Recently, I decided to challenge myself to learn to cook something outside of my 2-minute noodle comfort zone. With the support of a handful of friends and colleagues, we assembled a group large enough to book a private Thai cooking lesson at Chez Gourmet in Claremont, Cape Town.

From the moment we walked in to Chez Gourmet's kitchen, we felt welcome. We were offered coffee and tea to help us get settled in. After a quick tour of the kitchen and facility, we manned our stations and got to work.

Each of our blocks was kitted out with everything we could possibly need for our lesson. The utensils, bowls, pots, pans and ingredients (pre-measured) were within arm's reach. This helped make our lesson flow smoothly.  

With the oversight and guidance of our chef, Jenny, we were able to cook several dishes and pack them up as leftovers to enjoy for the days to come. Jenny was an excellent teacher and covered some of the basic theory behind our dishes while we worked.  She was observant, making sure we were each following along in our recipe books (which we got to take home).

I enjoyed the Thai lesson so much, I booked a bread making course soon after. This course was even more labour intensive than the Thai course and left us with croissants, rolls and loaves of bread that would last us for weeks! Now that I know how much work goes into baking croissants, I appreciate them so much more.

Have you ever taken a cooking lesson?