About Tresna Bali Cooking School
Tresna means "love" in Balinese. Our school is built out of love. It would be a mistake to see us as “just another cooking class”. We're NOT an afterthought in a hotel’s restaurant or a table set up in someone’s family compound. We flipped the concept on its head and built our cooking school from the ground up. As the daughter of an architect, Frances custom-designed the school as a Chef’s dream kitchen – reclaimed ironwood workbenches, Italian Patina cupboards, stainless steel counters, teak dining chairs, handmade ceramics, whitewashed cement walls, and brass lamps – down to each doorknob - everything is unique to our school. Adi planted unusual tropical fruit, herbs, roots and vegetables amongst the mature coconut and jackfruit trees. He chose tools for real cooks: razor-sharp chef knives, dedicated cutting boards and volcanic rock mortar and pestles. Imagine chopping and mixing in a spacious, functional kitchen that’s clean, hygienic and functional. You'll pick the freshest and likely, ingredients that you’ve never touched. You'll learn recipes - not found anywhere else in Bali - unique Ceremonial and home-cooked dishes. With our shared love of food and cooking, you will delve into hands-on lessons that feature your hands, not ours. Authentic Balinese Home Cooking
Real Balinese food is a well-hidden secret from tourists. Real Balinese Food is elaborate Ceremonial Food. Or it’s the simplest food cooked behind the walls of a family compound. Our menus are Adi’s original recipes of traditional favourites - honed over decades of cooking for loved ones. We have 38 Recipes where you’ll learn 14 of them in one morning! You’ll cook authentic Balinese Ceremonial dishes as well as family home-cooked dishes. You’ll personally taste and pick the freshest of ingredients from our gardens! Riverside Gardens
Our riverside land is pure virgin jungle and completely organic. You can practically taste the goodness in everything you pick! Look up and you’ll see towering coconut trees and mature tropical fruit trees such as durian, jackfruit, and rambutan. Beyond our beautiful location, we’re systemic in our approach. Having organized some of the most exclusive weddings on the island, we are applying our event expertise to our passion – authentic Balinese food and traditional living culture. Join us in our riverside garden where you pick your very own organic ingredients, using it in the freshest dishes moments later. We redefine "plant to platter" with food, grown steps away from our table. Our Cooking Class
Our class menus are a celebration of the freshest ingredients of that season, and that day. Adi will teach you his step-by-step recipes that he’s honed over 3 decades. You’ll be immersed in a hands-on cooking class, learning 15 authentic Balinese recipes, not found anywhere else. You'll get an "inside" view of real Balinese life – learning the secrets of Balinese ceremony and the special role of food in Temple offerings. Our intimate class size is limited to 8 guests. Start by gathering unusual ingredients from our organic gardens. Each of you will have your very own cooking station for making spices, and shared stations for the dishes. You’ll cook 2 salads, 4 mains, 1 side, 1 dessert, and several spicy sambals. We guarantee that you can repeat all of our dishes at home if you can get fresh Asian ingredients. Balinese Feast Menu of the Day
You’ll prepare a total of 15 recipes including special spice pastes, not found anywhere else on this island of this quality or in these unique dishes.The dishes below may change, based on freshest ingredients available, but they will be of the same quality:
Adi’s Base Ganep (Complete Balinese Spice Paste) - our ceremonial spice paste with 15 ingredients, some that you pick from our organic gardens
Base Rajang (Fragrant Spice Paste) - a lighter spice paste perfect for vegetables and tofu
Sambal Goreng - a traditional staple in every Balinese Family Compound
Base Kacang - homemade peanut sauce
Homemade Coconut Milk - Freshly extracted from coconuts, harvested from our mature coconut trees
Sambal Tomat - rich and deep tomato spice paste of Lombok chilies straight from our gardens
Perkedel Jagung - Homemade corn fritters with Balinese spices and egg
Jukut Mecantok - Organic greens including amaranth, snake beans, cabbage, carrot, baby mung bean sprouts with you very own homemade peanut sauce
Urab Salad - Organic greens including wild ferns, gonda (indigenous vegetable) and baby sprouts with roasted coconut, kaffir lime juice, and golden shallots
Satay Babi Tusuk - Skewered Balinese Pork Satay - Marinated pork shoulder with the traditional spice paste and grilled over coconut husks
Ayam Kalas - Hand-shredded grilled chicken in freshly extracted coconut cream sauce
Ayam Panggang Sambal Matah - Grilled butterflied chicken with lemongrass, shallot, chili and kaffir lime in a homemade coconut oil dressing
Pepes Ikan – Fillets of fresh sea bass or red snapper and spicy handmade tomato sambal wrapped and grilled in Banana Leaves
Tempe Manis - Sweet and spicy tempe matchsticks
Dadar Gulung - Coconut Pandan Crepes with coconut and palm sugar
**Please note that each recipe took us years to perfect and write them so that you can recreate these at home. These are Adi’s original recipes. The recipes are for your own personal home use. Our recipes are not to be used for commercial purposes such as selling in a restaurant or your own cooking class or publishing anywhere (book, blog, Instagram, email, etc).**
Balinese Cooking Class Price:
Discounted Prepaid Price of USD 75 per person
Includes Organic Garden Tour, Hands-On Cooking Lesson, 15 recipes, and a 9-Course Ceremonial Lunch Feast
Tresna Bali Cooking School Class Schedule:
8:30 am - Meet at Tresna Bali Cooking School: Google Maps F7CQ+F4
8:35 am - Refreshments and Organic Garden Tour
9:00 am - Hands-On Cooking Lesson of 15 Authentic Balinese Recipes
12:30 pm - Ceremonial Balinese Lunch Feast of 9 dishes
2:00 pm - End of class
