Co.Cos Cooking School, Catering, and Chef for a Day!
Guests often ask me about Things to Do in Playa, and I’m always looking for new businesses and services. We tried Co.Cos this month and it was fabulous!!! It’s a Cooking School, Catering Service, and offers private “Chef Services”!
We did both a cooking class and hired Co.Cos to be our Chef for a small party we had. The cooking class was fun and afterwards we ate what we made outside on the terrace of Co. Cos. They are located between Calle 26 and 28, a couple of blocks North of Constituyente. It’s as easy walk from Porto Playa and El Taj Ocean (the best properties in Playa)!
Coty Villarreal, the owner and head chef of Co.Cos, led our cooking class. She is a chef who has travelled and lived in many places around the world. Originally from Monterrey, she spend considerable time in Europe and Asia before returning back to Mexico and choosing to settle for Playa for three very good reasons: 1. Beach, 2. Weather, and 3. The international flavor that makes Playa, Playa. At any time you’ll find a mix of Americans and Canadians, but also French, Italian, German, Croatian, Asian, Australian, and South American! Coty is charming, exotic, warm, friendly and enormously talented in the kitchen (and elsewhere).
The kitchen/cooking area is stunning. It was too funny to hear everyone say the same thing when they walked in Co.Cos: “This is how I want my kitchen to look!”
The smells and flavors were phenomenal
There’s no question that the cooking classes are very non-traditional. Co.Cos offers courses on Mexican traditional and contemporary dishes, Mediterranean and Asian. If you’ve gone to any of the upcoming new restaurants in urban areas, you’ve seen this trend. Contemporary dishes, or “fusion” has been increasingly influencing many chefs, and fantastic creations come out of the kitchens. I find it to be an explosion of flavors and textures.
But as much as Co.Cos delivers exotic tastes from every country, they are in Mexico and, they of course include some very traditional wonders of Mexico. Coty tells it best, “like every grandma, has some old, traditional recipes that cannot, must not, be forgotten, this is why Co.Cos offers both Mexican, Mediterranean, and exotic Asian dishes.”
Why Mediterranean? Coty lived and cooked in various places in Europe for over 10 years learned how to make incredible food like the “grandma’s do”. The best recipes made it to Co.Cos!
And last, but not least, Asian food… Thailand is like a bag of chips… once you try one, you can’t stop! Again, Coty tells it best, “I fell in love with this country and swore to myself I was coming back to learn how to cook… And so I did. After that I traveled through southeast Asia and as a result, I do have a good knowledge of the real tastes and textures. It is difficult though to find the ingredients, but Mexico uses many similar fruits and vegetables so the result is quite good and accurate.“
The Co.Cos team has 3 chefs. Chef Nacho specializes in Mexican food, Chef Hector in French and European flavors, and Coty in Asian and European Asian fusion. You can learn to make these dishes yourself at cooking school or use their catering services and experience personalized dinners with a personal chef.
We also went back for the cocktail & tapas course on Fridays (I call it “Drinking School”!). One of the things I loved most about Spain was the Tapas, small portions of great food!
Co.Cos has just added breakfast and lunch home delivery service for those who are interested. I give it 5 Stars!!!!!!!!!!
Email or call Coty at 52-984-803-0743 and mention you saw this blog!