One of the oldest – and many say still the best – cookery schools in Asia, The Blue Elephant cookery school was begun as a way of sharing the pleasure and mystique of cooking Thai food. The Blue Elephant restaurant had been so popular and so many had begged for recipes and asked questions of the chefs, that it was, really, the only sensible plan of action.

The time I attended we were a group of eight or so, and we assembled beforehand to get to know each other and enjoy a cool herbal drink, welcome after the steamy Bangkok heat outside, even though it was still morning.

The cooking school is conveniently located in the restaurant’s century-old mansion in the heart of Bangkok opposite the Surasak Skytrain station and we were all here to learn not just any old Thai dishes. This was Royal Thai Cuisine.

A typical cookery course day begins with a trip to the morning market, rich with noise, colour and movement, the air laced with the thousand scents of Thailand: kaffir lime, cooked rice, fish, chillies and much, much more blending into the ideal aperitif for a day at the stoves. That is, until you get to the wet market where the chickens, fish and meats are butchered and sold. Certainly that’s hold-your-nose and watch-your-step territory!

Back at the sparkling kitchens it’s time to cook. After our teacher has led us through the basics of Thai cookery, explaining the essential balance of sweet, sour, salty and hot flavours and has in a flash whipped up a curry paste that has our noses twitching and stomachs rumbling (already, I know­ – lunch is a long way off) we are directed to our benches each equipped for action, even if we aren’t.

I’ll gloss over our not-so-perfect creations (well, mine, anyway) but we finally were able to present something that looked a little like the teacher’s version and (oh, no!) we were asked to attach our names to them, being told we would eat them at lunch.

Fortunately when we were shortly shown to the dining room with its heavy wooden furniture and graceful flower arrangements we discovered that not only would we eat our dishes, but a stunning parade of Blue Elephant dishes, each fit for a king, as indeed they would be, for that is what this restaurant and cookery school is all about.

And, do you know what? My dish (although its look lacked a certain, um… flair) tasted not too bad. Maybe, with a few more lessons here I might be able to turn out something a little more royal perhaps. It’s certainly worth making another trip to Bangkok.

The Blue Elephant Cookery School, Bangkok and Phuket. Group and individual morning or afternoon classes, daily.

- Sally Hammond