Discover Oaxaca
October 1st-8th 2026
February 18th–25th, 2027
OCTOBER 7th-14th, 2027
in the land of the seven moles
AN immersion INTO OAXACAN CULTURE
The Discover Oaxaca food tour is your gateway to exploring Oaxaca’s vibrant culture through its extraordinary gastronomy.
A culture and Food Tour
The Discover Oaxaca Food Tour is your gateway to exploring Oaxaca’s vibrant culture through its extraordinary gastronomy. Whether it’s your first visit or your seventh, this enchanting region promises new discoveries as you delve into its culinary traditions, rich history, and cultural heritage. Known as Mexico’s gastronomic capital, Oaxaca is a feast for the senses, with bustling markets, colorful produce, and centuries-old recipes passed down through generations. On this journey, you’ll experience the heart and soul of Oaxaca through its kitchens, markets, and street-side eateries. From savoring the complex flavors of legendary moles to enjoying traditional tlayudas hot off the comal, or sipping artisanal mezcal, this tour is a unfolding of the culture that has been here for centuries.
upcoming DATES
October 1st–8th, 2026
February 18th–25th, 2027
October 7th–14th, 2027
December 2nd–9th, 2027
PRICE
From $3,465 USD (2026)
$3,811 USD (2027)
gROUP
Our maximum is usually 12 to 14 people per tour. That means you'll travel the local way, all guided by Chef Kaelin Ulrich Trilling.
LAST CALL next tour
September 1st
The experience at a glance
EAT
From market stalls to a Michelin restaurant, every meal is chosen with intention. Breakfast bites in the markets, tlayudas hot off the comal and six-course dinners at the cooking school.
cook
Hands-on classes at our cooking school in the countryside, built on maíz, cacao and mole. You cook the recipes yourself guided by our team and sit down to eat together what you made.
explore
Beyond the kitchen, we visit the villages that keep Oaxaca's craft alive: mezcal made the ancestral way, backstrap weaving, alebrijes and markets that have been there for centuries.
Cook with heirloom ingredients
Making antojitos at the cooking school
Learn how to make chocolate
Eating like a local
Drinking pre-hispanic beverages
Tasting 8 breads in different markets
In the kitchen
Cooking CLasses
Our classes at the cooking school are built on three pillars of Oaxacan cuisine: maíz, cacao and mole. Corn is the foundation and mole gathers celebratory traditions into a complex and incredible dish. Each class is hands-on and builds on the last, ending around the table with a five-course meal you cooked yourselves.
WHAT IS MOLE?
mole
the mother of all sauces
Mole is Oaxaca's most iconic dish: a complex sauce built from chiles, seeds, nuts, spices and sometimes chocolate, toasted and ground and simmered into something greater than its parts. Some moles carry more than 30 ingredients. Each family has its own version, prepared for weddings, festivals and everyday tables. Oaxaca is known as the land of the seven moles.
Our founder Susana Trilling wrote her first cookbook, "My Search for the Seventh Mole", as a homage to these seven moles and the occasions when they are prepared and eaten.
During the Discover Oaxaca tour you will cook moles from scratch, taste them across markets and restaurants and learn the culture around this dish.
Mole Negro
Mole Verde
Segueza
Mole Coloradito
Mole Manchamanteles
Mole Amarillo
FROM KERNEL TO MASA
maíz
Everything in Mexico starts with maíz. This masterclass centers on the region's most cherished crop: its history, its heirloom varieties and the ancient process of nixtamalización that turns corn into masa. You will press tortillas by hand, shape antojitos on the wood-fired comal and taste corn as pre-Hispanic beverages like tejate and agua de maíz.
TOASTED AND GROUND BY HAND
CACAO
Chocolate was born in Mesoamerica and Oaxaca keeps its oldest traditions alive. In this class you will toast cacao beans on the comal, grind them the pre-Hispanic way on a metate and turn them into hot drinking chocolate and desserts.
Culture beyond food
ARTISAN TRADITIONS
Oaxaca's villages are renowned for their artisanship. We visit the studios of the crafts makers we've known for years, learn about their materials and passed-down techniques and shop for one-of-a-kind pieces at the source.
We visit a family in Teotitlán del Valle whose woven rugs, made on pedal looms, follow Zapotec geometric patterns that predate the Spanish colonial period. Another family keeps backstrap weaving alive: a slower, more intimate textile tradition carrying ancestral motifs.
We visit an artisan who has dedicated her whole life to the craft shapes beeswax candles by hand, devotional objects that are also extraordinary works of art.
And in San Martín Tilcajete, we step into the studio of a family of master artisans behind the Alebrijes, the brightly painted wood animal sculptures Oaxaca is known for.
The spirit of Oaxaca
MEZCAL
We visit Santa Catarina Minas, the heart of ancestral mezcal production in Oaxaca. Our dear friend and maestro mezcalero began this work early in life. His family grow and sources wild agaves from different regions of Oaxaca, espadín, tobalá, madrecuish, tepeztate, each roasted in an earthen pit and fermented in the open air.
He explains each mezcal before you taste it. Over the course of the afternoon, you taste more than 25. It is a tutorial from someone who has spent a lifetime paying attention to agave.
Mezcal tasting in Santa Catarina Minas
Learning about Alebrijes
Zapotec backstrap weaving
Visiting a tomato farm
Rug weaving in Teotitlán del Valle
Visiting a lithography studio
Your host
Chef Kaelin Ulrich Trilling
Kaelin was raised at Seasons of My Heart, his mother's kitchen and his first classroom. He left Oaxaca at eighteen to cook professionally: sous chef under James Beard winner Hugo Ortega in Houston, at Eleven Madison Park and Blue Hill at Stone Barns. Later he was named chef de cuisine at Thomas Keller's La Calenda in Napa Valley. In 2021 he came home to lead the school, carrying 30 years of his family's legacy into what's next. On tour, you cook beside him all week.
Why travel with us?
This tour is curated and unique.
We strive our best to design this tour based on activities and relationships since 1996. Thirty years of friendships across Oaxaca shape every stop on this tour.
Small groups, big enjoyment.
Our maximum is usually 12 to 14 people per tour. That means you'll travel the local way, all guided by Chef Kaelin Ulrich Trilling.
Our legacy
Founder Chef and author Susana Trilling settled in Oaxaca in the late eighties and her fascination with the food & culture became her life’s work and mission: to share this with the world.
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Meet your group over cocktails and Kaelin’s opening lecture at the hotel. Celebrate the start of the week with a welcome dinner at a Michelin-star restaurant in the city center.
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Spend your first hands-on day at Rancho Aurora, home of Seasons of My Heart. Make fresh cheese, shape masa antojitos for lunch and close the day cooking a fish and seafood menu.
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Walk the Mercado de Ocotlán and taste the famous empanadas de amarillo. Visit backstrap loom weavers and the alebrije carvers of San Martín Tilcajete, then eat a wood-fire lunch at a Michelin-star, Slow Food-recognized eatery. End the day in Santa Catarina Minas tasting 25+ ancestral mezcales.
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Taste regional delicacies at the Teotitlán del Valle market. Visit a family of traditional Zapotec rug weavers and share tamales de mole amarillo in their home. Stop at El Tule, one of the oldest trees in the world, have lunch at a traditional eatery.before heading back to the city.
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Walk the family tomato ranch in Valle de Etla and sit down to a tomato-forward lunch. Back at the school, make chocolate from bean to bar and cook dishes built on cacao and maíz.
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Spend a free day shopping, relaxing or exploring on your own. In the evening, gather at Seasons of My Heart for a six-course dinner cooked by Kaelin.
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Tour Central de Abastos, the biggest market in the state, guided by Chef Kaelin. Return to Rancho Aurora to cook a sacred mole and share a farewell five-course meal with live music.
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Share a last breakfast before check out at noon. Oaxaca will be here when you come back.
Day-by-day Itinerary
From $3,465 USD (2026) / $3,811 USD (2027)
Per person, double occupancy. Single supplement available.
WHAT IS INCLUDED
7 nights of hotel accommodation
Transportation to every tour activity
All excursions, classes and guided visits
Most meals and drinks, with some free time to explore on your own
WHAT IS not INCLUDED
Airfare
Transportation to and from airport
Gratuities
Ready to sign up?
Let us curate a custom trip for you. We share our secret gems and create a trip that is special to you and fits your needs. Our aim is to provide a memorable experience through the soul and experience of Seasons of My Heart.
Can’t travel on these dates?
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