One of my favorite ways to spend time in Asia is cooking classes. I've done half day to full day cooking classes in Vietnam (Hoi An), Cambodia (Phnom Penh) and Thailand (Bangkok) and enjoyed them all.

I've been researching classes for an upcoming trip to Singapore and have found a few. But I thought I'd ask if anybody had personal recommendations. I'm looking for something focused on local highlights and hands-on, not just demo.

Depends on your budget. For full day (4-6 hours) plan about SIN $500.

I don't have personal recommendations beyond the fact that @Sunrice currently does not offer day classes, but am doing the same search as you (although I will likely only have a day). On the other hand, @Sunrice was extremely good at getting back to my request in very short order, but unfortunately I can't take them up on the suggestion that I take a six-week course.

There's another thread here somewhere that mentions Cookery Magic but I haven't yet talked to them due to not entirely having the dates of our trip nailed down. That might be a place to start, though.

Cookery Magic looks like a bit of a tourist enterprise - which is not necessarily a bad thing. They are one of the 2 I am considering. The other is booking via Voator, who don't tell you who the actual operator is.

You know, it really does (and it's too bad @Sunrice has put their day programs on hold for... well, for a few years now). But I've found it listed as "best on a few local and foreign sites, so I guess there must be something to it. The uncertainty is if the other school is better? Hard to say without a name.

Your question also got me looking and I turned up Shermay and Hooked, but I have no idea how good they are. But I'm really interested in finding out!

I'm going to bump this due to recent developments:

I ended up booking a class with Cookery Magic. For January. Apparently nobody has ever done something like that (book 7 months in advance), and Ruqxana was VERY helpful with answering questions and organizing everything. After a few back-and-forth emails she specifically reserved the class I want for the time that suited, pending that she could get some more people to sign up (at the moment there's just me, but if anyone wants to do a Singaporean class in early January 2014 then PM me and maybe we could call it a mini-DO.)

So short of actually attending the class I have a really good feeling about the place. At minimum a +1 to her for arranging her classes around my schedule.