I fell in love with Thai food when I went to work in Hollywood, land of a thousand Thai restaurants. I reveled in the uncommon spicy-sweet flavors of Pahd Thai and Mee Grob and the fiery Kung Pao chicken.
Never once did I contemplate cooking these dishes for myself. In fact, my culinary specialty at the time was boiled spaghetti topped with Paul Newman’s salad dressing and Parmesan cheese. My pasta skills have improved in the intervening years, but the range of my cooking skills remains unfortunately narrow.
I tell you all this so that when I describe the Thai cooking classes at the Oriental Hotel in Bangkok, you won’t get the mistaken impression that I am an experienced cook who simply wanted to add a few exotic dishes to her repertoire. No. In fact, I have never made a pot roast, find mashed potatoes a challenge and frequently consult my “I Never Cooked Before” cookbook for complicated dishes like hard-cooked eggs. (I can never remember how long you cook them.)
You can see that I am not, it would seem, the ideal candidate for a specialized cooking class. So why did I plunk down $100 a day to watch a chef whip up a collection of pungent curries and bizarre desserts? The glutton factor explains part of it. Thai is one of my favorite cuisines and by learning to create those sweet-hot flavors for myself, I could feast on Thai anytime. But I also wanted to learn more about Thailand and its culture. I had been to Bangkok before and I wanted to take home something more tangible this time than memories of Bangkok’s golden temples.
After a wild ride on a motorcycle taxi through the streets of Bangkok, I arrived at the Oriental Hotel. I rushed through the Oriental’s airy, tranquil lobby to the dock, where a teak-paneled boat was waiting to take me across the Chao Phraya River to the cooking school. Set up in a little Thai-style building next to the Oriental’s restaurant, the cooking school operates with the same grace that characterizes the hotel itself. The Oriental exudes elegance. Its location, perched on the bank of the busy river, and its peerless service (laundry is delivered with fresh orchids) has attracted world travelers for decades, making it a landmark in Bangkok. At the cooking school, they bring out the silver and china to serve coffee before the classes begin.
I had envisioned an intimidating group of toque-topped chefs waiting inside, but was happily surprised to find a group of amateurs like myself. Catering to tourists, kitchen adventurers and amateur chefs, the school provides a mix of recipes, chef’s secrets, cooking demonstrations, and insight into Thai culture, from the perspective of the kitchen.
My classmates ranged from experienced cooks-a Thai woman who runs a cooking school in India, a Frenchman who owns a bakery in Paris, and an Australian woman planning a Thai restaurant near Sydney-to other culinary dabblers, including honeymooners from Japan, tourists from Texas and a retired couple from Iowa.
We needn’t have worried about ruining the sauce with an ill-timed move because the instructor does most of the cooking, leaving us to watch and eat the results. Each lesson starts with a definition of the Thai dishes on the day’s menu and some background on the cultural or historic significance of the dish. Then our fearless instructor, a jocular thirtysomething type named Sarnsern Gajaseni, moves the action to the demonstration room.
Although the students don’t get any hands-on cooking experience, Gajaseni makes watching a tactile experience. As he comes to each new ingredient-shrimp paste, lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves-he passes around a bowl with samples so each student can touch, smell and taste a bit of the unfamiliar substances.
Gajaseni peppers his talks with homey advice learned in his mother’s kitchen. For example, he tells us that when making curry paste, we must use only odd-numbered quantities of chilies, garlic cloves and other ingredients, else the paste will turn out too strong and unbalanced.
Having studied in Canada and lived in Boston, Gajaseni speaks perfect English and manages to surprise his American students with apt comparisons between Thai and American preparations. The mixture for Ngob Goong (grilled curried mousse with prawns), for example, should have the consistency of pumpkin pie filling, he advises.
The classes move quickly, with the instructor demonstrating the complicated preparations and then putting things on to boil or grill as he moves on to the next dish. A band of eager assistants keeps the ingredients coming, so Gajaseni wastes little time chopping and peeling, except to show how to do something unusual, such as tying string beans in an elegant knot or making little noodle cups for the Mee Grob (crispy herbed noodles).
The highlight of the day came around noon when, after a busy morning of observing, my classmates and I got to share the results of our efforts. On Thursday, the day dedicated to deep-frying, stir-frying, steaming and grilling, we ate Mee Grob noodles, spicy country-style stir-fried curried pork, aromatic Pla Nueng Prig Manow (steamed fish with chilis and lime) and grilled curried mousse, served at an elegantly set table in the demonstration room.
On Friday, the day dedicated to Thai desserts, I spent part of the morning fretting about having an all-dessert lunch. But Gajaseni squeezed in instructions on making one of my favorite dishes, Guay Tiaw Pahd Thai (stir-fried noodles, Thai-style), as well as Gaeng Khiew Waan Ped Yaang (green curry with roast duck), so we had a plentiful lunch before starting on desserts: caramelized sweet banana, coconut milk ice cream, stewed pumpkin with coconut milk.
You can attend the entire five-day program or you can choose just one or two days, as your schedule permits. If you can only attend one or two classes, aim for Wednesday and Thursday when, for my taste, the best dishes are covered. Snacks and salads are on Mondays; Tuesdays offer soups and fruit carving; Wednesdays bring curries and condiments.
The lessons last from 9 a.m. until noon and the lunch takes about an hour, so plenty of time remains for afternoon sightseeing and the river is a good place to start. From the pier near the Oriental, you can get a river bus boat that will take you to the gilded temples and the Grand Palace up the river or you can hire a long-boat taxi to take you through the klongs (canals) to get a glimpse of the people whose homes open onto the narrow waterways.
The five-day program costs 11,000 baht (about $440), while individual days cost 2,400 baht ($96). OK, that’s a lot of money. But you learn about Thailand, you get lunch, you have a chance to meet other travelers, and you get a “goodie bag” each day (bottles of sauces, an assortment of spices), a cooking school apron and a certificate that lends an air of professionalism to the kitchen wall of even the most inept cooks.
For reservations, call 011-66-2-437-9417, extension 1044 (ask for Mayuree Laolugsanalerd).
———-
Wheelchair access is complicated because of the boat crossing and stairs leading to the cooking school. But the school operators say they can accommodate visitors in wheelchairs if informed in advance.
