2 For 1 Cooking Class with Ann's Smart School of Cookery

This Asian and Thai cookery class was a gift from some friends following my early retirement. I had always wanted to do a cookery class so I was grateful this gift and couldn’t wait to attend as I had never attempted Asian or Thai cooking before. I was surprised that the lesson was on Good Friday but glad that I was going to do something fun instead of staying at home. I arrived at St Katherine’s Dock earlier than expected so used the time to look around and take some pictures before starting at the session. I was excited when we were let into the venue and instructed to leave our bags on one side and hang our coats on another before washing our hands and donning our aprons. Our instructor did a head count of 21 and told us how the two hours was going to pan out. Unfortunately for me, I had to visit the lavatory which meant that by the time I came out all the ‘prime’ seats were taken and I was left with a seat right at the very end of the table in front of a pillar which meant most of my view was obscured. The chef told us about himself and then we were ready to start. All the other visitors seemed friendly. So for the first dish we were cooking, volunteers were needed to make the Asian broth which consisted of onions, butterfly prawns, spices and passata. I was one of the first four people to volunteer. I chopped onions and lightly fried them ready for all the other ingredients. Two of us chopped and fried onions whilst the other two butterflied and fried the prawns (a substitute for clams). After adding the passata we let it simmer for a few minutes before we were ready to taste. Since there were so many of us we had to ensure that we served two prawns per person to ensure that everyone got to taste. For the rest of the session, I sat and watched whilst others took their turn to do something to contribute to cooking of the dish. This was so disappointing for me since I was expecting to learn how to cook a Thai and Asian dish from start to finish, with more hands on. I was quite upset by this since it was a full priced gift that had been bought for me. I didn’t feel the session was value for money. Some of the ingredients had had to be substituted due to the supplier as the chef explained. BUT two medium sized trout to enable 21 people to cook and sample, I thought was stingy – but quite apt since the session took place on Good Friday! I really felt that this session should have been run as two classes as there were 21 people having to share three hobs and three dishes. This was just too many people for me to get the full ‘good experience’. I expected to do more than just chop onions which was the only thing I did for the two or so hours. This was more of an observation class not what I would consider to be a cookery lesson. No photos were allowed so we couldn’t even take pictures of the food – again disappointing. Despite the disappointment, the cooked food sampled was tasty although I wasn't sure whether this was authentic Thai/Asian taste.