Thailand loves its food. The country is a gastronomic wonderland of fiery, sour, sweet, gingery, garlicky delectables. Food is available on every second street corner and fills every market, whether it is a plate of pad thai (stir-fried noodles), spicy green papaya salad, a quick satay or tantalising treats for a sweet tooth, it is never hard to find something to eat.
Fine Thai dining, however, isn't in abundance. Enter the Blue Elephant, a European restaurant group and guardian of royal Thai cuisine that has recently opened an upmarket restaurant in Bangkok.
Blue Elephant is not just about indulging. It also has a cooking school, which allows travellers to take home a taste of Thailand.
'Thai food is simple food,' says Khun Noroor Somany-Steppe, co-founder of Blue Elephant and the instructor for the morning's cooking lessons. Dubbed royal for its aesthetics rather than imperial ingredients, the food at the Blue Elephant may not be very different to what you can find on the street - except for its panache, which is said to make it fit for a king.
Lesson No.1 in Noroor's class: use the finest quality and freshest ingredients you can find. We go to hunt down ours in the local fresh food market. Bustling gossip shops where women guard their goods with plastic fans and make an art form of bargaining, these markets abound in Thailand. Although they are being given a run for their money by big supermarket chains, savvy Thais know that, when it comes to fresh fruit, vegetables, fish and meat, the local goods can't be beaten. The markets offer a ready supply of cooked dishes, fresh curry pastes, sauces, condiments and exotic titbits from around Asia.
An aromatic bundle of coriander, a bunch of rosy cherry tomatoes, some juicy king prawns and a plump fish later, and it's back to the beautiful, century-old colonial mansion the Blue Elephant calls home. The first dish on the menu is yam som o, a spicy and tangy yet subtly sweet pomelo salad designed as a cold appetiser. Noroor takes us through the ingredients and method step by step, before sending us off to personal cooking stations where we attempt to re-create it.
All four of the dishes taught in a lesson are either classics or specialities of the house. Additional dishes can be demonstrated if you request them before the trip to the market.
Blue Elephant opened its first restaurant in Brussels in 1980 and delighted diners with its exotic Asian flavours. Now the group has restaurants around the world, including London, Paris, Dubai, Beirut, Copenhagen, Delhi and Malta. But only its Bangkok restaurant has a cooking school, which was originally intended for training its own chefs. Blue Elephant realised there was an army of Thai food connoisseurs visiting the city every day who not only wanted to eat, but to learn the secrets of Thai cooking.
And Blue Elephant reveals plenty of secrets during the lessons, which range from half a day to a week. Among other things, Noroor teaches students how to make an incredible red curry paste; the art of adding zing to a tom yum soup; and how to wrap the perfect miang kam (a mix of delicacies such as roasted coconut, lime zest, peanuts, chilli and shrimp stuffed into a leaf and served with ice-cold beer).
'Now I'll tell you the most important secret of Thai cooking,' says Noroor, as her class sits in front of an array of dishes, spoons in hands, and taste buds eager for the most anticipated moment of all. 'Enjoy eating it!'
Half-day classes (8.30am-12.30pm or 1pm-5pm) cost from 2,800 baht (HK$550) and include a five-course lunch, excursion to the market and parting gift. Bookings are essential. Blue Elephant Cooking School and Restaurant, 233 South Sathorn Road, Yannawa, Sathorn, Bangkok 10120. Tel: [66] 2673 9353; fax: [66] 2673 9355; e-mail: cooking-school@blueelephant.com; www.blueelephant.com