Kefalonia cooking class with kids – review

There’s nothing quite like sitting at a shady table, tucking into a huge spread of delicious Greek food – and that goes double when you’ve made it yourself, as I discovered at our Kefalonia cooking class.

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Set on a prickly pear farm around 20 minutes from the island capital Argostoli, our two-hour Greek cooking class promised to teach us four different dishes before letting us devour the results.

And as well as classic tzatziki and spanakopita, we made a Greek version of bruschetta, with local oregano and herby feta on top, plus a fantastic dessert using semolina and mantoles, red sugar-covered almonds which are a speciality of the island.

All the food we made was vegetarian, but our host Maggy also tailored the dishes for my daughter, removing any yoghurt, dill or feta, which meant she could tuck in as well.

Our small group was joined by one other, which made it all feel very personal – almost as if we had wandered into someone’s kitchen and they had decided to teach us their grandmother’s recipes.

Set on a shady terrace looking down onto the prickly pears, we each had a little workstation with chopping board and knife, plus a small hob at the end, with Maggy dividing up tasks between us as we worked our way through creating the courses.

Firstly, we tackled dessert, as it needs time to set in the fridge. As my daughter poured the main ingredients – oil, semolina, sugar and water – into a saucepan to be stirred by someone else, I was busy bashing up the almonds in their bright red sugar shells.

It’s surprisingly satisfying, with a handful of bigger pieces held back as decoration, and the rest added to the heated mixture turning it an unexpectedly pretty shade of pink.

Maggy’s version, she told us, had about half the sugar used by traditional recipes – grabbing a spoon for a quick taste before it was taken away to set, we all decided it was just the right amount of sweetness. Apparently the Americans who’ve joined her class have all thought it needs to be sweeter, while Germans tend to think it’s still too sweet though!

While we cooked, Maggy brought out a plate of snacks for us to nibble as we worked – thin slices of toasted bread with olive oil, feta and cucumber, or tomatoes for my daughter, plus white wine for the adults (those who – unlike me – weren’t driving, at least).

Then it was time for the tzatziki. Having made it once before on Mykonos, it had amazed me to discover just how simple it is, and just how good it tastes compared to the usual pots of processed tzatziki you get from the supermarket.

As I chopped up a huge bunch of dill, someone else pounded garlic cloves into a paste and grated cucumber before we mixed it all together into the creamy yoghurt. Then added a bit more garlic for good measure!

My daughter, meanwhile, made a separate dish that was somewhere between a green salsa and chimichurri using parsley, tomato, olive oil and lemon.

Next up, our Greek version of bruschetta – having thinly sliced the bread, Maggy toasted that as we diced fat, fresh, red tomatoes, and mixed them with herbs and olive oil, before topping the bread and sprinkling with a thyme and feta mix.

And last but not least, spanakopita. Unlike the thin, flaky filo pastry that you might encounter elsewhere, Maggy told us that the Kefalonia version was simpler and more practical – you want to spend more time eating and enjoying the company, rather than endlessly rolling out pastry.

Makes sense to me! And the pastry itself was very simple, using a type of corn flour – imagine a finer version of polenta rather than the squeaky white flour you get to thicken sauces in the UK – along with normal white flour, oil and white wine.

Kneaded together and rolled out, we then stuffed it with the filling we’d already made – crumbled feta, baby spinach, finely sliced baby leeks, lots more dill and crimped down the edges before folding them over.

If a Cornish pasty moved to Kefalonia, I think this is what you’d end up with.

Then after being fried in a pan over a wood-fired grill until the pastry crisped and went golden, they were ready to eat – you can also bake them if you prefer (and have more time).

Which only left one thing to do. Take our places further along the shady terrace, pour a drink, and attempt to munch our way through the spread. You may want to skip breakfast to do this justice.

We ended up spending longer than two hours there in total, lounging, chatting, drinking and enjoying a taste of laid-back Greek life – Maggy came to check on us periodically but never seemed like she was hurrying us away.

And along with our leftovers (which made for another only slightly less lavish lunch the next day), we also got the recipes to take home with us.

Perfect for tweens and teens who love cooking, there’s nothing too complicated in terms of the recipes, so as long as your kids can use a sharp knife safely, it’s something the whole family can enjoy.

For more ideas of the best things to do in Kefalonia with kids, check out my top picks, along with Kefalonia’s best boat trips and the best beaches in Kefalonia

Kefalonia cooking class: Need to know

We booked our Kefalonia cooking class at Opuntia Kefalonia via Get Your Guide.

The menu does sometimes change depending on what’s in season so if you have particular dietary requirements or restrictions, it’s worth contacting them in advance – when my messages bounced, Get Your Guide support managed to contact Maggy for me to confirm everything ahead of our arrival in Kefalonia.

There’s no minimum age listed, so if you do have younger kids who love cooking, they can certainly join in – ideally once they are safe to use a knife, although there are some tasks where you don’t necessarily even need to do that. I wouldn’t book it with very young children though as they’re likely just to get bored – this is an experience to savour, including the eating part at the end!

You don’t need to be an experienced cook – most recipes only have a few ingredients, you’re splitting the tasks between you, and Maggy oversees everything. If you love cooking and cook regularly, it’s still a fantastic experience – so much more fun getting hands on with the fresh ingredients and a more relaxed approach than the usual daily chore of making dinner!

Transportation isn’t included: if you’re driving, it’s easy to find with Google Maps and there’s some limited parking by a shady tree among the prickly pears – getting off the road onto the rocky surface is best avoided if you have a car with low road clearance though.

Alternatively you can get a taxi to and from the experience or book it as part of a half-day tour departing from Argostoli. There’s also a sunset cooking class option if you’re looking for something to do in Kefalonia with teens in the evening.

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Images copyright MummyTravels

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