Thai Cookery Experience Review
This review was submitted by Sara Richardson, who would like to share her experience of going along to a cooking tuition day for people who may have thought about it, but haven’t gotten around to actually doing it themselves.
To start with, I absolutely love Thai food and spend an absolute fortune in our local Thai restaurant in Hertford. So when my Mum bought me a gift experience voucher for my birthday to go and learn how to cook real Thai food properly, I was over the moon!
Of course, it had to be booked months in advance, because they only do Saturdays and only take classes of 6 people at a time. But it was absolutely brilliant and I’ve been totally changed my eating style and I cook lots of different Thai dishes now.
Anyway, the day started at 9am, so I had to set off early in order to get there in time. Thankfully there was just enough parking and had arrived early, so the 6 of us all sat down with a cup of coffee to warm up before the briefing started.
They went through the basic stuff like no running about the kitchen, waving sharp knives, the fire drill and other general health and safety stuff.
Then it was straight into a demonstration of how to chop all sorts of veg at high speed! There were a few tricks to it like holding the knife at certain angles, using the wrist and most importantly, having very very sharp blades! We were each called up at different points to have a go, although none of us could match the sheer speed of the Thai chefs.
Then we all had to make a different curry paste from scratch for the various meals the chefs were going to cook. So we all got to apply what we’d learned in the chopping lessons, along with the usual crushing of garlic, ginger and all the other ingredients that go into a homemade paste.
But basically, the fresher the ingredients, the better the paste will taste. So no buying squeezy bottles of red chilli, garlic, lemon grass and ginger from the supermarket we were told.
With all the various ingredients we’d chopped, diced, pulped and pasted, the chefs threw together Green Papaya Salad, Thai Green Chicken Curry and Bangkok Street Noodle dishes, simply by frying it all together with diced chicken in a couple of woks.
Then the best part came when we all got to sit down and eat it all!
It tasted amazing, although it felt a bit like a buffet, because it was a bit of a free for all.
We all sat eating, drinking and chatting before being given a gift experience box each, containing recipes for everything we’d just eaten, as well as a personal message, which was a nice touch.
So all in all, it was a 3 hour class, with lunch.
But I really cannot recommend this cookery class enough. It was great from start to finish and we learned loads about the Thai ingredients and spices used. And I’ve made the curry paste on several occasions since. It’s surprisingly easy to do.
That said, it’s an intense experience, because it’s so full on, so it can get tiring, but the time absolutely flies by. So when it comes to lunch you’re actually feeling quite relieved you’re at the end and get to try all this wonderful food. And the group I was in were all a great laugh, so I can’t rate this cooking experience enough.
