The Mexican cooking workshop The Hague didn't have
Chilango Eats is the only Mexican cooking workshop between here and Amsterdam. What actually happens in the room, and how to book.
| Cuisine | Authentic Mexican, not Tex-Mex |
|---|---|
| Format | Small-group, hands-on cooking workshop |
| Experience needed | None, all skill levels welcome |
| Where | The Hague |
Ask around The Hague for somewhere to learn real Mexican cooking, and you'll come up mostly empty. There are one or two options in Amsterdam. South Holland has, as far as we can tell, exactly one: Chilango Eats.
Is this actually authentic Mexican food, not Tex-Mex?
Yes. Chilango Eats is the only Mexican cooking workshop we could find between here and Amsterdam. César, who runs it, started it because he felt the local idea of Mexican food, hard shell tacos, wasn't the real thing, and set out to teach the cooking he actually grew up with in Mexico City instead.
"People don't know what authentic Mexican food is," he says. "They think about hard shell tacos, and that's really not Mexican food."
Who teaches the workshop?
César teaches Chilango Eats on weekends, around a day job in corporate law, which is less a contradiction than it sounds. He started by hosting dinners for friends long before it was a business, and the workshop still runs the same way: small groups, a shared table, everyone cooking together rather than watching.
It started before Chilango Eats was a business at all: dinners for friends, doing something with his hands, then turning weekend get-togethers into workshops once people kept asking when the next one was.
What actually happens in the room?
Ask César what he likes most about a session, and it isn't the cooking itself: it's watching strangers dig in at completely different speeds, from guests who get hands-on and messy right away to guests who need help shaping their very first tortilla, all at the same table.
"Some people ask, where do you buy your chilies? How do you make the tortillas, which flour do you use? For me, it's seeing that excitement and love for food that brings people together," he says.
That's also the honest pitch: strangers at the same table, with something to do with their hands, talking because there's something in front of them to talk about. Arriving alone is normal, not the exception.
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Frequently asked questions
Is this actually authentic Mexican food, not Tex-Mex?
Yes. Chilango Eats exists specifically because César felt the local idea of Mexican food (hard shell tacos) wasn't the real thing, and set out to teach what he grew up eating instead.
Do I need any cooking experience?
No. The workshops are built for a range of skill levels in the same room, from guests who dive in hands-first to guests who need help shaping their first tortilla.
Can I come on my own?
Yes. Most of what makes the workshop work is exactly this: strangers meeting over something to do with their hands, not a dinner you watch happen.
Ready to actually go?
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