Baipai Thai Cooking School is set in a fantastic looking complex with a garden and a couple of eating and drinking terraces. To get to it on your own would be very difficult. Luckily the school provides a complimentary, pick up and drop off, air conditioned bus service.

Bai Pai complex from the front. Photo by Richard John Hackey

Complimentary, air-conditioned, bus. Photo by Richard John Hackey

On arrival Tum, Chef Noy’s assistant, greeted me and was wonderfully welcoming. He provided me with a welcome drink, a delicious lemongrass iced tea.

While I enjoyed my iced tea, Tum brought over a small, well presented, package, which contained individual cards that had a copy of recipes to dishes we were to cook during the day:

Satay Chicken

Savory Prawn Salad

Chicken with Cashew Nuts

Coconut Sticky Rice

Recipe Cards. Photo by Richard John Hackey

I was lucky enough to be on a course with just one other guest, Megan, which made the experience that little bit more intimate. Although the school usually does have more guests on each course. More numbers would be easily catered for just by looking at how the kitchen stations were set up.

The facilities in the kitchen were clean and new. It was a pleasure to work in such a well kept environment.

Classroom Workstations. Photo by Richard John Hackey

The class began with a brief introduction, both by the chef Noy and Tum. We were then asked to introduce ourselves. After the introductions Tum let us know that the class would last four hours.

The course was aimed at beginners so the methods were very quick and easy. Some dishes required ingredients that needed to soak or marinade for a few hours so these were prepared earlier by the school so that they were ready for use. It wasn’t as hands on as I had anticipated. The teaching was more set up so that you could get a good idea on how to cook the dishes and then go home with the recipes and make them from there.

Chef Noy, with Tum next to her, explaining one of the dishes. Photo by Richard John Hackey

The class was mainly based at the chef’s work station, where she gave a detailed description on how each dish was cooked, what each ingredient was and why they were used. Megan was full of questions that Noy and Tum were only too happy to answer.

Dishes were cooked one at a time. Parts of the dishes were cooked and explained by Noy and then we were asked to go to our stations and complete the dishes. After we had, inevitably, made a mess during the cooking process, members of staff were on hand to clean up after us.

Chef Noy showing us how to use the Chicken satay grill. Photo by Tum

Between cooking the dishes we were given a short break to eat the food we had just cooked.

At the end of the day we ate our final dishes on the second floor dining terrace, overlooking the school’s beautiful garden. After we had finished our meals, Tum came over to the table and presented us with a beer mat sized, fridge magnet with a photo of myself cooking Chicken satay during the class. Tum and Noy then gave a brief thank you on behalf of the school and said goodbye, adding that the complimentary bus was waiting to take us home whenever we were ready.

View more photos of my day at Baipai Thai Cooking School here.

Baipai Thai Cooking School is a 15-minute drive from downtown Bangkok. It offers a morning and afternoon class Monday-Saturday for THB 1800. Visit their website: www.baipai.com, call: 02 561 1404 or email: info@baipai.com.