Half Day Course - Siamgarden Cooking School

Siam Garden is a cooking school set in a garden in San Sai, a short drive north of Chiang Mai, and the half-day course packs six dishes into a morning or an afternoon. It suits anyone who wants a proper hands-on class with plenty of cooking and not much sitting around.

You are collected in central Chiang Mai and driven first to a local market, where the instructor shows you the ingredients you will cook with. At the school you tour the organic garden, then settle at your own wok in the air-conditioned Thai-style kitchen. You pound your own curry paste in your own mortar and pick six dishes, one each from curry paste, curry, stir-fry, soup, appetizer and dessert, and learn to cook the glutinous rice for mango sticky rice along the way. You eat what you cook at a table in the open-air garden pavilion, or take it away.

Every dish can be made vegetarian or vegan. The morning class runs from 09:30 to about 14:00 with pickup from 09:00, and the evening class from 14:30 to about 19:30 with pickup from 14:30. Groups sometimes run a little over, so allow time if you have plans afterwards. Tea, coffee, water and an online recipe book are included.