Split: Cooking Class with Market Tour & Local Wines

4.95

(156 reviews)

What’s the experience like?

We ducked under striped awnings at Split’s old market, weaving past stalls where the air smelled like fresh dill and sea salt. Our guide, Ana, greeted almost everyone by name — she even teased one of the fishermen about his octopus (he winked back). I tried to pronounce “blitva” right but probably mangled it. The whole place buzzed, but not in a touristy way; just real people buying dinner. We picked out shiny sardines and fat tomatoes for our cooking class, and Ana slipped a sprig of rosemary into my bag when I wasn’t looking.

Back in the kitchen, there was music playing — something local, kind of bouncy. Chef Marko poured us tiny glasses of rakija (“for courage,” he grinned) before we started chopping. The olive oil was greener than any I’d seen at home. My hands still smelled like garlic hours later, honestly. Marko showed me how to clean fish without making a total mess (I failed, but he just laughed). We tasted the wine — crisp white from nearby hills — while stirring pots and sneaking bites of cheese. There were stories about his grandmother’s recipes, and someone burned the onions a little but nobody cared.

Sitting down together at the end felt more like joining a family meal than anything formal. There was this moment when the late afternoon light hit the table just right and everything went quiet for a second except forks scraping plates. I still think about that view from the window — rooftops and church bells somewhere in the distance — and how full I felt, not just from food but from being let in for a little while.