Top Rhône-Alpes Cooking Classes

Cooking classes can be a great way to learn about a country’s culture, but not many let you navigate the markets where the food is bought too. Learn about Lyon cuisine on this half-day small-group experience, by exploring Lyon’s Croix Rousse Market and taking part in a cooking class before enjoying an authentic 4-course French lunch paired with cheese and wine. Hotel pick-up and drop-off are not included.

There’s more to French cooking today than foie gras and heavy cream sauces. Learn how French families eat from your foodie host on this intimate private encounter. First, explore the farmers market, meet stallholders, discover the finest local organic produce, and shop for ingredients. Next, return to your host’s chic apartment, watch her prepare a globally influenced modern French feast, then share your meal at the dining table with wine.

From light and tangy macarons to rich éclairs, France is known around the world for its pastries and desserts. Learn the secret of making authentic French pastries on this half-day small-group cooking class in Lyon presented by a professional chef. You’ll get to take home everything you make, so you can share with your friends and family.

Immerse yourself in the wines of Burgundy, Beaujolais, and the Rhone Valley during this workshop held in a restored 19th-century silk factory in the Croix-Rousse neighborhood. You'll learn about the winemaking process from grape to glass, led by a wine educator who will be happy to answer any of your questions. Snacks and tastings of all the different varietals are included.

Unlike Lyon's standard guided tours, this experience is led by a professional sommelier and stays up in the authentic Croix-Rousse district, well away from the tourist trail. No guide reeling off dates here, you pick your own products straight from the neighbourhood's genuine artisans, taste Lyon's specialities one by one as they're explained to you, and finish with a proper wine-tasting workshop where you'll learn to taste Rhône Valley wines like a pro.

Guided by a local sommelier, you don't just taste, you learn by doing. You'll start with the basics for reading a wine properly, then move to the heart of the workshop, which is food and wine pairing. You'll try the good pairings and the bad ones alike, so you grasp for yourself, concretely, why some combinations lift each other up while others fall flat. The workshop builds in stages, from goat versus cow to young cheese versus long-aged, then on to blue cheese, where you're fully on your own to think it through and call it. Along the way you'll explore France's terroirs, with the grape varieties, soils and microclimates all explained without the jargon. Standing, sociable and outdoors whenever the weather allows, the whole thing unfolds in a genuine Croix-Rousse wine cellar. A deep dive into gastronomic Lyon without ever leaving the neighbourhood.

For this private day gourmet experience, we will pick you up to drive to Lyon countryside. You’ll visit farms and meet the people who keep the region’s culinary traditions alive. We will shop for fresh, seasonal ingredients from farmers for the menu confirmed with the chef. For lunch, you will head to a family owned local restaurant before heading back to Lyon ! In the afternoon, you'll meet your chef in the heart of Lyon's historic quarter for your private cooking class. With his guidance, you’ll cook a menu inspired by the day’s harvest and local traditions. At the end of the day, sit down together to enjoy your creations — paired, of course, with local wines.

Choosing where to eat and drink in Lyon can be overwhelming, especially for first-timers. Skip the tourist traps with this small-group food-and-wine tasting session led by a sommelier. Sip different varietals that you may not have tried before, paired with complementary cheeses. Learn about different flavor profiles and regional winemaking processes as you practise detecting specific notes.

I have a lot of great stories to tell you about gastronomy! The land is full of surprises and so will be your plates!

Unlike classic tastings you don’t only taste good pairings. Your sommelier also serves deliberate mismatches so you feel for yourself what makes a pairing work and why another one fails. It is the quickest way to train your palate and the most fun one too. On the table you’ll find a generous selection of the Lyonnaise specialties locals really eat. They come from the artisans the Lyonnais trust and are far from the dishes served on tourist menus. Each one meets fine wines that take you on a journey across France and its great vineyards. Your host trained in Burgundy and worked as a sommelier in a renowned restaurant before devoting himself to sharing wine and its pairings. Seated in a characterful wine cellar of the Croix-Rousse in a small group of up to 8 guests you can ask every question and leave able to choose your own pairings.

Here, no frozen tasting or formatted speech. Sommelier Lyonnais by birth, your host gives you a real method to look, smell and analyze a wine, understand the pairings and choose a bottle with confidence, whether in the restaurant or at home. To make the moment even more lively, make room for pétanque, while one team plays, the other continues the tasting, and each alternates between balls and glass in hand. This mix of learning and play, in an authentic neighborhood cellar of the Plateau de la Croix-Rousse, creates a relaxed and warm atmosphere not found in standardized tourist tastings. A real Lyon break, thought like a good afternoon with friends.

1. Walk from Bellecour Square to the wine-tasting room located in Vieux Lyon., Enjoy a leisurely walk to our private wine tasting venue in the heart of Old Lyon. Along the way, discover one traboule, the famous hidden passageways. 2. Wine tasting of 4 wines paired with 4 local cheeses. to the world of cheese and wine, discovering the main families of cheeses (goat, cow, sheep), traditional production methods, and the key cheese-making regions near Lyon. 3. Enjoy a convivial break with Lyon-style charcuterie, paired with a fruity Beaujolais red wine, perfect for preparing your palate for the chocolate and wine tasting pairing. 4. Taste 4 exquisite chocolates, carefully selected from renowned chocolatiers, each paired with a red wine from the Lyon region or southern France, for unique chocolate and wine pairings.

Savor the delicious cheeses and fine wines of the French Alps with this private tasting tour in the alpine city of Annecy. Learn about regional specialties from an expert sommelier and "Meilleur Ouvrier de France" cheese specialist, sip a selection of local wines, and tuck into tasty cheeses, including Chevrotin, Beaufort d’Alpages, and the Tome des Bauges.

On the way to the wine-tasting room, discover one of the city's famous traboules, the hidden passageways that connect parallel streets through historic buildings. Step into a beautiful apartment in the heart of Vieux Lyon and enjoy a unique wine tasting experience. As you settle in, your sommelier will introduce the wine regions surrounding Lyon and guide you through an authentic tasting journey featuring regional wines paired with some of the city's most iconic specialties. Over the next 2 hours, discover six wines from the renowned wine regions surrounding Lyon, including the Côtes du Rhône, Beaujolais, Mâconnais and Burgundy. As you taste each wine, your sommelier will introduce the grape varieties, terroirs and traditions that make these regions so distinctive. Each wine is paired with a selection of Lyon's iconic specialties, including St-Marcellin cheese, Lyon-style charcuterie, artisanal chocolates and the city's famous praline treats. The experience concludes at 1:00 p.m.

This private experience lets you enjoy a real time of sharing and exchange with the expert who accompanies you on this tasting of Savoy wines and cheeses. He prepares in advance the pairings he wishes you to discover over the course of nearly two hours, as well as the order in which you will taste them. As the tasting progresses, he introduces you to the products, where they come from, how they're made, and makes you guess at the different aromas you might perceive. He also explains why the two go so well together. It's a real immersion experience in the terroir.