Bangkok - Thai Cooking School

If you are a foodie, one of the things you must do when in Bangkok is to go for a Thai cooking class in one of the countless cooking schools in the city. The more famous and expensive ones are the Blue Elephant Cooking School and the Mandarin Oriental 6 day Cooking Class which costs a cool 20,000 Thai Bahts ! But there are many others to suit all kinds of budget and schedule.

I found one which was quite good and reasonably priced - around 1,600 Thai Bahts for a half day course. It's called Baipai Thai Cooking School which is not far from the city. They will also arrange pick up from your hotel.

Don't expect to become a 3 star Thai chef in a half day cooking class, but you will get a good introduction to the basic Thai ingredients, flavours, and techniques. You will learn to cook four dishes which are served as lunch for the group after the lesson.

The school is in a nicely renovated 2-storey house in Chongnonsee - an inner suburb in Bangkok. The teaching area is on the ground floor, with cooking stations for all the participants. The dining area is on the first floor.  

The instructor and translator.

Watching really closely !

Hands-on cooking session.

Making Tung-Tongs or Golden Parcels - minced chicken in popiah skin.

The Tung-Tongs after deep-frying. Really delicious !

Basic ingredients for Tom Yam Soup. The soup is made from scratch with fresh ingredients and not bottled-pastes. It tastes great.

Panang Gai - a dry red curry with chicken. 

Thai Fried Rice.

This Cooking Class is a great way to spend half a day in Bangkok, and you get to learn a bit about Thai culture and cooking. Highly recommended !