Something delicious to make, and nowhere you need to drive to make it.

A Little Tradition, a Little Creativity: Cooking With Chef Daveed in Your Villa

The best afternoons of a villa vacation are often the ones that happen at home: everyone in the kitchen, flour on the counter, kids arguing over who gets the last sprinkles. This season, Chef Daveed is bringing that afternoon to you. His Akumal cooking class comes straight to your rental, whether you’re staying in Akumal, Playa del Carmen, Soliman Bay or anywhere in between, with two experiences built for this time of year: baking traditional Pan de Muerto, and a decorating session made for little chefs.

Meet Chef Daveed

Daveed Personal Chef Service has been cooking for vacation rentals along this coast for more than a decade, from Cancún down to Tulum, with a team of trained chefs and a reputation for building menus around each family. Loco Gringo has a short piece on what Chef Daveed’s service adds to a villa stay.

The cooking classes turn that around. Instead of the chef cooking for you, you cook with the chef.

Bake Pan de Muerto from scratch

Pan de muerto, bread of the dead, is the sweet bread of the Day of the Dead season. It’s soft and lightly sweet, usually scented with orange, topped with strips of dough shaped like bones and a small round knob for the skull, then brushed with butter and rolled in sugar. Bakeries across Mexico sell it from October into early November, and it goes on the altar for the souls coming home, and on the breakfast table for everyone else.

In this class, you learn to make it from scratch with your own private chef: the dough, the shaping of the bones, the sugar finish. Then you get to eat your work.

Here on the peninsula, the season is called Hanal Pixán, and the altars carry their own Maya traditions, starting with pib, the big tamal baked underground. Pan de muerto sits right alongside it. If you’re planning an altar of your own, our guide to when to set up your Día de Muertos altar walks through the dates and what goes on it. A loaf you baked yourself is a good place to start.

Little chefs, big creativity

For kids ages 5 and up, Chef Daveed runs a hands-on decorating class: cookies, cupcakes and cake balls, with frosting, color and as much creativity as they can pile on.

It’s a natural fit for the afternoon between the beach and dinner, and a very good plan for a rainy day. Late October is still rainy season on this coast, and the nortes start rolling through in December. The grown-ups can help, supervise, or simply refill their coffee and watch.

Everything comes to you

This is the part villa guests tend to love most. Chef Daveed brings all the ingredients, materials and equipment, sets up, and cleans up afterward. No shopping trip to Playa, no hunting through a rental kitchen for a rolling pin, no sticky counters at the end. You just enjoy the experience.

Who it’s for

If you’re renting a villa or home anywhere from Playa del Carmen south through Puerto Aventuras, Xpu-Ha, Akumal, Tankah and Soliman Bay, this is an easy way to add something memorable to your stay without leaving the house. It works especially well for:

• Multigenerational families, where the grandparents bake and the grandkids decorate
• Groups of friends looking for an afternoon that isn’t another tour van
• Anyone here for Hanal Pixán who wants to take part in the season, not just watch it
• Families with young kids, for whom a two-hour drive to a cooking school is a hard sell

Before you book

The class graphics don’t list prices, class length or group sizes, so ask about those when you reach out. A few other things worth sharing up front:

• Your dates and where you’re staying, so Chef Daveed can confirm availability.
• How many people, and the kids’ ages, especially for the decorating class.
• Allergies or dietary needs in your group.
• Book early for Day of the Dead week. Hanal Pixán runs October 31 through November 2, and it’s a popular time for a Pan de Muerto class.

How to book

For class details and reservations, contact Daveed Personal Chef Service at +52 984 444 0308, or send them a direct message.

A little tradition, a little creativity, and something delicious made together. That’s a pretty good afternoon in the Riviera Maya.

Still looking for a villa with a kitchen worth cooking in? Ask us anything before you travel: hola@akumalMX.com. Homes from Akumal to Soliman Bay are listed with Akumal Direct.