Learning to cook Thai cuisine
Trip Start
May 18, 2003
1
54
272
Trip End
Ongoing
Chiang Mai Thai Cookery School, Chiang Mai, Thailand
Saturday, August 23, 2003
I got picked up from my guesthouse in the morning and got delivered to the cooking school for 10am. Once everyone had arrived and introductions were over, the day started with a class in carving vegetables, which turned out to be easier than I expected it to be. We made a rose and lotus flower out of tomatoes and a leaf out of a slice of carrot or turnip. Possession of a sharp knife with a shallow blade was the most important thing I learned here.
The rest of the morning was spent preparing four dishes, three of which we had for lunch. My vegetarian alternatives to the set dishes were simply substitutions of tofu for meat, which resulted in not the most inspiring vegetarian lunch menu. There was not much time to relax during the classes, as each dish was prepared back to back with little time to take stock of techniques used. Although we were all given a recipe booklet I ended up taking further notes to ensure that I did not forget any of the special tips each of the four chefs presented.
During a much-needed lengthy lunch we all got to eat our own meals and take a break from the wok. The afternoon class consisted of only one dish to be cooked by the students and the desert dish demonstrated to us. After eating those as well it was home time and everyone went their separate ways. For the 900B fee I was expecting a slightly more detailed course, perhaps where we had to prepare all the ingredients from scratch ourselves. The actual time spent cooking was less than I expected, and the course could easily have been restructured to take things at a more leisurely pace and fill out the whole day.
The Chiang Mai Thai Cookery School may be a victim of its own success, with so many students signing up with them they seem to have streamlined the course and as a result you feel a bit like being pushed through a cooking school factory on a conveyor belt.
