An Amorgos cooking class is a hands-on lesson in Greek and Amorgian cooking on the Cycladic island of Amorgos. Guests cook traditional recipes, then eat the meal with a view of the Aegean. Tours across the rest of the country are listed on Greece Tours.
The sections below cover the hosts, the villages, the class steps, the dishes, pastries, ingredients and drinks. They also cover who it suits, inclusions, getting there, the season and booking, with links into the Amorgos pages. The class shown is checked on GetYourGuide.
What is an Amorgos cooking class?
An Amorgos cooking class is a hands-on lesson in a village kitchen on the island. A local chef shows you how to cook Greek and Amorgian dishes. You then eat the meal on a terrace above Aegiali Bay.
The main host is Vigla Hotel in Tholaria, a family-run hotel with 24 rooms. Its chef, Irini, leads each Amorgos cooking class in the hotel kitchen. Her restaurant holds an Aegean cuisine certificate, a label for cooking in the island style.
You cook two savoury dishes or one dessert in a single session. The vegetables come from the hotel’s own gardens, and the oil comes from its olive groves. Mother and daughter run the kitchen together.
An Amorgos cooking class is also a short lesson in island food. Patatato, fava and psimeni raki all come up at the stove. The Amorgos food page covers the wider island kitchen.
Which Amorgos cooking classes can you book?
The main Amorgos cooking class to book is the GetYourGuide listing Amorgos: Greek Cooking or Pastry Class. Dream Blue runs it at Vigla Hotel in Tholaria. Aegialis Hotel and Spa in Aegiali also runs its own class with Mrs Eirini.
The Dream Blue class comes in two formats. The short version lasts 1.5 hours and the long version lasts 2.5 hours with lunch. Both use the same kitchen and the same chef.
The Aegialis Hotel class runs in its Ambrosia Gallery Restaurant. It lasts 2.5 hours and ends with a full meal of everything you made. Its chef wrote a cookbook called My Amorgos.
- Amorgos: Greek Cooking or Pastry Class, 1.5 hours, Vigla Hotel, Tholaria
- Traditional Greek Cooking Class, 2.5 hours with lunch, Vigla Hotel, Tholaria
- Authentic Greek Cooking Class, 2.5 hours, Aegialis Hotel and Spa, Aegiali
- Private Amorgos cooking class with hotel pick-up
- Two-hour class by a local walking-tour office, meeting in Katapola, Aegiali, Langada or Tholaria
Where does an Amorgos cooking class take place?
An Amorgos cooking class takes place in the north of the island, around Aegiali Bay. Vigla Hotel sits at the entrance of Tholaria village, next to the car park. Aegialis Hotel stands on the road between Aegiali and Tholaria.
Tholaria is a hill village above the bay, a five-minute drive from the port of Aegiali. A footpath also links the village and the beach in about 30 minutes. From the Vigla terrace you look across to Langada, Ormos and Mount Kroukelos.
Aegiali is the port town on the bay, with the beach and the ferry quay. The Aegiali page has the detail. Langada is the second hill village, where the private Amorgos cooking class offers hotel pick-up.
Katapola is the main port in the south, and the tour-office class meets there as well. See the Katapola page for the port itself. The villages page describes every settlement on the island.
What happens step by step in an Amorgos cooking class?
An Amorgos cooking class starts at the hotel reception. You then spend about an hour in the kitchen chopping, stuffing and layering. The meal on the terrace comes next. You leave with a written recipe and a small gift.
You meet at the Vigla Hotel reception by the village car park. Chef Irini first explains the day’s ingredients and where they grew. Then everyone gets a job at the counter.
- Pick the two dishes or the one dessert for the day
- Hear about the olive oil, herbs and garden vegetables
- Cut aubergines, courgettes and tomatoes, or fill peppers with rice and herbs
- Layer the moussaka or roll the kataifi, then put it in the oven
- Swim in the hotel pool while the food cooks
- Eat the meal on the terrace and take the recipe sheet home
Groups stay small. The Vigla Amorgos cooking class takes up to 10 people, and the tour-office class takes two to five. One party of four adults had the kitchen to itself. The chef answers questions about island life while the dishes bake.
Which dishes does an Amorgos cooking class teach?
An Amorgos cooking class teaches patatato, the island’s goat and potato casserole. Greek home dishes such as gemista, moussaka, tzatziki, fava and aubergine salad follow. Pastitsio, a baked pasta dish, is on the Vigla list too.
Patatato is goat meat and potatoes cooked slowly in tomato sauce with red wine and cinnamon. Villages serve it from big pots at summer feasts in Langada and Kolofana. Chef Irini shares the spices that give it depth.
Gemista are tomatoes and peppers filled with rice and herbs. Moussaka layers aubergine, minced meat and béchamel, a thick white milk sauce. Fava is a purée of yellow split peas with lemon juice and onion.
The Aegialis Hotel class adds vegetable croquettes and tzatziki, the yoghurt, cucumber and garlic dip. Each Amorgos cooking class cooks two of these dishes, so the menu shifts with the season.
Which pastries and sweets does an Amorgos cooking class cover?
The pastry option of the Amorgos cooking class makes one dessert in place of two savoury dishes. The choices are galaktoboureko, a semolina custard pie in phyllo, and kataifi rolls. The rolls hold walnuts, clove and cinnamon and sit in syrup.
Phyllo is the thin pastry sheet used in Greek pies. The Aegialis Amorgos cooking class teaches you to roll it by hand. It also makes loukoumades, small fried dough balls dipped in honey.
Methismena amorgiana are on the Aegialis menu as well. The name means drunk Amorgian pies in English. The island has other sweets that you meet at feasts and in bakeries.
- Xerotigana, crisp fried pastry spirals made with raki and sesame and drizzled with honey
- Pasteli, a bar of sesame seeds and honey
- Melomakarona, honey biscuits served with patatato at the Stavros feast in Langada
- Spoon sweets, fruit preserved in syrup and offered to guests in village houses
- Loukoumi, a soft jelly sweet handed out with rakomelo at the monasteries
Chora holds a pasteli festival each August, with a cooking pot set up in the Loza square. The Chora page has the village detail. The pasteli is tasted with psimeni raki, the island’s honey-sweetened raki.
Which local ingredients does an Amorgos cooking class use?
An Amorgos cooking class cooks with island produce. The Tholaria host uses aubergines, potatoes, tomatoes, courgettes, olives and olive oil from local orchards. Goat meat goes into patatato. Thyme honey, fava, goat’s cheese and wild herbs add the island’s own flavours.
Chef Irini in Tholaria picks fresh, seasonal produce for each Amorgos cooking class. Guests learn about Greek olive oil during the lesson. The same vegetables fill the gemista and the moussaka.
Amorgos makes its cheeses from goat’s milk. Mizithra is a soft, fresh cheese. Xinomizithra is its sour version, and kopanisti is sharp and peppery. Anthotiro is a mild, crumbly cheese.
- Goat meat for patatato, the island’s stew of meat and potatoes
- Yellow split peas for fava, a creamy purée
- Thyme honey and blossom honey, called anthomelo, for syrups
- Capers picked wild and kept in vinegar, leaves and all
- Cinnamon sticks, red wine and onion for the patatato pot
Which drinks come with an Amorgos cooking class?
An Amorgos cooking class ends with a drink. The Tholaria class gives each guest one free drink: a glass of wine, a beer or a soft drink. The Aegiali class includes a glass of local wine. Psimeni raki is the island’s own sweet spirit.
Psimeni raki means “baked raki”. Raki is a clear spirit distilled from pressed grape skins. Islanders boil it with honey, sugar, cinnamon and cloves. The drink turns sweet and honey-coloured, at about 20 percent alcohol.
People drink it at room temperature, before or after a meal. The monks at Hozoviotissa monastery offer a glass to visitors. Every family keeps its own recipe, so the sweetness changes from house to house.
Katapola holds a psimeni raki festival every 26 July, with free pasteli and music. The 2.5-hour Amorgos cooking class lunch in Tholaria lists alcoholic drinks, bottled water and soft drinks.
Who suits an Amorgos cooking class?
An Amorgos cooking class suits beginners, families and keen home cooks. The Tholaria group holds up to 10 people. Children aged 6 and over can join. Hosts teach in English and Greek. The Aegiali hotel menu of fava, tzatziki and vegetable croquettes is meat-free.
Families with teenagers have cooked a vegetarian moussaka in Tholaria. Pushchairs fit the space, and the host has seats for babies.
One local operator takes 2 to 5 people per class. A couple or a single family gets the kitchen to itself. Meeting points are Katapola, Aegiali, Langada or Tholaria.
- Beginners who have never rolled filo pastry
- Families with children aged 6 and over
- Vegetarians who want fava, tzatziki and loukoumades
- Walkers taking a rest day from the Amorgos hiking trails
Guests who stay in Tholaria or Aegiali walk to their Amorgos cooking class. The where to stay in Amorgos page lists hotels in both villages.
How long does an Amorgos cooking class last, and what is included?
An Amorgos cooking class lasts 1.5 to 2.5 hours. The Tholaria lesson takes about 1.5 hours, and the version with a full lunch takes 2.5 hours. Both include the meal, a drink and a written recipe. The Aegiali class takes 2.5 hours.
The 1.5-hour Amorgos cooking class covers cooking and a tasting on the terrace by the pool. The terrace looks over Aegiali Bay and Mount Kroukelos. Guests take home a written recipe.
The 2.5-hour version adds a sit-down lunch of every dish. A souvenir gift comes at the end. One booking site names it as a wooden ladle.
- All ingredients and cooking tools
- An English-speaking local host
- A tasting or lunch of everything you cook
- One drink: wine, beer or a soft drink
- Hotel pick-up from Aegiali, Tholaria or Langada on one booking option
How do you get to an Amorgos cooking class?
An Amorgos cooking class in Tholaria sits 3 km from Aegiali port and 24 km from Katapola port. Vigla Hotel stands at the village entrance, next to the car park. Langada is 5 km from Aegiali. Buses, taxis and hire cars reach all three villages.
From Aegiali harbour, Tholaria is a 30-minute walk uphill. The village sits 182 metres above the sea. Go to the hotel reception desk on arrival.
From Katapola, the road crosses the island and climbs above 600 metres. The 21 km drive to Aegiali takes 25 to 40 minutes. The bus takes 40 minutes to an hour, with a stop at Chora.
A small ferry also links the two ports in about 50 minutes, three times a week. The how to get to Amorgos page covers every ferry route.
When does an Amorgos cooking class run, and how do you book and cancel it?
An Amorgos cooking class in Tholaria runs daily from April to October. Guests book the Aegiali hotel class with their stay, and one local operator cooks all year. You book online, pay later and cancel free up to 24 hours before the start.
The Tholaria listing needs a booking at least 24 hours ahead. Start times for each Amorgos cooking class appear once you pick a date. You choose the cooking menu or the pastry menu at that point.
The reserve-now, pay-later option holds a place with no payment on the day of booking. A full refund follows any cancellation made 24 hours or more before the start.
- Pick the cooking option or the pastry option
- Choose a date between April and October
- Pay now or pay later
- Meet at the Vigla Hotel reception desk
The when to visit Amorgos page compares the months. Pair the class with the other things to do in Amorgos.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you use the hotel pool during an Amorgos cooking class?
Yes. The Tholaria class runs in a hotel with a pool, and guests swim while the food bakes. Vigla Hotel is a family-run hotel with 25 sea-view rooms. Bring swimwear and a towel, and return to the terrace when the dishes come out.
Is there a cookbook from the Aegiali host?
Yes. Mrs Eirini, who leads the class at the Aegialis Hotel, has written a cookbook called My Amorgos. It holds the recipes taught in the Ambrosia Gallery Restaurant, from loukoumades to drunk Amorgian pies. Guests buy a copy at the hotel and cook the full menu at home.
Do guests get a welcome drink at the Tholaria class?
One guest described a strawberry and lemon iced drink on arrival while the staff set up the kitchen. The hosts then walk everyone through each step, with patient explanations for first-time cooks. Reviews praise the kindness of the instructor and the fresh ingredients on the bench.
Is there a similar class on Naxos?
Yes. Naxos has the nearest airport to Amorgos, and ferries link the two islands. Its own Naxos cooking class works well on the same trip. Visitors fly into Naxos, cook there, then sail on for an Amorgos cooking class with a second island menu.