Blue Elephant Thai Cooking Class

Bangkok has dozens of cooking schools, from rooftop classes in Khao San guesthouses to family kitchens in the suburbs, and Blue Elephant is the one to choose if you want the classic experience done properly. The school runs out of the Thai Chine Building on South Sathorn Road, a three-storey colonial mansion more than a century old that once housed the Thai Chinese Chamber of Commerce and was used by the Japanese army during the Second World War; downstairs is the Blue Elephant restaurant, one of the best known names in royal Thai cuisine, and the teaching kitchens sit upstairs. The format is reassuringly structured. The morning class begins with a guided walk through a local fresh market, where the instructor explains the herbs, pastes and produce that confuse first-time visitors: the difference between galangal and ginger, which basil goes in which curry, why palm sugar matters, how to choose a good coconut. Back at the school, a chef demonstrates each dish step by step, then every student cooks at an individual station with their own wok and burner, so you do the chopping, pounding and stir-frying yourself rather than watching someone else do it. The menus rotate, typically four dishes built around a soup, a salad or stir-fry and a curry made from scratch: recent classes have covered green chicken curry, spicy beef soup, prawn pad thai, stir-fried chicken with cashews, turmeric sea bass soup and red beef curry with pumpkin. The class ends with lunch in the restaurant downstairs, where you eat what you cooked. An afternoon class runs without the market visit for those who would rather sleep in. It is more polished and more expensive than a backstreet class, and it is not the place for an anarchic, cocktails-and-chillies party atmosphere, but for food lovers who want to come home able to make a real Thai curry, it is the benchmark.

What makes Blue Elephant worth the premium is the teaching. Classes are run by professional chefs who work in the restaurant kitchen, and the emphasis is on technique you can repeat at home: how to pound a curry paste in a granite mortar until it turns from a rough chop into a smooth, fragrant paste, how hot the wok should be before the garlic goes in, when to add fish sauce and when palm sugar, and how to balance the four Thai flavours of salty, sweet, sour and hot. Students receive printed recipes to take away, and the instructors are good at suggesting substitutes for ingredients that are hard to find outside Asia, which is the question every student eventually asks. The market walk is the part people remember. Even if you have already spent days grazing through Chinatown and Chatuchak, a cook explaining what you are looking at turns a market from a blur of colour into a lesson, and you will leave knowing which stalls sell kaffir lime leaves, fresh curry pastes and the tiny, fierce bird's eye chillies.

How to book and when to go: the morning class with the market tour is the one to choose; arrive about fifteen minutes before the start, which is early, so the class fits neatly before lunch. Booking ahead is wise, especially in the cool season from November to February when Bangkok is busiest, and the Tiqets listing lets you lock in a date. Wear comfortable, closed shoes for the market and the kitchen, tie back long hair, and tell the staff about allergies or a vegetarian diet when you book; the chefs adapt dishes readily. Expect a relaxed morning rather than a test, and do not worry about chilli levels: you control the heat in your own wok. The building itself is worth a look, with its high ceilings, wooden staircases and old photographs, and if you want to see the restaurant at its best, come back for dinner another evening.

Getting there and fitting it in: the school is on South Sathorn Road beside BTS Surasak on the Silom line, so it is easy from Sukhumvit, Siam and the riverside hotels; from the old town, take the Chao Phraya boat to Sathorn pier and ride the Skytrain two stops. After lunch you are well placed for an afternoon in Silom, a walk in Lumphini Park or a sunset drink at a rooftop bar nearby. It suits couples looking for a shared experience, food-focused travellers and families with older children who can handle a hot wok; younger children are better at a casual neighbourhood class. If you only do one hands-on activity in Bangkok, make it this one.