COOKING lessons and DURIAN treats
The best recipes are created by the children of talented cooks who observe and help their parents
in the kitchen. The lessons learnt and the experience gained are invaluable as there is no recipe book that can match the "real thing". The same goes for apprentices who closely watch their masters whipping up elaborate dishes or just teatime snacks.
It is with this in mind that the Blue Elephant Cooking School was set up in Bangkok for local and foreign students. Established in 2002, the school's objective is to let its students master culinary skills right from the basics.
The lessons start with compulsory trips to the wet and dry market where each student is taught to identify vegetables and to point out the difference, for instance between lemongrass and galangal.
 

It is only after they have learnt to identify and understand the food value and other facts about vegetables, meat and seafood, that students are taught to cut, chop,grind and prepare them. Finally, they are taught to cook - among the specialties are
pomelo salad, tom yam and green curry - in typical Thai fashion.

After the students have honed their cooking skills, there will be no need to buy the pastes and sauces and cart them back to Singapore, as Blue Elephant products are now available in local supermarkets. Green curry, red curry and tom yam pastes go for $3.50 a packet while sweet chilli, fish sauce, rice vinegar and Thai dipping sauces are priced between $2 and $2.50 a bottle.