Thai Cooking Class at The Peninsula Bangkok
Who says a holiday is only for relaxing? If you’re one of those people who can’t sit still and you find yourself in Bangkok, look up the Peninsula Academy at The Peninsula Bangkok. The school offers a broad range of experiences, from cooking classes for children to elephant rides through vineyards – the latter ending in a wine tasting and what we are sure is a sumptuous meal. The bespoke programs offer a hands-on look at Thailand's rich (and delicious) historical and cultural background.
Photo: The Peninsula tuk tuk will bring you to a local market where you can learn about Thai produce
During a recent stay at The Peninsula (more on this later) we tried the “The Joy of Thai Cooking: An Introduction to Thai Cuisine.” Starting at 9 a.m., we were ferried through the streets of Bangkok in the hotel’s own tuk tuk to a bustling and vibrant food market. A chef from the hotel accompanied us and led us around the market introducing the fresh produce and explaining what it was all used for. After about 45 minutes of getting acquainted with Thai products we jumped back in the tuk tuk (where a very welcome cold towel and chilled water was waiting for us) and made our way back to the hotel to start the class.
Photo: The cooking class is held in the hotel's al fresco Thai restaurant, Thiptara
Al fresco Thai restaurant Thiptara serves as the venue for the cooking class as it is only open for dinner. Chef de Cuisine Chamnan Thepchana greeted us with a friendly smile and some delicious Thai iced tea (a sinfully delicious combination of orange tea and condensed milk). A handful of tables contained in salas (a traditionally handcrafted teakwood pavilion) are surrounded by lush foliage and beautiful banyan trees with the busy Chao Phraya River in the background. Quite possibly the most idillic venue for a cooking class in Bangkok.
Aprons on, we got started.
Spread out before us were two temporary coking stations and all the prepared ingredients (it wouldn’t really be a holiday if you needed to peel, dice and devein your own ingredients!). The first dish we prepared was one of our favorites - mango sticky rice. While a relatively simple dish, with steaming and cooling it takes at least an hour. We watched Chef Thepchana as he talked us through the method and set aside our hot coconut infused rice.
Next was papaya salad with tomatoes and cashew nuts. A delicious and healthy Thai staple, it is also a pretty straightforward dish. The ingredients are put into a large mortar and pounded with the pestle until the alchemy occurs. There is no substitute for experience and Chef Chamnan tweaked our salads with a dash of this and pinch of that until they were up to his exacting standard. A few minutes of pounding and we were ready to eat.
After devouring the salad it was on to the tom yum goong (spicy and sour soup with river prawns). Although this was another relatively simple dish, Chef Chamnan offered a few valuable tips and tricks (such as what you can substitute if necessary), so be sure to make some notes on the recipe cards provided. Like the papaya salad, the dish will likely need to be tweaked to your taste.
Phad Thai (wok-fried rice noodles with shrimp, egg and tofu) was the penultimate dish and the one we most looked forward to perfecting. There is perhaps no dish that better encapsulates Thailand than phad Thai. While working with a large wok can be a bit unnerving (even more so after we lit the towel we using to hold it on fire) we not only made it out unscathed but the phad Thai was the best we experienced on our trip (if we do say so ourselves).
All that was left was to assemble the mango sticky rice. Presented nicely with some delicious fresh mango, it is a firm favourite. An assistant was on hand throughout and was incredibly attentive. Both the assistant and Chef Chamnan were so friendly that we felt very relaxed and had a genuinely great time.
While there are plenty of cooking courses available in Bangkok, we imagine the one at The Peninsula is almost unbeatable. Albeit more expensive than most, the setting was amazing and the teacher a bona fide master.
The four-hour cooking course that includes a visit to a local market costs THB 5,000 per person (around MOP1,100). The three-hour cooking class (which excludes the visit to the local market) costs THB 4,000 per person (about MOP900).
Advance reservation of one business day is required.
Minimum of two people required.
Participants must be 16 years of age, however there is a Junior Chef class on offer.
