Our Southern Essentials Class combines history, storytelling, and delicious food. It mashes together easy recipes you can recreate at home with stories to make your class memorable and fun.

This Atlanta Southern Essentials cooking class is a completely unique experience!

You’ll make pimiento cheese, fluffy buttermilk biscuits, and sweet tea.

This class is meant for everyone! Whether you’re a seasoned cook who knows their way around a kitchen or someone who burns water, you’ll be set up for success.

You’ll be led by our instructor, well-versed in Southern cuisine. We’ll go step-by-step so that everyone can follow along and make their own snacks. If you need any extra attention, our instructor will be happy to assist!

Yes, this class is already vegetarian-friendly! Simply note your food restriction in the booking notes.

Due to the nature of classic Southern cooking involving butter, cheese, and gluten, we don’t recommend making dairy-free or gluten-free recipes for the class.

However, we can accommodate food restrictions and allergies on this tour and class as long as we know about them in advance.

Don’t read this if you want to be surprised!

Generally, our tastings include the following (subject to change):

• Buttermilk biscuit and Emily G’s peach marmalade
• Pimento cheese (spice level adaptable to each individual palate)
• Sweet tea (or unsweet if that’s what you prefer!)

Yes! The Atlanta Southern Essentials Cooking Class takes place completely indoors in the Sweet Auburn/Municipal Market, Atlanta’s oldest urban food hall and market.

The food you’ll make during the 1.5 hour class is enough for a hearty snack.

Please let us know about severe food allergies.  Our guides also carry Benadryl but do not carry epi-pens. We cannot guarantee the absense of cross-contamination.

Yes! Children love this fun experience, which gives them a true taste of Southern cooking. We generally recommend that children be at least 5 years old in order to fully participate in the Atlanta cooking class, and they must be accompanied by a guardian.

Yes, Unexpected Atlanta reserves the right to cancel tours at any time if the 2 person minimum has not been met. In this event Unexpected Atlanta will reach out to guests to resolve issues with any affected reservations.

The Atlanta Southern Essentials Cooking Class covers the history of southern biscuits, pimentos, and sweet tea from 1600s to the 1900s, plus the history of the Curb Market and how it relates to Atlanta.

Not at all! There’s a bit of flour and butter to handle, but most guests find that no flour ends up on their clothing, and it’s easy to brush off. If you are concerned, we have aprons available for guests.

We mention the Civil Rights Movement briefly. But, if you want to learn about Martin Luther King Jr. or the Civil Rights Movement, we recommend our Martin Luther King Jr. History Tour.

The Municipal Market is very close to many downtown attractions and is along the Atlanta Streetcar Route. It is an easy trip on the Streetcar to the World of Coke, Georgia Aquarium, National Center for Civil and Human Rights, the Eastside Beltline Trail, and the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Park.

Wonderful! Contact us here.  We will help you organize your private tours.

All indoors! You will be standing for at least an hour.

The tour is ADA accessible. Please let us know if you will be bringing a wheelchair.

Absolutely! This cooking class is held completely indoors.