THE LUXURY TRAVEL
MAGAZINE FOR INDEPENDENT
TRAVELLERS

Part of the allure of Thai food is that there are so many layers to it ... it’s spicy, and sweet, sour, fresh and fragrant. If you’re interested in pulling apart the layers and finding out just how to make authentic Thai food, a cooking class at the Mandarin Oriental Dhara Dhevi is the way to go.

In classes of one to twenty people, you’ll be shown, step-by-step, how to create the most delicious soups, salads, curries and stir fries, while learning the secrets of Thai herbs and spices, and a few fascinating facts about how to use local produce.

The classes are run by the extremely well spoken and knowledgeable Ms Anchalee Luadkham (or Khun An, as she prefers to be known) who learnt all she knows about cooking from her grandmother and parents, residents of Chiang Mai. While you put together delicious dishes full to bursting with Thai flavours, Khun An will explain the health properties of the various ingredients, as well as some of the customs attached to the Thai kitchen.

For example, in the rural areas, a man who was looking for a wife would watch the young women as they used the stone mortar and pestle ... If a woman had a fast, steady rhythm, he knew she would be a good wife, but if she was slow and uninspired, he knew she would be a lazy wife. Suffice to say, this made us pound our curry paste ingredients a lot faster!

It’s a fascinating mix of traditional and high-tech in the Culinary Academy classroom – a beautiful old-style open-sided teak room with a warm breeze blowing in off the garden is filled with shiny modern equipment with individual cooking stations, extractor hoods, sinks and preparation areas for each student. When there’s a full class, an overhead audio-visual link lets the whole room see Khun An clearly.

The recipes are simple but superb – a three-course menu of Yam Ta-Krai (spicy lemongrass salad), Pla Nueng Ma-Now (steamed sea bass with spicy lime sauce) and, my favourite, Tom Yam Goong (spicy river prawn soup with organic herbs). The student is allowed choosing how spicy to make each dish, thank goodness! Once a course has been cooked, a table and chairs are laid out and the dish can be eaten at once, a good incentive to keep cooking so you can keep tasting ...

Taking a cooking class like this is a wonderful way to get in touch with the layers behind Thai food, to understand a little more what it is that makes these dishes so complex, so rich and so undeniably delicious.