This is a unique activity idea for Amman: a cooking class! This is a cook and dine experience where you… well… cook and dine. There’s a nice story behind the organisation too. Founded by 3 sisters paying homage to their grandmother’s cooking. It’s run by six women and all the spice mixes are homemade and ingredients fresh. You cook authentic Jordanian dishes and then you eat what you cook. This experience is from Beit Sitti (@beitsitti). Let’s dive into the experience.
Beit Sitti
Women power! This is an organisation run by 6 women and it was founded in 2010 by sisters paying homage to the cooking of their grandmother. This level of intricacy and love and heritage will only result in quality experiences and great food of course! It is considered the best cooking and dining experience in Amman. They even have the stamp of approval from royalty – real royals as well as culinary royals (Gordon Ramsay no less!). As you walk in to the place, well actually climb up the steep stairs (if you know you know), you feel like you’re walking into your Jordanian grandma’s home. They’ve nailed the aesthetics.
Read more: https://beitsitti.com/
The experience
Let’s talk about the experience. If you’re after a full hands on cooking experience, It’s not that (I remember doing one in Marrakech), but more of a chilled out relaxed kinda vibe. So, in Marrakech we shopped for the ingredients in the market and then cooked our dishes individually from scratch. And it was a very immersive 3-4 hour experience (from what I remember). Here, you’re more learning about the dishes and helping them to prepare them too. The host takes the lead and the participants help out doing particular parts. It’s like she’s making the dishes and you’re cutting a vegetable here and sprinkling some spices there. So, if you’re after full hands on, this isn’t it. And this may be why there’s a bit of negative reviews online regarding the experience.
Perfect timing
To be honest though, I think this worked out best for our group. There were six of us and had it been a longer experience (like the Marrakech one), some may have ended up bored. That isn’t for everyone. However, this was relaxed and chilled and a little different experience at the same time. So, it was just the perfect amount of time and the perfect amount of energy and effort. Overall, it took about 2 hours (1 hour or maybe less to cook and then 1 hour or less to eat). The Maqluba and Basboosa (two dishes in the meal) in fact were prepared behind the scenes. A wholesome experience overall.
The dining part
The dishes we enjoyed were mutabbal, carrot mutabbal, beetroot mutabbal (this was surprisingly so good and something very different), baba ganouj, salad, fteer, bread and the main event: Maqluba. Everything was delicious and felt homemade with top quality ingredients: I mean they do use their own garden grown vegetables and all their spices are homemade. It felt like dishes made by a grandmother. But the star dish and quite possibly my favourite dish of the whole trip was the Maqluba. The rice was super flavourful and slightly buttery in taste and feel. And the aubergine has a nice subtle taste and compliments the rice and chicken. For dessert we had basboosa and it had to be the best basboosa I’ve ever had! A basboosa is typically a mix of a biscuit and cake, but this was more on the cake side and a coconuty taste. Delicious!
How do you book it? Book your session directly on their website and the price depends on how many people there are in your group. We paid about £30 per person. The cooking part lasts about an hour. Highly recommend this activity if you’re after something different and a little more chilled in the evening.
If you’re traveling to Jordan, especially for the first time, you’ll need a tour guide and transportation. It will make your life easier and the holiday that much more enjoyable. Visiting places like Petra, Wadi Rum and the Dead Sea in a country where English is not spoken much can be challenging. Get in touch to get more details on who we used and would recommend.
Getting there
Google Maps link
