From a Long Beach Market Stall to Her Kitchen Table
A public health specialist who cooks the way her mother did, with nothing the same twice, walks you to the farmers market and lets the stalls decide what you make.
Her own bio leads with the day job. BA is a public health professional, and her working life goes into turning health information into language people can act on. Her cooking runs on the same principle: if it is good for you it should also be worth eating.
She says she learned that at home. In her mother's kitchen no two meals were ever the same, on the theory that with a little experimentation anything can be made delicious. That is still how she cooks, folding Southern California produce into flavors she picked up living in other cities.
Nothing about the menu is settled before you arrive. What the stalls have that day is what you cook.
The market comes first. You leave her house in Alamitos Heights on foot or by bike and spend about an hour at the market itself, long enough to taste things, ask what came in that week, and change your mind twice.
You pick the ingredients together, and that is the moment the menu gets decided. The dip, the main, the salad and the dessert you cook later all follow from what looked good on the table.
Farmers Market Tour & Hands-On Cooking Class in Long BeachA private market visit with the host, then a hands-on class in her own kitchen. Three hours, up to six travelers on one booking.www.viator.comA Dip, a Main, a Salad, Bread, and Something Sweet
Back in the kitchen you cook the lot. A dip to start, a main course, a salad, bread made in the house, and a dessert at the end. Hands-on here means hands on, so expect to be chopping for most of it.
She builds the meal around what you carried home, which is why the sample menu she publishes is only ever a sample. One run of it is a lemony bean dip with vegetables, an arugula and beet salad, a sourdough pizza with seasonal toppings, and apricot walnut bars. The next run will be something else.
Dietary requests get settled early here. She is lactose free, one of her sons is vegetarian, and enough of her friends are gluten free that she has spent years working out recipes that hold up for all of it. Vegan is on the list too. The operator asks you to put your requests in the booking form at the time you book.
Then You Sit Down and Eat What You Just Made
The last stretch is the meal, eaten at her table. Often that means outside on the patio with the fire pit going. Her sons join when they are home.
Edward, who went in October 2023, wrote that the interaction with BA and her family was fun, and that it felt like being at a friend's house for lunch. That is roughly the register of the whole thing.
Alcoholic beverages sit in the inclusions list on the booking page, alongside the homecooked meal and the market tour itself.
Who Gets the Most Out of Three Hours Here
This suits people who want one household's way of cooking, at that household's pace. You are a guest in a private home for an afternoon or an evening, and everything follows from that.
It also suits anyone who travels with a dietary restriction and is tired of explaining it. The accommodations here are how the household already eats.
Haitey, in July 2025, called BA a warm and welcoming host and recommended her for anyone after a fun and engaging class.
It suits you less if you want a large group, a demo kitchen, or a fixed menu you can read before you book.
What the Booking Fixes, and What It Leaves to You
Two start times exist, and which one you get is decided by the option you book: 10:00 in the morning or 5:00 in the evening. Both run three hours. Both run Tuesday through Sunday.
- One booking takes up to six travelers, with room for two children aged 5 to 11 and two infants under 5. An adult has to be on the booking.
- The listing is a private activity, so no other travelers are added to your session.
- Hotel pickup and drop-off are not included. You make your own way there.
- The exact address arrives with your booking confirmation. Until then what you have is the neighborhood.
- The listing says service animals are allowed.
- Cancel at least 24 hours ahead for a full refund. Inside 24 hours there is no refund.
The operator lists the host's languages as English and French.
📍 Alamitos Heights, Long Beach.
Three hours is enough to change how you shop for a week. You walk to a market with someone who knows what is worth buying, you carry the bags back, and you cook a full meal in a house where the recipes were worked out around real appetites.
Then you eat it at her table with the fire pit going, off the plates the family actually uses.