Half Day Morning Thai Cooking Class - Thai kitchen Cookery Centre

Thai Kitchen Cookery Centre calls itself the first cooking school in Chiang Mai and has been teaching since 1995 from a house near the Night Bazaar. Classes are fully hands on: you chop, pound and cook everything yourself, including the sauces and curry pastes, using the family's own recipes. The morning half day course fits a market visit and five dishes into the time before a late lunch, and leaves your afternoon free. It suits people who want the market as well as the cooking but cannot give up a whole day.

The morning begins with pickup and a walk through a local fresh market, where the teacher explains the herbs, vegetables and pastes you will use. Back at the school you cook five dishes from five menu groups: a curry paste pounded by hand, the curry made from it, a stir fry such as pad thai or cashew chicken, a soup such as tom yum or tom kha, and spring rolls. You choose your dishes from the list in each group. Every dish can be made vegetarian or vegan, and you set your own spice level. You eat what you cook as you go, which serves as lunch.

Practicalities: the course runs from about 09:40 to 13:50 daily, with pickup between 09:00 and 09:40 from accommodation within about 3 km of downtown. Tea, coffee, water, herbal drinks and snacks are provided, and there is an optional Thai cocktail. You leave with the school's full colour recipe book.