All activities / Culinary / Cooking / Riga
Culinary / Cooking in Riga
Latvia's capital on the river Daugava, a Baltic port whose UNESCO-listed centre pairs a medieval Hanseatic old town with the largest concentration of Art Nouveau architecture in Europe, wrapped around the vast Zeppelin-hangar halls of the Central Market and a busy calendar of art, food and folk-song events.
Why here
Latvian food is a forager's larder, and Riga is where you learn to read it. Start at the Central Market, one of the largest in Europe, housed in five vast pavilions built from repurposed First World War Zeppelin hangars and part of Riga's UNESCO-listed centre. Its stalls are a crash course in the national pantry: rye bread and grey peas, smoked Baltic fish, forest mushrooms and berries, curd cheese and fermented everything. The market runs its own guided tours and tastings, and a short walk away you can cook the ingredients yourself in a Riga home kitchen with a Latvian family, turning grey peas with bacon, cold beetroot soup and the Latgalian carrot pastry sklandrausis into a meal you take home the recipes for.
Best months
The Central Market is open daily year-round, busiest and best-stocked on weekend mornings; the outdoor produce rows are liveliest in the summer and autumn harvest. Cooking classes run all year and are a good wet-weather or winter option. Berry, mushroom and fresh-fish seasons shift the market's offer through the year.
Getting there & around
The Central Market sits just behind the central railway and bus stations, a short walk from the Old Town. Book the market's own guided tour or tasting in advance, and arrange the home cooking class ahead of time as groups are small. Both are central and reachable on foot or by a short tram ride.
Skill levels: beginner
Schools & guides (2)
MammaAmma
SchoolMammaAmma runs hands-on Latvian cooking classes inside a real family home in central Riga, on Alfreda Kalnina iela near the Esplanade, rather than a commercial studio. Groups are kept small, at four to six people, and cook traditional dishes such as grey peas with bacon, cold beetroot soup and the Latgalian carrot pastry sklandrausis. Guests leave with the recipes to cook the dishes again at home. Classes run year-round and are booked ahead.
Riga Central Market
OrganizerRiga Central Market is one of the largest markets in Europe, opened in 1930 and housed in five monumental pavilions built from repurposed German First World War Zeppelin hangars. It forms part of the UNESCO-listed historic centre of Riga. Alongside its meat, fish, dairy and produce halls the market runs its own guided tours and tastings that walk visitors through the pavilions, the wartime history of the hangars and the traders' stalls, sampling rye bread, smoked fish and curd along the way.