Greek Cooking Class — Learning the Zakynthian Kitchen
Greek food is well-known; Zakynthian food is almost entirely unknown outside the island. This is worth correcting, because the island’s cuisine reflects its particular history — 350 years of Venetian rule, then French and British occupation, trade with the Adriatic and the Levant, and a local agricultural tradition of olives, grapes, and sea. The result is a kitchen that shares ingredients with mainland Greece but has a different flavour, different techniques, and dishes that don’t appear anywhere else.
A cooking class on Zakynthos, done properly, is a food history lesson as much as a cooking lesson.
The Dishes
A well-curated Zakynthian cooking class will include some combination of:
The classics everyone expects:
- Moussaka — properly made, which means a long béchamel and meat sauce cooked separately, not the shortcuts that most tourist-facing recipes use
- Spanakopita — spinach and feta pie in handmade phyllo, which is a substantially different product from shop-bought phyllo
- Loukoumades — honey-dipped doughnuts, served hot, the traditional Greek street food
The Zakynthian specialities worth the class:
- Sofrito — thinly sliced veal or beef braised slowly in white wine, vinegar, garlic, and flat-leaf parsley. This is a Venetian dish — it barely exists outside the Ionian islands and is virtually unknown to mainland Greeks. The name comes from the Venetian ‘soffritto.’ The result is extraordinary: gentle, wine-sharp, herby, nothing like what most people expect Greek meat dishes to taste like.
- Skordalia — garlic and potato dip. The mainland version uses bread; the Zakynthian version uses potato and a substantially higher ratio of olive oil, producing something creamier and more intensely flavoured.
- Stifado — braised meat (traditionally rabbit, sometimes beef or venison) slow-cooked with whole pearl onions, cinnamon, cloves, and red wine. A dish that appears across Greece but has a Zakynthian character.
- Mandolato — the island’s famous nougat, made with local honey and almonds. Making it requires technique (the sugar temperature matters enormously) and is the most satisfying thing to master.
Format
Most cooking classes on Zakynthos are run from private homes or small farmhouse kitchens rather than commercial teaching facilities. This is what makes them worth attending: you’re in someone’s kitchen, using their equipment, learning what they actually cook for their family.
Groups are small — typically 4 to 8 people. The format is participatory: you cook what you eat. No demonstration-only classes where a chef cooks and you watch; the class meal is assembled by the participants, with guidance.
The class ends with a meal of everything you’ve made, with wine from the island. This typically takes the form of a long table lunch or dinner, depending on timing.
Booking and Practicalities
Duration: 3–4 hours cooking + meal
Group size: 4–8 people typical
Skill level: No experience necessary; all skill levels accommodated
Language: All classes available in English
Dietary requirements: Most classes can accommodate vegetarian, and many can accommodate vegan with advance notice — the Zakynthian kitchen is surprisingly plant-forward in its non-meat dishes
Season: Year-round — this is one of the best activities for winter and autumn visits
Booking: 24–48 hours advance booking usually sufficient; popular times (July–August) require more lead time
Ask your accommodation for local recommendations — the best cooking classes on Zakynthos are the ones run by individuals, not the packaged experiences sold through hotel desks.
