Smart Cook, Thai Cookery School was an interactive, informative class which we highly suggest to any visitor of Chiang Mai, especially the short express class. Even with an abridged version of the class, we were overly stuffed by all our dishes and sampling our classmates dishes. From papaya salad, pad thai, chicken coconut soup, spring rolls, curry to banana egg rolls.

Our friendly instructor spoke fluent English, was very patient and explained the origins of ingredients and the Thai cooking philosophy. We selected which multi-course dishes we wanted to make and enjoy for lunch and dessert.  We prepped all the ingredients from fish sauce, coconut milk to papaya to curry paste, in an outdoor area, before we went to our woks and the outdoor kitchen area.

As we learned about how to make our own dishes, the other classmates dishes were explained so we learned the basics of every dish in the recipe book. This made the experience more fun to see what other items could be made with similar ingredients.  Participants receive a recipe book, which was a nice way to practice back home. After experiencing Smart Cook, we realized how fresh and easy it is to prepare Thai dishes and that we shouldn’t be ordering from restaurants when we can make all the delicious food at home.