Cooking With Class : Asian schools cost less than European ones, but there is no shortage of luxury

There I was, halfway around the world at a gorgeous beach in southern Thailand and what was I doing? Stir-frying clams.

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The beach could wait.

The clams and I had come together in a cooking class at the Boathouse, an intimate new boutique hotel on the island of Phuket, just off Thailand’s west coast. I had flown there from Bangkok for a weekend of cooking lessons that included fancy lunches with wine, breaks with exotic fruit juice, cakes and cookies and even an afternoon of herbal steams and massages at a nearby spa.

The experience was a great bargain: $80 for the classes and use of spa facilities and about $70 per night at off-season rates, April through October, for a luxurious room overlooking the sea. Even peak season rates are modest, considering the location and the property: The cooking school rate remains the same, single rooms climb to $128, doubles $140. Compare this to $3,500 for a week of cooking lessons at the famed La Varenne cooking school in Burgundy, France, and $3,400 for a week of lessons at Giuliano Bugialli’s digs in Florence and the Asian alternative sounds practically cheap. Yet it offers a high-quality cooking experience and, in some cases, accommodations that are lovely, if not downright luxurious.

Until recently in Thailand, the legendary Oriental Hotel (the famed Bangkok inn where George Bush, Margaret Thatcher, Elizabeth Taylor, etc. stay when they’re in town) offered the only cooking classes for farangs (foreigners). But now there’s a mini-explosion of such schools. Among the more recent additions, the Boathouse inaugurated its cooking school last May, the Landmark Hotel in Bangkok introduced cooking classes in July and the famed Dusit Thani hotel’s cooking demonstrations debuted in 1993.

It appears that Thai food, with its ravishing flavors, lightness and beauty, has become so popular worldwide that there’s a growing demand for such classes, hoteliers told me. They’re doing their best to keep up with--and capitalize on--that interest. In addition to visiting the Oriental and the Boathouse, last summer I looked in on three others and heard about still more.

At the Boathouse, our teachers weren’t PBS cooking show celebrities. They were young Thais from the hotel kitchen who patiently demonstrated each dish, then assisted as we took turns at the range. The Boathouse keeps classes small to allow participation. There were six in my group, including vacationers from Scotland, Australia and Singapore. Half of the students were men.

In just two sessions, we pounded curry pastes, grated coconut and worked our way through enough dishes to provide several alluring menus when we got home. Grilled beef salad, green chicken curry and hot and sour shrimp soup (tom yum goong) were easy, but we also tried advanced dishes such as goong sarong-- fried shrimp wrapped in rice noodles--and rhuum-- dainty bundles of minced chicken and shrimp tucked into a golden egg net. To make the nets, we crisscrossed strands of beaten egg in a heated skillet. The results were ragged but not bad for a first try.

Our teachers came from different parts of Thailand and were adept at explaining regional specialties. Platters of herbs, roots and vegetables were set out so we could touch and sniff unfamiliar ingredients.

One of the hotel dining rooms served as our classroom. A copper cook station equipped with stove top and preparation area was our kitchen. We ate what we made for lunch, supplemented by additional dishes prepared by the Boathouse chefs.

For dinner, I feasted in the hotel’s dining room with my cooking school associates on Phuket lobster, shrimp and huge scallops with roe attached, accompanied by wines from the hotel’s brand new cellar. (We ordered a la carte, but you can have a complete dinner with a set menu for $22.) The Boathouse conducts wine seminars once a month, and I was lucky enough to get in on one. With a tropical storm raging outside, we sipped a selection of Australian and French wines, culminating in expensive bottles of Chateauneuf-du-Pape.

Cooking classes took place in the morning, leaving afternoons free for swimming, sunning and massages. A hotel van transported us to Patong beach, which is about 20 minutes from Kata beach, where the Boathouse is located. Our destination was the Hideaway--a rustic, outdoor spa that sprawls along a hillside. There we spent what seemed like hours in a fragrant, soothing steam room, then splashed in a cold pool fed by a waterfall only to return to the steam and again, to the pool. Later, we stretched out in an open-air pavilion for a traditional Thai massage--an ancient art taught in the temples--and a rubdown with herb-infused oil.

The next day, we completed our curriculum and celebrated with an elaborate luncheon at which we received our diplomas. We feasted on tom yam goong, beef in red curry, chicken in green curry, baby clams with basil and chilies, stir-fried mixed vegetables, coconut custard and blini with fresh blackberry sauce (not Thai, but a house specialty). We toasted each other with Alsatian gewurztraminer, and finished off with cappuccinos. Then it was time to return to Bangkok for further studies.

The Oriental school, which opened in 1987, is still going strong. It’s luxurious and expensive--$1,965 for the five-day program and a single occupancy room at the hotel. But those on a budget can stay elsewhere, as I did, and enroll for a single class for $100.

In Bangkok, I prefer to stay in small hotels that run $30 to $35 a day. (Two of my favorites are the Dynasty Inn and the Grand Inn.) They’re centrally located--just off the main tourist thoroughfare, Sukhumvit Road. They are equipped with refrigerators, spacious bathrooms and in-house movies. So despite their modest price, I find them to be clean, comfortable and not at all like roughing it. Breakfast on the Oriental veranda was $15. My usual breakfast of rice noodle soup and coffee purchased from street stands cost less than $1.

On Tuesday, the day I attended, the Oriental class was devoted to the preparation of soups, as well as fruit, vegetable and ice carving. Other days explore curries, salads, condiments, side dishes, desserts and basic cooking techniques. The hotel is located on the Chao Phraya river, and classes take place in a traditional Thai-style house on the opposite bank. A hotel shuttle boat takes you there.

Opening the drawer of my polished teak desk at the Oriental school, I found pretty cloth sacks of spices, bottles of chili sauce and fish sauce and an apron--gifts provided for each student, along with a diploma at the end of class.

Sarnsern Gajaseni, who has been with the school since it opened in 1987, taught us the fine points of making duck soup with pickled lime, coconut soup with scallops and tom yum soup that contained squid, scallops, mussels and fish, not just the traditional shrimp. A handsome fellow with an engaging manner, Gajaseni kept us fascinated throughout the morning.

Pampering is the rule here and smartly uniformed attendants were on hand to take care of any need. You don’t lift a finger unless it’s to raise a coffee cup or spoonful of food. Students watch but don’t participate except for the carving lesson. First there’s a lecture, then the class moves into the demo room to watch prep work, then into the kitchen to watch the cooking.

Gajaseni threw in lots of information and extras, such as the recipe he gave me for a spicy dip that accompanied my breakfast omelet and a tip on a good and inexpensive restaurant near my hotel. My well-heeled classmates were from Japan, Austria, the Philippines and Vanuatu, in the South Pacific. One woman photographed each step of the lesson with an expensive miniature video camera.

The food was delicious and well-presented but not substantially better than the other schools I attended, although the setting was decidedly more luxurious.

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Bangkok is a frenetic city, clogged with traffic and pollution. Bangmaung in Nontaburi province is a peaceful rural area that sees few tourists. Yet it is only 14 miles north, close enough to visit for a day. The reason to go is the Thai House, a charming inn that offers a four-day course in home-style cooking. Constructed like an old-fashioned teak residence, the Thai House reflects the easy, gentle lifestyle that prevailed until booming development over the past two decades spawned overcrowding and impossibly long commutes.

There’s a klong (canal) on one side, an orchard on the other and a spacious lawn. The rooms, which can accommodate 16 guests, were fully booked, so I commuted to class via a 45-minute ride from Bangkok in the Thai House van. We drove past rice fields and klongs , humble dwellings and vacation homes and even a factory where temple Buddhas are cast. Coconut, banana, jackfruit and mango trees stood out amid the lush greenery. It’s also possible to take a boat through the klongs, arriving only a few yards from the inn’s door.

The four-day program, which costs slightly more than $500, including room and board, covers dishes that foreigners are familiar with and like. These include beef in creamy panang curry, larb (a ground meat salad), tom yam goong and pad Thai. It is possible, though, to attend for a single day as I did (about $75), and to request dishes you would like to learn.

Our teacher Pip (pronounced Peep--it is Thai custom to use a nickname), is the wife of Paiboone Fargrajang, who built the Thai House and also runs a travel business in Bangkok. Pip sets up her wok outdoors, and students sit at a table nearby. The young women who assist perch on the ground to pound curry pastes in heavy mortars as Thai women have done for generations.

Before the lesson, Paiboone and I went to the Bangmaung market. In the early morning, the streets of this town are lined with vendors selling beautiful produce, spices, clothing, flowers and typical blue-and-white tableware. I shuddered at a basketful of roasted rice-field rats--the meat is said to be wonderful--and at fat water bugs that would be crushed into shrimp paste. I marveled at pink strands of sweetened palm sugar, spun as fine as silk thread.

Back at the school, Pip taught me to make kai yat sai-- pork and vegetables wrapped in a thin omelet--explaining tricky steps that my cookbooks had omitted. When she learned that my favorite dessert was fresh longans, a translucent fruit that looks like a small lychee, combined with sticky rice and coconut cream, she produced a bowl of this and told me how to make it. I came away with a few recipes from the regular curriculum, too, and have used these with great success.

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Last summer, when the five-star Landmark Hotel on Sukhumvit Road in Bangkok introduced cooking classes, it was in a classroom outfitted with displays of Thai seasonings and cookbooks. And it is producing a cookbook of its own recipes. The curriculum includes such interesting dishes as crispy squid with mango sauce, fried rice served in a pineapple shell and southern chicken curry. Classes take place in the afternoon so that they don’t conflict with morning tours.

A single class costs just under $40 and includes lunch or dinner at the hotel’s Thai restaurant, Nipa. Students receive an apron and a Chinese dim sum steamer basket packed with seasonings. A five-day course is a relative bargain at $180 but the real advantage here is flexibility. Classes can be set up on short notice, lone travelers are welcome and translators can handle a variety of languages.

I learned about the Landmark classes too late to attend one. So, too, did I miss the Dusit Thani’s monthly afternoon tea and cooking demonstration. In July and August, when I was in town, the teas were preempted by two major holidays, one of them Thai Queen Sirikit’s birthday. Launched in 1993, the teas, accompanied by snacks and pastries, take place on Saturdays. The fee is $10 and the money goes to royally-approved charities.

The demonstrations cover a different cuisine each month. Last year, there were lessons in Vietnamese, Cantonese and French food. In March, the menu was especially exotic--at least by Bangkok standards. The draw was Mexican-American cuisine from California, including guacamole, nachos and tortilla soup.

The Dusit Thani caters to pros as well as amateur cooks. The hotel has set up a two-year college that trains professional chefs and hotel staff. The college stages workshops for the public, too, but these feature Italian food, not Thai. Pizza and pasta may have taken over the world, but I’ll take Thai food any day, thank you. And I’ll cook it myself.

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GUIDEBOOK

Dishing It Out in Thailand

Boathouse, 2/2 Patak Road, Kata Beach, Phuket 83100, Thailand; from the U.S., telephone 011-667-633-0557 or fax 011-667-330-561; about $130 for a single; $140 for a double. Summer packages available April through October.

Dusit Thani, Rama IV Road, Bangkok 10500; tel. 011-662-236-04509; about $235 for a double.

Dynasty Inn, 5/4-5 Soi 4, Sukhumvit Road, Bangkok; tel. 011-662-250-1397 or fax 011-662-255-4111; about $35 for a single.

Grand Inn, 2/7-8 Soi 3, Sukhumvit Road, Bangkok; tel. 011-662-253-3380 or fax 011-662-254-9020; about $35 for a single.

Landmark, 138 Sukhumvit Road, Bangkok 10110; tel. 011-662-254-0404 or fax 011-662-253-4259; about $150 for a single; $160 for a double.

Oriental, 48 Oriental Ave., Bangkok 10500; tel. 011-662-236-0400; about $270 for a single; $280 for a double.

Thai House reservation office in Bangkok: Asian Overland Adventures, 22 Pra-Athit Road, Bangkok 10200; tel. 011-662-280-0740 or fax 011-662-280-0741. Room rate without cooking class: about $44 for a single; $60 for a double, including breakfast. The four-day program is about $500, including room and board; one day about $75.