Haru Cooking Class

Kyoto, Japanese home cooking. Skip the sushi workshop: this is the class for the food Japanese families actually eat on a weeknight. Taro Saeki has taught from his own home in the Shimogamo area since 2010, with no more than eight guests at a time cooking together. The standard menu is four seasonal vegetable dishes plus a wagyu dish, built around a soup and everyday sides such as furofuki daikon, simmered in dashi and topped with sweet miso. Learning a good dashi is the real take-home. There is a vegetarian menu, but note that its stock uses fish flakes, so it is not strictly vegetarian. Classes are on weekdays, usually from 1pm, and bookings open four months ahead, which is about how early you need to plan.