Hands-On In Northern Thailand

I've been cooking from Naomi Duguid and Jeffrey Alford's books (Hot Sour Salty Sweet; Mangoes and Curry Leaves; Beyond the Great Wall et al) for over a decade. So it was kind of weird and very wonderful to find ourselves covering their first culinary class/tour in northern Thailand last February for Wall Street Journal Asia. Read my article in today's edition of the paper's 'Weekend Journal' it here, and check out Dave's accompanying slideshow. (More out takes from the story here.)

                             The makings of a Shan meal

To say that this class is 'hands-on' would be an understatement. Students did the wet market shopping and the cooking -- in traditionally Thai low-tech kitchens (think charcoal braziers instead of cooktops, two knives and a chopping block instead of a meat grinder, and good old mortar and pestle rather than a blender or food processor) -- from Day One.

 Khun Mae ('Mother') teaches students how to make rice flour dumpling sweets

To teach the class the couple brought in locals, only one of whom speaks fairly fluent English and none of whom are tourism or culinary professionals; the main 'instructor' was a 70-something-year-old grandma from Fang, north of Chiang Mai (by the end of the class everyone was calling her 'Mother'). Two days were spent in Fang where, in an outdoor kitchen on a beautiful lychee farm, a young Shan woman introduced students to her ethnic minority's cuisine.

Students were given shopping lists, but no written recipes, so they learned as Jeff and Naomi do when researching their books -- by watching and doing, and finding ways past language barriers to communicate with local cooks. Meals outside the 'classroom' were taken on the street, at markets, and in local restaurants.

                                  Shopping lists yes, recipes no

Culinary courses are, by their very nature, staged experiences, but this cooking class felt as 'true' as a cooking class could possibly be. Naomi and Jeff told me that they hoped to challenge course participants both inside and outside of the kitchen, to nudge them beyond their culinary and cultural comfort zones. Judging from students' comments they succeeded in this; though a few students acknowledged feeling like fish out of water that first morning in the wet market, by the last day of the class everyone seemed to be riding a high.

Oh, and did I mention that we ate exceedingly well?

              Students enjoy the fruits of their labors on a lychee farm in Fang

Details on the next class, to be held in January 2010, can be found here. 

Comments

[Linda]

Wonderful article Robyn - as usual it is perfection. Jeff and Naomi are so very unique in their approach- they're national treasures!
Wish I could be in KL for David's class.

[Robyn]

Thanks Linda. My job was made easy on this one, such a great topic. And I agree with you re: Duguid and Alford. They're also incredibly nice people.

[Scott]

Hello Robyn,

My wife and I are new-ish to KL. Thank you for your blog. Your posts reflect such a warm and friendly approach to food and the excitement to try all things new while also sharing insight into the people -- the cooks, merchants, hawkers, servers -- behind the food.

Coincidentally, we have a foodie friend visiting from SF next month. Would love to find a class like this here in KL or a real hands on food tour to share with her. Any recommendations? Have you and David ever thought of doing this sort of thing?

[Rasa Malaysia]

Do you know that there is absolutely no cooking class in Penang, other than the "demo" at a couple beach hotels? I have many readers going to Penang and keen to learn how to cook, but can't seem to find anyone doing that. So sad!

I wonder if Clove Hall or 110 Armenian would be interested in putting together a regular or even ad hoc class. Finding someone to teach/cook is easy, the tough part is a great location with proper set up and close to the tourists...

[Jill Thomas]

I own a restaurant and am going to spend a month in Chang Mai. I am looking for a longish cooking course (couple of weeks) that ideally would be geared to chefs or at least people who cook well. I have taken one of the tourist courses in Chang Mai before and am looking for something more substantial. Any suggestions?

[Nazlina]

There is now a cooking class in Penang

[Nazlina]

It is at the Tropical Spice Garden
http://www.pickles-and-spices.com/cooking-class-in-penang.html
Very hands-on, using only traditional tools and methods :)