BentoYa Cooking

We learned a lot about the ingredients and steps to prepare vegetarian Gyoza, miso Ramen and dessert. Kaori teached us also some cooking tricks to get the perfect structure. Chatting about our cultures was fun, too. If you are looking for a pleasant vegetarian or vegan cooking class - Kaori‘s is the right one! Thank you very much, we enjoyed our time!

It was quite interesting to learn about what kind of ingredients used for vegan ramen and gyoza, also very lovely house where we took the class. But there are some things to consider : 1) Cost : We’ve been living in Japan for quite sometime so understand how much it will cost to get all ingredients around here quite well. It is extremely overpriced considering not all ingredients were freshly bought but leftover from whatever used in the kitchen. Not saying it should be all new and fresh but it was very obvious all the ingredients used in the class are somewhat reused or leftovers from home cooking (e.g used miso paste, used oils, used condiments…) So I would say total cost of ingredients required to buy fresh (gyoza wrap, some vegetables, noodles…) for this class would be less than usd20 per person at maximum. 2) Time : It is 1.5 hrs maximum for cooking and eating what you made. First 30min will be looking around local supermarket to learn about what ingredients to be used (which is nice experience too especially for tourists) and after that you walk to the house for another 15min. We met at the station around 10am, started cooking around 10:45, ended cooking around 11:50 and eating food for about 10-15min and left the place at 12:15. There could be another 30min to be added if you want to go back to supermarket and buy some souvenirs to bring back home. But consider that actual class is give or take 1 hour. 3) Quality : You won’t be cooking at the stove at all. At best you’ll chop few slices of vegetables and add condiments and make sauces. I was expecting to make everything from the scratch by myself but it’s more like Kaori cooks for you while you help chopping few ingredients and make simple sauce for gyoza. You do make gyoza filling and shapes though which was quite nice, but you don’t get to do much with ramen. Besides noodles are store bought, which was expected but for people who make fresh pasta at home or like to cook from the scratch it won’t give you the satisfaction. I expected high quality of lessons because it’s private and the price is not cheap but it’s a very basic simple daily house cooking which I think again doesn’t justify with the cost. 4) Cleanliness : It’s one of the things that I found disappointing. If you’re visiting friends and make something together sure it can be bit messy, but afterall this is paid cooking class. You expect that stove is clean and the bowls used are clean. I found lots of dirt marks around the kitchen stove and seatings, as well as hairs on the bowls, some unknown food marks on the chopping boards and small containers. You are also using miso paste from the container that seemed to be used for other cookings before as well. Overall, I think Kaori is nice and it’s interesting experience but I would think twice for trying again or recommending to someone else. Cost is too high for the quality and the experience you get.

Kaori is such a friendly and open person. My daughter and I learned how to make a superdelicious Japanese BentoBox quickly and easily. Then we went shopping, because Kaori explained everything to us in the supermarket. Thank you Kaori, we had a super good time Stefanie and Carolin

We enjoyed every minute of our cooking class, not only was the food delicious, Kaori was an amazing host and teacher. She kept the recipe simple and easy for us newbies to follow, which was much appreciated. I would absolutely recommend this course to those travelling to Japan.

I took the cooking class with Kaori. She picked me up at the station and first we went to the local supermarket where she showed me the products we would be using and also told me, with what I could substitute it, if I can‘t get it in Germany. Next we went to her house and we cooked a vegan Ramen and Vegan Gyoza. I learned so much that I can also use for other vegan dishes that I cook. It tasted absolutely delicious and we also had some great conversations when we had the great food that we cooked together. Thank you again, Kaori, for the great time and the things I learned. Hope to take another class with you some other time.

The cooking lesson was so much fun, Kayo was so nice and talked to us and asked us questions about ourselves She explained about the groceries and gave us the recipe! The ramen and gyouza were delicious Very recommended!!

We had a great experience cooking vegan ramen and gyoza with Kaori at her home. There was another couple together with us, which made the whole event even more entertaining. We first went to the local supermarket to explore all the ingredients, which we prepared together later. Kaori was very welcoming and explained everything in detail, and even prepared a birthday cake for my boyfriend as the cooking event was his birthday present - really a great surprise for us in the end! We would definitely recommend to do the course to experience Japan and the local cuisine.

The instructor was very nice and knowledge about the Japanese ingredients. Although there was no tour of any supermarket or market. Over all we did enjoyed the class.

Very interesting and lovely teacher. The food was great.

We had a great time cooking in a private Japanese home and got nice tips, with a pleasant host.

Kaori was such a lovely lady, she walked me from the nearest station to her house and was very warm. The food was delicious! Highly recommend!

The session is informative as rina will impart knowledge about common Japanese ingredients used in cooking through a supermarket tour. The cooking is a mixture of teacher demonstration and hands on by participants to eventually cook the bowl of ramen and Gyoza together. Recipes will also be given so you can remember the steps to cook the ramen and Gyoza.

Enjoyed the supermarket tour, Gyoza and ramen making process.

This cooking class was awesome! I booked it as a single person. Two other "students" joined the group. Rina, our lovely instructor completed the class. First we went to a typical japanese supermarket and Rina showed and explained us the ingredents we´ll use later for our delicous Ramen and Gyoza. Then we went to her place and started to cook Ramen and Gyoza. Rina explained us everything we have to know about Ramen and Gyoza. She was very kind and patient and of couse we had to chop and measure up everything ourselves. And the result was just awesome and delicous. I´m already excited to cook this for my friends when I´m back in Germany! I can just recommend this cooking class :)

Rina was very welcoming and a very good host. We had a lot of fun learning about Japanese cooking and really enjoyed ourselves. Highly recommended!