My study program will introduce you in depth to the style of healthy plant-based cuisine I have developed over the past 15 years, drawing much of its foundation from traditional Japanese cuisine. The program consists of three cooking weekends and one bonus day. You can choose to join any of the weekends separately, or you can follow all three at a special discounted price and receive the bonus day as a gift.
From Japanese foundations to creative cooking
During the first two weekends, we will dive deeply into the foundations of Japanese cuisine.
The first weekend focuses on traditional Japanese temple food, shojin ryori, exploring its philosophy, ingredients and cooking techniques.
The second weekend takes us into modern Japanese street food, where we’ll learn to make dishes such as ramen and gyoza from scratch, while exploring the techniques and flavours behind them.
In the third weekend, we will take another step deeper and explore traditional approaches to the relationship between food, health, healing and wellbeing. We will look at the principles of Zen Buddhist cuisine, yin and yang, and the five elements of traditional Chinese food philosophy, and how these ideas can be incorporated into plant-based cooking.
The bonus day: become a creative cook
After completing all three weekends, you’ll receive a special bonus day of creative cooking with me.
On this day, you’ll have the opportunity to create your own plant-based dishes under my guidance. I’ll teach you how to think creatively in the kitchen, invent dishes from scratch and improvise with seasonal fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes, herbs and spices.
It will be a day to explore your creative side, experiment, make mistakes, discover new combinations and, most importantly, have fun with food.
A journey towards becoming a home or semi-professional plant-based cook
The three weekends are designed as a natural progression, with each one building on what you learned before. Together, they will give you a deeper understanding of plant-based cooking and the foundations of the Japanese culinary tradition, while helping you develop the skills, confidence and creativity to cook independently.
My long-term dream is for this programme to grow into a plant-based cooking school. I’m not making any big announcements about that just yet — this is simply the soft beginning of something I hope will grow into much more.
I’m very excited to share this journey with you.
Join one of our in-depth cooking weekends and upgrade your cooking skills with lectures, cooking classes and hands-on workshops:
20-21-22 November 2026 : Traditonal Japanese cooking weekend
Dive into a whole weekend about Japanese traditional temple cuisine and learn about its history, principles, products, preparation methods and 25 different recipes with lectures, cooking classes and cooking workshops.
Ramen & Gyoza cooking weekend, Friday-Sunday, 12-13-14 February, 2027, Amsterdam
Join us for a weekend and learn how to make the perfect Japanse noodles (ramen, udon and soba) and the perfect gyoza from scratch with a variety of other Japanse side dishes such as tempura, pickles, mochi, okkonomiaki and tonkatsu.
The Healing Powers of food – cooking weekend Friday-Sunday, 2-3-4 July, 2027, Amsterdam
Join us for a whole weekend to learn the healing properties of plant-based foods according the the yin/yang principles, and 5 elements from the traditional Chinese medicine.
Would you like to join all the 3 cooking weekends with Alexander the coming year and become specialized in the Japanese cuisine?
Japanese traditional cooking – 20-22 November 2026
Ramen & Gyoza – 12-14 February 2027
The healing powers of food – 2-4 July 2027
Join all three cooking weekends for the special price of €1,085 and receive a bonus day of creative cooking with chef Alexander Gershberg!
During this exclusive additional day, you’ll learn how to improvise with fresh, seasonal ingredients, develop your own flavour combinations and become a more intuitive and creative cook (the date of the bonus day will be coordinated with all participants).
Please don’t hesitate to write to us for questions or extra information: info@alexandergershberg.com