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Thai Cooking School Blue Elephant in Bangkok Few 'cuisines' gained worldwide appreciation as Thai cuisine - deservedly - has done over the years. Hot and spicy may be the first thing that comes to mind when we think of Thai cuisine, and tasty, and… pretty difficult to prepare.

Because everybody who loves Thai cuisine has tried, one time or another, to re-create at home that delicate and characteristic taste we enjoy so much. And usually the results of our home efforts are quite disappointing.

The ingredients must be the right ones - fresh basil leaves, creamy coconut milk, lemongrass, chili paste, fresh red chili peppers, to mention just a few - and are sometimes difficult to find. The preparation has to be done properly, and everything must be fresh and cooked just a few seconds before serving. Easy to say, but sometimes it can also be (very) frustrating.

Being Thai cuisine on our top three list (together with Italian and Japanese) and being cooking one of our favorite hobbies we also tried - and failed - at home. Several times. Until we had the chance to learn. In Bangkok, of course, and in one of the most well known places, the Blue Elephant Thai Cooking School.

Everybody who knows and loves Thai cuisine will be familiar with the Blue Elephant brand. With a dozen (and the number is still growing) Thai restaurants in many of the most important cities in the world (London, Paris, Brussels, Copenhagen, and Bangkok, just to name a few), Blue Elephant Royal Thai Cuisine is synonymous with high quality Thai cuisine around the world.

The Restaurant
Started over 25 years ago in Brussels by Khun Noorer Somany and her husband Karl Steppé, and their best friends Khun Chai Wayno and Khun Somboon Insuarsri, Blue Elephant is now undisputedly one of the top Thai restaurants in the world. And, we would like to add, their cooking school is a must if you happen to be in Bangkok, and love Thai food. Lack of time is no excuse; a half day lesson will give you the basic skills to prepare a few of the most popular Thai dishes. If you have more time… even better.

We attended one of the cooking classes at Blue Elephant in Bangkok, an unforgettable full immersion experience in authentic Royal Thai Cuisine. There is no better way to get to know Thailand and its culture than through its exquisite cuisine.

Founding partner and director Khun Noorer is our teacher on the day of our lesson. And we are lucky because she is a world traveler and not always in Bangkok (if you could see her travel schedule it would make your head spin …). When Khun Noorer is in Bangkok she teaches class (not only that), and she is a very special teacher. As she told us: 'Cooking is more than only cooking. It's like art. It depends on your mood how your dishes come out. It's a fascinating and creative process. You can put all your love in it. Cooking has all to do with inspiration and intuition and nothing with weighing the ingredients and counting minutes before you take the wok from the fire'.

You can see that Khun Nooror loves her job. She has a warm, inspiring personality and she is a gifted teacher, in the sense that she can not only cook but also clearly explain what she is doing (and why), plus she does not have an attitude (as most chef tend to have). So much that nobody in our class realized exactly who she was. She introduced herself as the chef of Blue Elephant, not a word on the fact that she is - incidentally - one of the founding partners of the worldwide chain of Blue Elephant restaurants. That's cool, we thought.

The class
Ok, back to our class. Sixteen people attended class on that day, a typical group class takes about 4 hours, and usually there are two classes each day, one in the morning (9:00 to 12:30) and one in the afternoon (13:30 to 17:00). Sometimes even three classes in one day. Classes can be also private (a five days course is recommended for private lessons).

The approach is very personal and the school is extremely flexible and open to special requests. Even if you want to learn a special recipe, just ask Khun Nooror or her team. And don't think only women assist the cooking classes. Also men love to learn (and impress with) the Thai cooking art. Actually it looks like men are as many as the women, if not more, at the Blue Elephant cooking classes.

Meeting is set before 9:00 in the morning at Blue Elephant Restaurant, in the heart of Bangkok. We meet the other 'cooking students' in the lovely lounge of the romantic hundred years old building, where both the restaurant and the cooking school are situated. After a cup of coffee or tea Khun Noorer (Khun is Thai for 'Mr. or Mrs.' so from now on when we write Khun Noorer you are free to read Mrs. Noorer) splits the group in two and leaves us to her lovely assistants, Khun Gai and Khun Breeze, who will guide us to the local market.

The market
At the market - exotic to our western eyes - we can see the basic ingredients of Thai cuisine in their 'natural environment', how they are prepared, presented, chosen and purchased. Ingredients are explained by our guide (in fluent English, actually perfect) and within one hour we learn more about the way of choosing and using the ingredients than we could have ever learned from Thai cooking books (did you know that you can choose a good mango by the sound it makes if you knock your fingers against it? And did you know that you can recognize the varieties of rice by its color? Do you know what banana flowers actually look like? And did you ever see fish been cleaned in an Asian market? No, we won't tell you…). The market is a very interesting and sometimes strong experience (if you have ever been in an Asian market before you know what we are talking about).

The lesson
Back to Blue Elephant restaurant we cool down from the tropical heat and enjoy a glass of lemongrass tea, embellished by a fresh orchid. Now it is really time to start our class.

Khun Noorer and her assistants will teach us four traditional dishes (everybody's favorites): keang keaw wan kai (green chicken curry), phad thai (stir-fried rice noodles), tom yam koong (sour & spicy prawn soup), and som tam (the very very spicy green papaya salad).

Every step of the preparation of each dish is clearly explained during the lesson. Everything can be followed very easily and you can actually look inside the wok and pans through the big mirror on the ceiling. Everything is well organized, the atmosphere is informal and the presentation always interesting (and to the point). Khun Noorer and her assistants take us almost by hand and show how every ingredient is used during the preparation.

The ingredients have to be fresh, and their preparation is the part that takes most of the time. Only when the preparation of the ingredients (chopping, slicing, mixing…) is done you can start cooking; But be aware, a few seconds too long on the hot wok and you can throw away your dish.

At the end of the demonstration it is time move to the next room, the kitchen, where each student will find, at his or her own work table, the ingredients for the recipe, and a personal assistant that will guide them and eventually correct their mistakes.

You can bring the printed recipe with you, if you want (and we want to) and take a look when your memory fails (and it fails). To our big surprise it is easier than expected, and the personal assistants are very good at telling you what to do when they see you are having some problems, and also at giving you the pace (Thai cooking is not like Italian cooking where the slower the better…).

When done with the recipe you can serve the result of your efforts on a dish, stick your name on it (why? because at the end of the morning we will have to eat what we have cooked) and move back to the classroom where the following recipe is explained.

Sometimes Khun Nooror is assisted by other chefs who show us how to make the decorations for the phad thai and how to cut a papaya in a fast, modern way rather than in the more traditional way. After each demonstration we go back to the kitchen, and put into practice the Thai culinary techniques we have just learned.

The test
As the four recipes planned for our lesson have all been explained and tried, we move downstairs, to the Blue Elephant Restaurant, where we are served your own dishes. How did we score? To our great surprise… quite well! What we cooked actually tastes very good, much different from our previous (failed) attempts at home.

The real test will be when we will have to go shopping all by ourselves, choose the right ingredients, prepare them (remember, preparation of the ingredients is at the base of a successful Thai recipe) and cook them. But we are quite confident. Khun Noorer would be proud of us! :

For more information
Blue Elephant Cooking School & Restaurant
telephone (662) 673 9353-8
fax (662) 673 9355
email cooking.school@BlueElephant.com
website http://www.BlueElephant.com