Our Experience at the Excellent Cartagena Cooking Class at Lunático

During our visit to Cartagena in the summer of 2024, I decided to treat my mom to a cooking class at Lunático Cooking Studio in Cartagena.

I had heard really good things about their Cartagena cooking class. I like to cook, and my mom likes to cook, so I thought it would be something fun for us to do together.

Plus, I figured it’d be a good way to learn how to make a few things I’ve missed since we moved back to the states after living in Cartagena for 11 years.

My mom and I really enjoyed our class at Lunático, and I would definitely recommend it if you’re looking for a cooking class in Cartagena, Colombia.

Read on for a complete write up and review of our experience.

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Lúnatico Cooking Studio in Cartagena

It had never really occurred to me to take a cooking class in Cartagena in the many years I was living there. I picked up a few things here and there from Susana, her mom, or other friends and family.

I guess while I was living there, I wanted to cook things from the states I missed, since I could get Cartagenero and Colombian food anytime.

Now, that I’m living back in the states, that’s reversed, and I’ve found myself craving some old Cartagena favorites every now and then.

Of course, that’s doubly the case for Susana, Cartagena born and bred!

So, I thought a Cartagena cooking class might not only be a good thing to experience and write about for this website, but it would also be something I would enjoy. Plus, I’d get some useful knowledge go apply in the kitchen back home.

My mom also enjoys cooking, so I decided to plan this the week she joined us while we spent the summer of 2024 in Cartagena.

I had seen the cooking classes at Lunático Cooking Studio recommended more and more often the last few years, so that was where I booked our Cartagena cooking class.

Lunático is located in Getsemaní and has a gorgeous view of the Castillo San Felipe fortress. Their food is actually really good too with a mix of creativity and traditional ingredients and dishes.

When I had last been there while we were living in Cartagena, they were called Caffe Lunático and the cooking class was more a side project.

However, they’ve since rebranded as Lunático Experience and the focus of their business is the cooking class and other similar experiences.

Here are some of the experiences Lunático offers:

• Cooking Classes
• Rum and Chocolate Tastings
• Craft Beer Tastings
• Cocktail and Mixology Classes

In fact, when I was looking at options for the cooking class in Cartagena to do with my mom, I decided to go ahead and do a rum tasting here too!

I considered the craft beer tasting too but didn’t do it on this trip.

I did enjoy a couple craft beers when having lunch here a couple times during this trip though and thought they had as good a selection as you’ll find in Cartagena.

Menu Options for Lunático’s Cooking Class in Cartagena

But, I’ve digressed.

Lúnatico offers a number of options for their cooking classes in Cartagena.

There is a lunch class and a dinner class, and the menus rotate.

Most of the menus are three course meals with an appetizer, main course, and dessert. However, there are a few classes dedicated to ceviche as well as a couple bakery classes throughout the week too.

You can also combine a tour to the Mercado Bazurto city market with a lunch cooking class on some days during the week. If you’re interested in touring Bazurto, this would be a pretty unique way to do it, since you’ll be going to actually buy the ingredients you’ll be using for lunch.

I feel pretty confident, any of the options are good choices based on how much we enjoyed our class.

We chose the Red Snapper menu, which includes carimañolas, or fried yuca fritters, red snapper in coconut sauce with coconut rice, and enyucado, a sweet and savory dessert almost like a sponge cake made from yuca, cheese, and coconut.

Honestly, all the classes sounded wonderful though, and it was a hard choice.

There’s a menu that teaches you how to make arepa de huevo, something I’d love to learn how to make confidently, one that teaches the posta negra beef dish that is a local favorite, and one that includes the cazuela de mariscos seafood stew, one of my personal favorite dishes.

So, be sure to plan at least a bit in advance since the menus rotate around between different days and times if there is a particular one you want to do. Also, you might want to check out my posts on the best Cartagena street food and the best traditional dishes to try in Cartagena.

I decided on the Red Snapper menu because I really wanted some pointers on coconut rice, it fit our schedule for the week the best, it was the menu combination that sounded most delicious overall to me, and it had the most dishes I think I’d be more likely to make back home.

Our Cartagena Cooking Class Experience

We did the lunch time Cartagena cooking class, which started at 10 am.

When we arrived at Lunático, we were greeted by our head chef and teacher Daniel. He is originally from Barranquilla, lived in several different countries, including Australia, working as a chef, and recently moved back to Colombia.

His English was great and he added a good mix of humor and personality to our lesson.

We also were greeted with nice little work stations, complete with our own cutting board, knife, mixing spoons, and apron.

There were 2 other couples in our group. So, we formed 3 pairs or teams, and we all sat around a big table, stove, and prep area, sort of like a hibachi grill for cooking.

Daniel put each team in charge of different parts of the meal.

For example, one couple did the mixing of the enyucado, one couple did the stirring and cooking of the coconut rice, and my mom cooked the fish.

I had never done a cooking class before, so I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect to be honest.

The one thing that I guess I wish was different was that I would have liked to have made all the dishes ourselves.

However, I understand how that might not make the most logistical sense in a shared class.

The class was still very interactive, and we weren’t bored. We all got to cut, slice, and mix things for each dish, and Daniel did a good job explaining and letting us all see each step of each dish too.

We started with dessert actually, and prepped the ingredients for the enyucado.

Oh, wait, actually we started with a shot of aguardiente to get us in the proper mood for work!

Then, we peeled and grated some yuca and cheese for our enyucado.

Next, we got to break a coconut, using a stick that I forgot the name of.

Honestly, this was probably one of the highlights of our Cartagena cooking class and everyone had a good laugh at each other’s skills (or lack thereof) at breaking the coco.

A word of warning though!

My mom realized after our cooking class that she had sort of bent and dented a ring (an emerald ring she bought in Cartagena on a previous trip actually) from holding the coconut while hitting it.

So, you might want to watch out for any rings on your off hand fingers!

Once we got it split open, we carved out the sweet meat with spoons. Probably for the best, Daniel threw it all in a blender rather than make us hand grate it the true traditional way.

The first team then mixed the the yuca, along with coconut, cheese, some butter, and some anise, poured it all into a pan, setting it aside to bake later for dessert.

Next, we got to work on our carimañolas, which would be our appetizer.

These are fried yuca fritters that are particular to the Caribbean region (hence the name carimañola, derived from Caribbean). As Daniel explained, historically frying food helped ensure any bacteria was killed, and why fried street food is so prominent.

Turns out it tastes pretty good too!

We made 3 types of carimañolas: cheese, beef, and crab, with each team responsible for prepping one of them.

My mom and I did the crab carimañolas.

We mixed together some spices and lime juice for a marinade and then got to work forming the fritters.

We rolled around the yuca dough, adding in some achiote oil, which I learned give the carimañolas the brown golden color when fried. If they are white, they were made without the achiote oil.

We tried two methods to form the fritters: one where we formed it around our thumb to create sort of a cone and then closing off the top after adding the crab, and one where made a circle and folded it over, sort of like an empanada but rounding it off more.

We seemed to have better success with the former.

We then popped them into the deep fryer until they came out golden brown and steamy.

Oh, by the way, another good tip I learned from our Cartagena cooking class is that when you fry something with a filling like this, you need to poke a hole in it so air and vapor can escape and not explode.

I liked that we ate the carimañolas fresh, giving everyone a little break, and they were great with the suero, sort of like sour cream sauce Daniel made.

I must say, I don’t think I have ever seen street food plated and presented so well (we plated our food ourselves, but only after watching Daniel).

We did a toast to our tasty creation with some corozo wine and enjoyed a few minutes of chatting before heading back over the chefs’ station to start on the main course: coconut rice and red snapper cooked in coconut sauce.

Next up was prepping and getting the coconut rice going.

We were making coconut rice with titoté, which includes cooking the coconut milk with panela, or unrefined sugar cane, until it caramelizes.

You can also make white coconut rice with regular sugar or just add panela for a bit of color, but it’s totally worth the extra time to get the creamy, smokey, sweetness of the titoté (and it’s definitely worth ordering this way when eating out in Cartagena too, by the way!).

Once the coconut rice was well underway and simmering, the next step was to filet the very large fish, which we left in Daniel’s capable hands. He added some left over marinade from our crab carimañolas and set it aside.

Then, we prepped the patacones.

First, we sliced the plantains into about inch long sections and peeled them. Then they were fried until soft, and we mashed them into patties to be fried to golden crispy completeness later.

Next, my mom took over cooking the fish, sautéing it skin side down first.

Next, we added the a sauce of coconut milk, lime, and the left over marinade into the pan, and she cooked the fish in it, simmering until it was done.

When it was all done, we plated our very gourmet looking meals and enjoyed our tasty lunch with a glass of wine and some more conversation.

And of course, the first shall be last and we got to sample the enyucado we started our Cartagena cooking class with for dessert.

Our Cartagena Cooking Class Experience Conclusion

If I say so myself, all the food we made was exquisite!

In all seriousness, I really enjoyed it, and, more importantly, my mom really enjoyed it.

While I would have liked to have had to do all the steps of the coconut rice myself so I could remember it, I feel like we always had something to do and the class was very interactive and I definitely learned some things I can use not just for these dishes but in the kitchen more generally.

And, I should point out, Daniel did send us all the recipes, so now I just have to find the time to try my hand at the rice.

The whole class took around 3 hours, and while I think Lunático’s prices are a tad on the higher side for Cartagena, I don’t think it was a bad value, considering you get a pretty great meal included.

If you’re interested in learning more about Cartagenero and Colombian cuisine and doing a cooking class in Cartagena, I definitely recommend it.

You can book your Cartagena cooking class online, just as I said before, check the menus for what you’d most be interested in cooking before hand!

• Book the Cartagena Cooking Class at Lunático on GetYourGuide
• Book the Cartagena Cooking Class at Lunático on Viator

You might also want to check out the other experiences at Lunático:

• Rum and Chocolate Tasting
• Craft Beer Tasting
• Cocktail Mixology Class

I hope you found this write up and review of our experience of doing a cooking class in Cartagena useful. Most importantly, if you do a cooking class, I hope you enjoy it as much as we did, and your food is delicious too. If you do do one, I’d love to know about it in the comments below. I’d especially love to know how the other menus are.

Cheers and Happy Cooking!