Half-Day Thai Cooking Class - Asia Scenic School

Asia Scenic's Old Town branch sits on Rachadamnoen Soi 5, a few minutes' walk from Tha Pae Gate, and this is its half-day class. It suits people staying in the centre who want a proper hands-on session without a long drive, and it runs as a morning or an evening class. The school has been run by Gayle and her family since 2007.

The class includes a walk to a nearby market, where your teacher explains the herbs, pastes and vegetables that make Thai food taste the way it does and how to choose the freshest. Back at the school you pick herbs in its own vegetable garden, a real kitchen garden in the middle of the city. Then you cook six dishes, one from each of six categories: an appetizer such as spring rolls, papaya salad or laab; a stir-fry such as pad thai, fried rice or pad kaprao; a soup such as tom yum, coconut soup or tom sab; a curry paste made from scratch; the curry made from it, from green, red, panang, massaman or khao soi; and a dessert such as mango sticky rice, bananas in coconut milk or fried banana. There is no fixed menu: you choose, the teacher guides. Every person has their own wok and station, and you eat what you make as you go.

Coffee, tea and water are unlimited during the class, you take home a printed cookbook rather than a PDF, and the school posts a photo album of the day for free download. The morning class runs 9:00 to 13:30 with pickup from 8:20 to 8:50; the evening class runs 16:00 to 20:30 with pickup from 15:20 to 15:50. Free transport covers accommodation in the Chiang Mai city zone; if you stay in the centre you can simply walk. Vegetarian, vegan, halal and gluten-free are all catered for because the class cooks dish by dish.