Chef Devagi Sanmugam: It is Pat's Cooking School

Sunday, December 5, 2010

It is Pat's Cooking School

Pat’s Home Thai Cooking School is quite well known as the first and best home cooking school in Phuket where you can enjoy explosive flavors, mouth-watering aromas, and fresh and healthy ingredients. The school is located in Phuket city and is run by fifty five year old Patcharin Tiengthong or Pat as she is fondly known to all. Pat was born in Bangkok and moved to California where she worked as a chef for over eight years. She has been teaching the finer points of Thai cooking for thirteen years. I thank Pat for sponsoring the cooking class session.

I loved this clay sink

Pat runs the cooking school in her own home and I was made to feel at home from the time she received me as I got down from the tuk tuk. I was given a refreshing lemon grass iced tea. The glass was wrapped with banana leaf and tied with a string of fresh flowers – the fine touch of a chef who is passionate about her food and cooking!

I enrolled for a weekday cooking session and class started at 9.30 am. Quite fluent in English, Chef Pat described the procedures of how the class will be carried out and described the ingredients that we were going to use for the cooking class. She did not give the recipes at the beginning of the class but promised to give at the end. This is good - many times in my cooking classes, I have noted that participants read the recipes once and then keep it folded or away. When you are not given a recipes, you will pay more attention to the teacher! The cooking method was quite traditional. For example, she thought everyone in the class how to squeeze coconut milk out of grated coconut and everyone had to do it and then remove the coconut cream to cook the Green Chicken Curry. We did a real hands-on for all the dishes except the Sticky Rice with Mango. This was a complimentary dish she served with our lunch; however she provided the recipe for it. She had a couple of assistants and everything was done in a systematic and organized way – which showed her experience in running hundreds of cooking classes too. Her classes are suitable for the novice as well as the professionals.

At the end of the class, all the students were invited into her dining room and we had a good sit-down lunch that finished off with the sticky rice and mango dessert. The cooking class finished when she gave us a certificate of attendance presentation and the recipes. Chef Pat also runs a bed and breakfast place in a bungalow and she runs private classes and provides private dinners too.