Cooking School In Chiang Mai?

[thegirlphilosopher]

My partner and I want to learn Thai cooking pretty deeply, more than a touristy course that takes us to the market and then we cook green curry with stuff they prepped. We can put even a few months into it.

But they gotta have a least rudamentary English. But we would like to be part of a sort of pro class.

Oh yeah, Chiang Mai. Thanks.

[Milo]

Are you there now? How long are you staying? We run free courses for our guests, but afraid we won't be in Cm until 21st Oct. 1st Tour with this option commences 6th Nov.

I don't believe you'll go far wrong with the many 'touristy' places available on almost every street corner, and I've yet to meet a soul in the service industry there who doesn'tspeak English! "Gotta have"? I'll bet it's on a par with your own. Kind of pre-requisite for the job really?

They hardly take you to the market and then bring you back to the kitchen with a chicken and a packet of Knorr Green Curry Paste Mix either? The few we've dropped guests off with in the past have always surpassed expectations. Let's face it, Thai food is hardly difficult to prepare after all? Most Thai girls can knock out a fair selection by their early teens.

A 'Pro' class then? So what are you looking for, real Thai food or something a western gourmet chef will have adulterated beyond belief to suit a particular palate? It's all basic ingredients, easily prepared in minutes, the only variants being quantity ratios and most importantly freshness! The same dish, whether from a market stall or 5* restaurant is only in those items, the market stall will use more water vs (coconut)milk, meat vs egg-plant, decent cuts rather than offal.

Here, Googled it for you, I'm sure one of these will be able to fulfil your requirements? http://www.chiangmaibranches.com/philippines/education-training-center/cooking-school/index.htm

Apologies for cynical tone, but once you've been here awhile realisation dawns that there aren't that many dishes to play with? Everything is multiplied by a factor of three with the addition of either chicken, pork or shrimp, (fish is different) and there you have it, voila!

[thegirlphilosopher]

We are both cynical. I have read reviews of schools connected to restaurants, with the main gripe being they spoon feed you.

I have Thai Food by David Thompson, a massive work of over 600 pages made more massive by its redicuously thick paper. He seems to be the real thing. As opposed to an Iron Chef program that had green curry as part of a fusion item. A judge said she had lived in Thailand and knew the real thing, and she thought the dish was weak.

Thompson says Hot and Sour Shrimp Soup is normally a cliche, but it can be rescued by pouring the hot stock into a serving bowl with the lime juice etc. He talks about cooking curry paste the way the old timer Thais did/do it -- smell the different stages.

I am always skeptical of those who go ape over such things as sushi made with a fish caught during the full moon. But Thompson seems real.

We want to work hard and learn a lot, like the theory Thompson covers, but we want to have fun. But I would rather learn something and toss a meal into the trash, rather than cook so I can eat it for dinner.

[Flutterby]

I took two days of classes from A Lot of Thai (www.alotofthai.com) and really enjoyed it. It was more tourist oriented but on my first day I was the only student and when the teacher, Yui (a delightful woman), saw that I was an experienced cook, gave me more detailed and varied instruction. We made all our own curry pastes (several kinds) from fresh ingredients. I really enjoyed the market tour because it included information about each of the foods we encountered and how they are used. Perhaps not a Pro course but terrific nonetheless.

Edited October 16, 2010 by Flutterby

[monkeyofdoom]

The Three-Generation Cooking and Farming Academy a bit outside of Chiang Mai stands out from the others by having an organic farm where you can gather your fresh ingredients for cooking, and apart from traditional Thai cooking, they also do a jungle cooking course. They take the traditional part seriously, using seasonal organic ingredients. The chef teacher Nid speaks excellent English and is super entertaining, plus she showed me a lot of tricks that made preparation easier (tricks for peeling and chopping each type of vegetable etc.). I think their longest course is four days, but you can probably get a longer custom course made if you are willing to pay a little extra.

[just_Elaine]

Thai Cookery School offers Master Classes. We took one quite a few years ago and it was just us (2 people). The regular courses they offer usually has a lot of people, but a few friends have taken them and they are hands on (you prep the food).

The one we used to go to closed down...