Cooking schools are popular because they are so rewarding. They allow you to have an intimate, hands-on experience in a new destination, and they send you home with invaluable souvenirs: skills you can put to work in your own kitchen and recipes that will transport you back to the place you learned them. They’re also convivial settings in which to meet new people with similar interests. Even after it’s concluded, a cooking class keeps on giving.

Over the past few years, a culinary evolution has taken place. Propelled by travel and immigration, tastes have changed and once-obscure ingredients are now easy to find at the neighborhood grocer. Cooking schools have fed on that gastronomic curiosity and helped further it, making Americans more sophisticated and knowledgeable when they sit down at the table or head into their own kitchens.

As we’ve traveled around the world, we’ve made it a point to make cooking schools a part of our experiences. As much as anything, they enhance our trips and tell us more about a destination than any guidebook ever could. This is a list of some of our favorite cooking schools, each of which has been vetted by an Andrew Harper editor. All classes are taught in English unless otherwise noted.