Game on! Declared one of the über enthusiastic wanna be Thai cooking novices as she overheard us giggling about our secret weapon…the super speedy slicing, dicing, chopping guru…Chef BJ; joining us at our Thai cooking class today to expand his own culinary expertise.

Turns out there was no time to compete as the twelve of us, paired at six Master Chef equivalent benches resplendent with aprons, pans, tongs and a very impressive Pestle and Mortar, proceeded to interpret and craft aspects of our four menus, the secret being to bring all to a magnificent crescendo, each dish landing on the table simultaneously to be consumed by the hungry hoards…us.

Chef Josh regaled us with stories of burning out his taste buds on wicked chillies while deftly demonstrating how to ‘smoke’ tomatoes and chili then pulverise into a snazzy little relish to compliment ‘just seared’ scallops, at the same time pointing out the difference between galangal, turmeric and ginger bulbs, the myriad of aromatic spices, pastes and fresh herbs, and the delicate fundamentals of sour, sweet, salty and bitter taste sensations. Oh! And it seems those wicked chillies clearly damaged his olfactory system too…he actually loves the smell of Fish Sauce. Gak!

Deserved a medal that boy…gently nursing chaos into calm as we jostled to gather our ingredients like foragers of the wild frontier while squabbling about who should dice, grind, roast, toast or scorch.

The result of all this activity? A very ‘Royal Thai’ banquet consumed to a chorus of Oh Yeah! …and in the case of that relish…Holy Burning Tastebuds! Seems Chef Josh had the last laugh.

Try a Thai class, your taste buds will thank you for it.