Myrtle Beach chef opening cooking dojo. Take a look inside new teaching space
A new culinary experience is coming to Myrtle Beach, and customers will leave with more than just full stomachs.
Local private chef service GringoNinja is now putting the cooking utensils into customers’ hands with The Dojo Flavor Academy, a teaching space where people of all ages and skill levels can learn to cook dishes of their own.
Students of The Dojo will learn cooking skills from GringoNinja’s chefs and get to taste their own handiwork. They’ll also leave with a “culinary keepsake” like a cutting board or knife, GringoNinja’s owner Ricky Lang said.
Before walking through the doors of The Dojo, visitors will likely see the GringoNinja Streatery, a two-level trailer that comes with its own dining space and grills. Lang explained that the trailer will be used for classes that involve intensive grilling or other activities that can’t be done inside the classroom space. Eventually, he and his partner Ben Chong also hope to take the Streatery on the road, serving up food at festivals and events around the area.
Inside The Dojo, located at 3926 Wesley St. in suite 802, a vast array of cooking supplies await amid street-style decor — including brick walls, cityscapes and even a couch covered in graffiti.
“Everything is all graffiti’d up,” Lang said. “We kind of wanted an industrial-style feel.”
Whether students are learning to make bold street food or the perfect sushi roll, The Dojo has everything a chef could need on hand. Each table comes with its own small grill and oven, and racks of spices, knives, and other tools line the back walls. During classes, students will be able to get a close-up look at what their instructor is doing at the front of the room on one of the streaming televisions positioned throughout the space.
Lang said “there’s no shortage of ideas” when it comes to what classes will teach students. A Maryland native, Lang expressed particular excitement about teaching a “Chesapeake class,” where students will learn to make authentic Maryland crab cakes and other dishes with a healthy helping of Old Bay. He also plans to host classes on sushi and making pasta from scratch.
Expansion of chefs’ private meals
GringoNinja has been cooking up private meals at events for about five years now, and they’ve taught classes along the way as well. Lang and his team have partnered regularly with local businesses like Palmetto Taps, The Salty Pickle and Savannah Bee Co. to host events where they teach attendees how to cook a dish.
However, teaching at these venues came with some limitations. With their own space, Lang plans to teach “more complex” dishes.
“This particular place is just going to be more advanced-type stuff,” he explained.
But Lang and his five full-time chefs in the Myrtle Beach area plan to keep providing their private chef services, and hosting teaching events at other businesses. GringoNinja also has chefs providing services in the Charlotte, North Carolina, area.
Lang said he’d been looking for his own space for about a year and a half before he secured the new site of The Dojo in May.
Lang hopes to host his first adult class by the end of the month, but he has already hosted children’s cooking camps in the new space, which he plans to continue.
Lang described teaching kids to cook as a passion of his, saying he hopes to teach children often undervalued kitchen skills, while also empowering them to find their passions and entrepreneurial spirits the way he did. Lang said he always loved good food, but described his own childhood as “a lot of TV dinners, a lot of Lunchables.” He said he wished he’d been exposed to cooking skills at a younger age, and hopes to do that for his younger students.
The Dojo’s kids’ camps are open to all ages, and parents can drop their children off for a day of learning and entertainment.
Lang explained that camp days typically start off with cooking breakfast together. Then, campers watch something, such as a Food Network episode, related to what they are cooking before they start to prepare lunch.
But the camps aren’t all business.
“We take breaks, we play games, I make slushies,” Lang said. By the time the day is over, he said he’s sad to see the kids go.
Classes and camps typically accommodate 12 to 16 people, Lang explained. The teaching space is designed to be a “low pressure” atmosphere for students to have fun and learn new skills.
This story was originally published November 17, 2025 at 6:00 AM.
