Vegetarian Cooking Class Chiang Mai 2026: Vegan & Allergies

Booking choice: The Siam Garden morning class, from $12 per person. Check dates Compare the options below

Every school on this site cooks vegetarian on request, and most handle vegan. Vegetarians often get more out of a class than anyone: at a restaurant you cannot see what goes into the paste, at your own mortar you can.

Here is which schools put it in writing, how the swaps work, what vegans and coeliac guests need to say, and how to ask for vegetarian food in Thai once the class is over.

The quick answer

Yes, every class here can be made vegetarian. Siam Garden ($12) lists meat, vegetarian, vegan, gluten-safe and allergy options, and Benny’s Home Cooking lists vegetarian, vegan, pescatarian and gluten-safe menus (non-refundable). Guests report easy swaps at Grandma’s Home and Smile. Tell the school when you book: fish sauce becomes soy sauce, shrimp paste is left out of the curry paste, and meat becomes tofu or vegetables.

A couple choosing bunches of green herbs and spring onions at a covered market stall, the woman holding a woven basket — Vegetarian or not, the market stop works the same: herbs, greens and aromatics, which are vegetarian anyway.

Are there vegetarian cooking classes in Chiang Mai?

Yes. Every school here swaps meat and fish on request, and Siam Garden and Benny’s state it on their listings.

You do not need a vegetarian school. Mixed classes cook from one menu with a vegetarian column: tofu, mushrooms or extra vegetables in place of chicken and prawns, soy sauce for fish sauce. Your station is your own, so nothing is cooked in someone else’s pan.

Guests back this up. A vegetarian at Grandma’s Home in October 2025 wrote: "We're vegetarian and every single recipe was easily adapted." On the Smile full day, a guest in November 2023 "Learned how to substitute for vegans". If you want a kitchen where nothing contains meat at all, May Kaidee’s runs vegetarian and vegan classes in Chiang Mai; it is not bookable on this site.

Want vegan and gluten-safe options in writing? Siam Garden lists both, with six dishes of your choice from $12.

Check dates for the Siam Garden morning class

What replaces fish sauce and shrimp paste?

Soy sauce or a pinch of salt for fish sauce. Shrimp paste is left out of the curry paste, or replaced with a little fermented soybean or miso.

Fish sauce: light soy sauce does the salty, savoury job. Some cooks add a little salt or sugar to balance it.
Shrimp paste: it goes into red and green curry pastes and many chilli dips. Leave it out and add a bit more salt, or use a fermented soybean paste.
Oyster sauce: in cashew chicken and stir-fried greens. A mushroom-based vegetarian "oyster" sauce is the standard swap.
Chicken and prawns: firm tofu, oyster mushrooms or extra vegetables.
Dried shrimp: in papaya salad. Ask for it left out; roasted peanuts carry the crunch.

Ask the teacher to write the swaps on your recipe. The book you get by email is usually the standard version.

A pink basket of large red tomatoes on a market stall, bags of cherry tomatoes in front, shoppers and greens behind — Market produce is vegetarian by default. The fish sauce and shrimp paste come later, at the school.

Can vegans cook at a Chiang Mai cooking class?

Yes, with a note at booking. Watch for egg in pad thai and fried rice, and honey or condensed milk in drinks.

Thai cooking is closer to vegan than most cuisines: coconut milk instead of dairy, rice and rice noodles instead of wheat in many dishes. The traps are the animal products that are not meat. Pad thai is cooked with an egg, the fish sauce and shrimp paste above, and a welcome drink like Thai milk tea is made with condensed milk.

Mango sticky rice is usually vegan already: sticky rice, coconut milk, sugar and salt. Siam Garden and Benny’s list vegan menus. Elsewhere, message the school when you book and confirm on arrival.

Which schools list vegetarian options?

Siam Garden and Benny’s in writing; the others on request, with guest reviews to back it up.

What each listing says, and what guests report, as of November 2026.

School	On the listing	What guests report
Siam Garden	Meat, vegetarian, vegan, gluten-safe and allergy options	"Food options available for many tastes including vegan [...]" (Aug 2026)
Benny’s Home Cooking (non-refundable)	Vegetarian, vegan, pescatarian and gluten-safe	An adapted menu for a chilli allergy (Feb 2025)
Grandma’s Home	Not stated	"every single recipe was easily adapted" (Oct 2025)
Smile Organic Farm	Not stated	Gluten allergy and serious allergies handled (Sep and Oct 2026)
Thai Akha Kitchen	Egg tofu soup on the menu	You choose your own dishes

Grandma's Home Farm Class with Market Visit

Vegetarian and want the farm too? Grandma’s Home adapts its four dishes, and the herbs come straight from its garden.

★ 4.9 171 reviews · 4 hours · from $36

Explore the morning class at Grandma's Home

Can you do a cooking class with a gluten or nut allergy?

Yes, if you say so at booking and again on arrival. Standard soy sauce contains wheat, and peanuts and cashews turn up everywhere.

Gluten is less of a problem than you would think: rice, rice noodles and coconut milk all contain no gluten. The catch is soy sauce, the usual vegetarian swap, which is brewed with wheat. A cook avoiding gluten needs the school to use tamari made without wheat or salt instead. A Smile guest with a gluten allergy in October 2026 said the teacher "was very accommodating and ensured I didn’t miss out on anything!"

Nuts are in pad thai, papaya salad, cashew chicken and massaman. Shellfish is in shrimp paste. Another Smile guest, in September 2026, wrote: "I have life threatening allergies to common Thai ingredients. Natty was keenly aware and made sure everything was safe and delicious for me." Bring a written card in Thai for markets and restaurants after the class.

Travellers in patterned aprons and straw hats picking leaves from herb bushes in a cooking school garden — The garden walk is where you meet the herbs, before anything else goes into the wok.

How do you ask for vegetarian food in Thai?

Say "gin jay" for strict vegan food, or "mangsawirat" for vegetarian, and "mai sai nam pla" for no fish sauce.

Jay (sometimes spelled je) is Buddhist vegan food with no meat, fish, egg, dairy, garlic or onion. Restaurants serving it hang a yellow flag with red lettering. Mangsawirat means vegetarian in the looser sense and may still use egg or fish sauce. Mai sai nam pla means "no fish sauce", mai sai kai means "no egg".

Each autumn Thailand holds a nine-day Vegetarian Festival, when yellow flags appear on stalls everywhere. In 2026 it ran 10 to 18 October; the dates follow the Chinese lunar calendar and move every year.

When should you tell the school about your diet?

At booking, in the special requirements box, then again by message the day before and once more at the start of the class.

The kitchen preps ingredients before you arrive, so a vegan who mentions it at the wok gets whatever was already chopped. Put your needs in the Viator booking, reply to the school’s WhatsApp or email confirmation, and tell the teacher at the market stop. A Siam Garden guest in April 2026 found the staff "very responsive to messages. Willing to accommodate many dietary restrictions".

The price stays the same for every menu. For the full list of dishes you can choose from, see the menu guide.

Need a class that handles gluten or allergies? Smile Organic Farm’s teachers handle serious allergies, guests report, with pickup and a recipe e-book.

Check dates for the Smile Organic Farm half day