests Per Session

Q: Is the optional Turkish breakfast really a separate add-on?

Yes. The Turkish breakfast is a separate add-on, priced separately from the cooking class, available only for the midday session. It is laid out under the grape arbour in the garden before the cooking begins and includes 12-15 small plates: white cheese, kaşar cheese, three olive preparations, soft-boiled eggs from the property's chickens, fresh tomatoes and cucumbers from the greenhouse, three to four homemade jams (apricot, mulberry, fig depending on season), local honey, butter, two kinds of bread baked that morning, menemen on request, and unlimited tea. This is not a hotel buffet; it is what a Turkish family eats on a long Sunday morning. The breakfast adds approximately 90 minutes to the day and requires 48 hours advance notice so the kitchen can prepare the ingredients fresh. Guests who book only the cooking class are not charged for the breakfast.

Three generations of women teaching from family recipes in an Ürgüp garden with its own greenhouse and chickens, eight dishes you pick before arrival (Mantı, Testi Kebabı, Çömlek Kebabı, Dolma, Sarma, Baklava, Börek, Ekmek), max 10 guests private, two sessions daily, optional Turkish breakfast — TURSAB licence 14270.

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A private three-to-four-hour Turkish cooking class in an Ürgüp garden kitchen run by women who learned their recipes from their mothers and grandmothers. Pick your dish before you arrive — Mantı, Testi Kebabı, Çömlek Kebabı, Dolma, Sarma, Baklava, Börek or Ekmek — and cook it from the garden's own greenhouse vegetables. Up to ten guests per session, two sessions daily, optional Turkish breakfast add-on. TURSAB licence 14270.

From EUR 70

Duration: 4-5 hours

The Turkish cooking class takes place in a garden kitchen in Ürgüp — not a restaurant, not a demonstration studio, but a working household kitchen at the centre of a large walled garden with its own vegetable greenhouse, free-roaming chickens, fruit trees, flower beds and the quiet sounds of insects in summer. The kitchen is run by women who learned their recipes from their mothers and grandmothers in this same region, and who teach the dishes the old way — by hand, with the equipment their families have used for generations. The eight dishes on the menu (Mantı, Testi Kebabı, Çömlek Kebabı, Dolma, Sarma, Baklava, Börek and Ekmek) are chosen before you arrive so the day's ingredients are prepared exactly for what you want to learn. Maximum ten guests per session, two private sessions daily — midday and late afternoon — operated under TURSAB licence 14270.

## Why a Turkish Cooking Class Tastes Different When the Recipe Comes from the Cook's Mother

Three generations stand behind every dish you will cook on this day. The cook learned the recipe from her mother, who learned it from her mother, who learned it from hers. The technique was not pulled from a cookbook or adapted for a restaurant kitchen — it was passed down at a counter where a child watched and asked questions until the hands knew what to do without thinking. This matters because Turkish home cooking is a discipline of small unwritten adjustments: the exact moment to add water to a dough, the pinch test for salt in yogurt sauce, the colour the onion should reach before the next ingredient goes in. These adjustments do not appear on any recipe card. They live in the hands of cooks who learned them at home. When you cook here you are receiving a transmission, not a class — the same transmission these women received from the women before them — and the food on your plate at the end of the day reflects that lineage in a way that restaurant cooking cannot.

## The Eight Dishes You Pick Before You Arrive

The menu offers eight Anatolian dishes and you select what you want to cook when you book, so the kitchen prepares the right ingredients for your group. **Mantı** — tiny hand-folded Turkish dumplings, forty to sixty individual pieces per serving, each pinched closed by hand around a spiced meat or vegetarian filling, served with garlic yogurt and butter spiced with paprika. **Testi Kebabı** — meat and vegetables slow-cooked inside a sealed clay pot called a testi, broken open at the table with a small mallet in a small ceremony before serving. **Çömlek Kebabı** — a stew of meat, vegetables and beans baked slowly in a wide earthenware vessel, a regional alternative to the testi style. **Dolma** — stuffed vegetables, typically peppers, tomatoes, courgettes and grape leaves, filled with rice, herbs and either ground meat or olive oil for the vegetarian version. **Sarma** — rolled cabbage leaves or grape leaves filled with a rice-and-herb mixture and simmered in olive oil and lemon. **Baklava** — paper-thin yufka layers brushed with butter, walnuts or pistachios, baked and soaked in a light syrup, the version made here is less sweet than the commercial baklava sold in shops. **Börek** — savoury pastries with cheese, spinach or potato fillings, rolled on the oklava and baked or pan-cooked. **Ekmek** — Anatolian bread, either a sourdough village loaf baked in a wood-burning oven on the property or a thin yufka cooked on a sac. A typical class covers one to three dishes depending on group preference and time, and the dishes you choose determine the schedule and pace of the day.

## The Garden Kitchen — Greenhouse, Chickens, Fruit Trees and Wild Herbs

The setting is not decorative. The garden is the kitchen's pantry. A small greenhouse in one corner grows the tomatoes, peppers, courgettes, parsley, dill, mint and basil that go into the dishes — picked the same morning, sometimes by guests themselves with the cook before the class begins. Free-roaming chickens live on the property and their eggs go into the börek and ekmek dough. Fruit trees — apricot, mulberry, walnut, almond, fig depending on season — give the ingredients for jams, syrups and the walnuts that go into baklava. Flower beds along the garden paths attract bees that are part of the local honey supply used in some breakfast dishes. The connection between the food on the plate and the ground it grew in is direct, visible and seasonal — what you cook in May is different from what you cook in September because what the greenhouse and trees offer is different. This is what farm-to-table actually means when it is not a marketing phrase: the table is in the garden, and the garden grew the food.

## Women Who Welcome You — Tea, Coffee and the Story Behind Each Dish

The class begins with welcome, not with cooking. When you arrive at the garden the women come out to greet you, hands are shaken, names exchanged, and the first round of tea or Turkish coffee is poured under the grape arbour while you sit down. This first half-hour is part of the class even though no cooking has started yet. The cook explains where the recipes come from — usually a specific village, a specific aunt or grandmother, a specific occasion when the dish was traditionally made — and answers any questions about what you will be doing. The Turkish tradition of hospitality is not separate from the food; it is the frame around the food. Conversations during this opening time often run longer than the formal cooking demonstration that follows, and many guests describe this stretch of the day — the welcome, the tea, the introductions — as the part they remember most clearly months later. Continuous tea and coffee throughout the class is included.

## The Old Way — Sac, Oklava, Testi and the Techniques That Don't Survive in Restaurants

The equipment on the counter is the equipment these women's mothers and grandmothers used. The **sac** is a large convex iron griddle heated over a wood or gas flame, used for cooking yufka, gözleme, and pan breads. The technique with a sac is in the angle of the dough and the heat distribution — restaurants almost never use them because the labour is impractical at scale, but at home they produce a quality of flatbread no commercial oven matches. The **oklava** is a long thin rolling pin, two to three times the length of a Western rolling pin, used for rolling yufka almost paper-thin in a single rapid motion. Learning the oklava is a body-mechanic skill, not a recipe skill — the cook will demonstrate the wrist movement and the pressure distribution and then guide your hands through it. The **testi** is the sealed clay pot used for testi kebabı; you watch the pot go into the oven sealed and emerge intact, then crack the top open with a small mallet at the table — a ritual that turns a stew into a small piece of theatre. These techniques have not survived in commercial kitchens because they do not scale. They have survived in homes, and they have survived here.

## Two Sessions a Day — Midday and Late Afternoon, Maximum Ten Guests Private

The garden kitchen runs two sessions per day. The **midday session** begins at 11:00 with arrival, welcome and tea, runs the cooking from approximately 11:30 to 14:00, and finishes with the shared meal between 14:00 and 15:00. The **late afternoon session** begins at 16:00 with arrival and welcome, cooking between 16:30 and 19:00, and the shared meal from 19:00 to 20:00. Both sessions are private to your group — you do not share the kitchen with strangers, and the cook works only with you for the full three to four hours. Maximum ten guests per session is a hard cap based on the kitchen's counter space and the number of dishes one cook can teach properly to a group; for larger bookings we recommend the second session of the same day or splitting across two days. Hotel pickup and drop-off from Göreme, Uçhisar, Ürgüp or Avanos is available as an add-on at a small transfer fee — typical 2026 rate ten to twenty euros total for the group depending on distance, transparent and unmarked-up.

## Optional Turkish Breakfast Add-On — Twelve Plates Before the Class

For guests who book the midday session, a traditional Turkish village breakfast is available as an add-on package before the cooking begins. The breakfast is laid out under the grape arbour in the garden and includes twelve to fifteen small plates: white cheese, kaşar cheese, olives in three preparations, soft-boiled eggs from the property's own chickens, fresh tomatoes and cucumbers from the greenhouse, three to four homemade jams (apricot, mulberry, fig depending on season), local honey, butter, two kinds of bread baked that morning, menemen on request, and unlimited tea. This is not a hotel breakfast buffet; it is the breakfast a Turkish family eats on a long Sunday morning. The breakfast adds approximately ninety minutes to the day and is priced separately so guests who do not want it are not charged for it. Notify the booking team at least forty-eight hours in advance if you want the breakfast option, so the kitchen can prepare the ingredients fresh.

## Transport, Pricing Honesty, and the Plain-Language Promise

The cooking class fee covers the class itself — instruction, all ingredients, equipment, apron, the shared meal at the end, unlimited tea and Turkish coffee throughout, recipe cards in English and Turkish to take home, and TURSAB-CB compulsory traveller insurance for every guest. Transport to and from the Ürgüp garden is optional and priced separately at the actual transfer rate with no markup added by us; from central Göreme, Uçhisar or Avanos the typical 2026 transfer cost is ten to twenty euros total for the group regardless of group size. If you have your own car or are staying in Ürgüp itself, no transfer is needed. The optional Turkish breakfast add-on is priced separately. Cancellation is free up to seventy-two hours before the session with full refund. Cancellation between seventy-two and twenty-four hours: fifty percent refund. Cancellation within twenty-four hours or no-show: no refund. If we cancel for any reason on our side (cook unavailability, kitchen issue, force majeure) you receive a full refund or free rescheduling. Operated under TURSAB licence 14270, established 2020, serving over twenty thousand guests annually. The promise is simple: what you see in the price is what you pay, transfers and breakfast are added clearly with no surprises, and the cooks teach the same recipe they would cook for their own families.