Blue Elephant Cooking School & Restaurant

Both professional chefs and novices alike flock to Bangkok’s Blue Elephant Cooking School to sample and recreate some of Thailand’s most unique dishes. Located across from Surasak Skytrain station in the heart of the city, the School is based in the historical Thai Chine building. This provides a beautiful backdrop to help develop your culinary skills.

The Blue Elephant Cooking School teaches classes for a range of abilities, from group daily and private to corporate sessions. They also have a popular restaurant on site, so you can enjoy the wonderful food even if you don’t want to make it yourself.

Daily Classes

The daily classes at the Blue Elephant Cooking School are ideal if you have a few hours to spare and would like to try some traditional Thai cooking. They are split into morning and afternoon sessions and run all week, although there’s no afternoon class on a Sunday.

Morning classes begin at 8.45am and end at 1pm. After arriving at the School, you’re welcomed by the instructor with a hot drink and given some information about how the session will run. Once you meet everyone in your class, you’ll take a short Skytrain ride to the local Bang Rak market, where you can choose some seasonal vegetables and mixed spices for your later dishes.

After arriving back at the School, your instructor will show you a demonstration on how to prepare each meal. Once this is over, you’ll head to your workstation and begin the first of four Thai meals that you will make throughout the day.

When you have finished cooking, you’ll then move to the restaurant where you can sample your own creations and try some additional Thai foods selected by the chef.

The afternoon class is similar, although this only lasts three hours between 1.30pm and 4.30pm. You can expect the same level of detail and similar teaching, but you won’t get to travel to the Bang Rak market to select your own ingredients. After graduating your class you’ll receive a certificate, souvenir pack filled with herbs and spices and get to keep your apron.

Private Classes

If you would like to learn in a more intimate setting, the Blue Elephant Cooking School also offers private classes. Much the same as daily classes, these cater for all skillsets and you can select either a half or full day’s worth of teaching.

You also have the option to book in for private vegetable carving and dessert classes, which will go into more intricate detail and last either a half or full day’s session.

If you’d like a more holistic culinary experience, the School also offers a class on ancient Thai cuisine. This is an intense and deeply rewarding full day course, which will allow you to recreate 10 exciting dishes from Thailand’s past.

Corporate Sessions

There’s also a corporate class available for 12 or more people. In this class, your colleagues are divided up into teams and compete against each other before a Blue Elephant Chef who acts as a judge. After completing four challenges, you’ll then sit down to a relaxing lunch/dinner where the winners are announced and prizes are awarded. Both small businesses and global-sized brands have taken this course in the past.

The Blue Elephant Cooking School Restaurant

If you’d prefer to enjoy some authentic Thai cuisine without doing any of the cooking yourself, you can order from The Blue Elephant Cooking School restaurant. There’s an À la carte menu as well as various tasting menus and vegetarian options. These dishes are all created by award winning Blue Elephant chefs, and the restaurant is one of the busiest in that area of Bangkok.