Morning Thai Cooking Class in a Home Garden Kitchen – 6 Dishes
A small, relaxed morning cooking class in an open-air home garden kitchen by the river in Chiang Mai: market tour, six dishes of your choosing and your own curry paste.
- Duration
- Half day (09:00–14:00)
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Max group
- 10 pax
Some Chiang Mai cooking schools are small businesses; this one still feels like being invited into someone's garden. The kitchen is outdoors under a roof in a residential lane on the quiet river side of the city, classes run with between two and ten guests, and the teaching style is unhurried and personal rather than choreographed. If big groups put you off, this is the class to book.
The morning opens with a pick-up between 08:30 and 09:00 and a walk through a local fresh market. Rather than a quick lap, your instructor hands you herbs to smell and taste and explains what each one does: lemongrass, galangal, kaffir lime, holy basil, turmeric, the chillies, palm sugar, tamarind, shrimp paste. A welcome snack or a plate of seasonal fruit is waiting when you arrive at the garden.
You then cook six dishes, one chosen from each of six categories — curry paste, curry, soup, appetiser, stir-fry and dessert. The pick-list is long and covers the classics people actually want to learn: green and massaman paste, panang, khao soi, tom yum goong, tom kha gai, som tum, fried egg salad, pad thai, cashew chicken, sticky rice with mango, banana in coconut milk. Everyone also learns how to steam sticky rice properly, which sounds minor until you try to do it at home. You have your own wok and burner and you cook everything yourself.
The class finishes around 14:00 with a certificate, a recipe cookbook, free photos of your session and a drop-off back at your accommodation. Vegetarians are welcome — say so when you book. Note the school is closed on Sundays.
- Small class — between 2 and 10 guests, never a production line
- Open-air home garden kitchen rather than a commercial classroom
- Choose six dishes from six categories: curry paste, curry, soup, appetiser, stir-fry, dessert
- One person, one wok — your own station throughout
- Learn and taste fresh Thai herbs before you cook with them
- Everyone learns how to steam proper sticky rice
- Vegetarians genuinely welcome
- Recipe cookbook and free transfer within 3 km of downtown
- Guided local market tour and a welcome snack or seasonal fruit
What's included
- ✓ Free transfer to and from your accommodation within 3 km of Chiang Mai downtown
- ✓ All ingredients for six dishes
- ✓ One person, one wok — your own station
- ✓ Learning and tasting fresh Thai herbs
- ✓ Make your own curry paste
- ✓ English-speaking Thai instructor
- ✓ Recipe cookbook
- ✓ Open-air outdoor kitchen
- ✓ Guided local market tour
- ✓ Welcome snack or fruit in season
- ✓ Certificate and free photos of your class
- Transfer from accommodation beyond the 3 km downtown radius (ask us for a quote)
- Alcoholic drinks
- Gratuities
- Travel insurance
- 08:30
Pick-up
Collected from your accommodation between 08:30 and 09:00 (within 3 km of downtown Chiang Mai).
- 09:00
Local market tour
A guided walk through a fresh market, smelling and tasting the herbs and learning what to buy, what to avoid and what to substitute at home.
- 09:45
Arrival, welcome snack and herb tasting
Welcome snack or seasonal fruit in the garden, then a hands-on introduction to fresh Thai herbs from the garden itself.
- 10:15
Curry paste
Pound your own green, red or massaman paste in a granite mortar at your own station.
- 10:45
Appetiser and stir-fry
Som tum, fried egg salad or spring rolls, then pad thai, chicken fried rice or cashew chicken at your own wok.
- 11:45
Soup
Tom yum goong, tom kha gai or Thai noodle soup, built from fresh herbs.
- 12:30
Curry, sticky rice and lunch
Cook a full curry from your own paste, learn to steam sticky rice the Thai way, then sit down and eat everything you have made.
- 13:30
Dessert, certificate and photos
Sticky rice with mango or banana in coconut milk, then your certificate, cookbook and the free photos of the class.
- 14:00
Drop-off
Returned to your accommodation.
Yes. Every dish on the menu can be made vegetarian or vegan — tofu and vegetables in place of the meat and seafood, soy-based seasoning in place of fish sauce and shrimp paste. Tell us at booking so the shopping is right, and remind your instructor of any allergy on the day.
Yes. The menu is a pick-list: you choose one dish from each category, so everyone at the table cooks something different. You also choose how spicy each dish is.
Between two and ten guests. That is a deliberate limit — the instructor can watch every wok and correct your technique as you go.
Yes, free both ways for accommodation within a 3 km radius of downtown Chiang Mai. Staying further out? Tell us your hotel and we will confirm or quote a supplement.
Light clothes you do not mind splashing and closed shoes rather than sandals — you will be standing at a wok and walking through a market. Aprons are provided; tie long hair back.
Daily except Sunday — the school is closed on Sundays.
Yes. The instructor is Thai and teaches in English.