This cooking workshop and market in Dakar packs into one day a market visit, a hands-on workshop, a meal prepared with the morning’s produce and a walk through a village quarter. Guide, workshops and lunch are included, and the workshop is open to beginners.

From market to plate

The day begins at the market, lively from early morning: fruit, vegetables, spices, fish, fabrics, household goods and craft products. You understand the place of the market in daily life in Dakar, with its exchanges, bargaining and the variety of products from every region of the country.

The hands-on workshop varies with the time of year: preparing a local ingredient, a craft technique, a traditional method or a product of Senegalese cooking. Then comes the cooking, with the ingredients chosen that morning: chopping, sauces, spices, cooking the rice or fish, balancing flavours. The menu depends on what is available and on the season: thiéboudienne (fish and rice), yassa (onion-marinated chicken or fish), mafe (peanut stew), fish dishes, braised vegetables or popular urban recipes. The workshop is participatory, open even to beginners, and the meal is eaten together in a calm setting.

The village-quarter walk

In the afternoon, the walk passes through a village quarter of Dakar: narrow lanes, family houses, local workshops, mosques, small shops. It is a more intimate Dakar, far from the bustle of the city centre. Depending on the route, you may get close to the Corniche. The market visit may take place in another neighbourhood depending on the day.

Practical tips

Markets are busy: keep your belongings close. The heat can be stronger in some neighbourhoods; bring water, a hat, comfortable shoes and a discreet bag, as the movement is on foot in densely populated areas.

A day in Dakar

Dakar is lived through its neighbourhoods more than through its monuments, and that is the principle of this day. If you live in Dakar, it is a chance to learn to cook a dish you eat every day, or to show the city to guests; if you are visiting, the most direct way to understand how the capital gets its supplies and feeds itself. Our page on the emblematic markets of Dakar gives you your bearings on the city’s markets.

To extend your day

Other Senegalese cooking classes let you go deeper, crafts and know-how extend the workshop part, and the traditional sites and villages offer other neighbourhood walks.