Thai Farm Cooking School Chiang Mai Review
Are you looking for the perfect cooking class during your visit to Chiang Mai?
My family took the half-day cooking class and market tour with Thai Farm Cooking School during our holiday in Chiang Mai. We were looking for a family-friendly cooking class that the kids could participate in.
Mark and I had taken a bunch of cooking classes the last time we were in Asia, before we had kids. Many of them took place in restaurants, and while we enjoyed them, we opted for something different this time.
The Thai Farm Cooking School class includes a trip to a market and a tour of an organic farm. Our kids, at 9 and 10, were old enough to help us cook.
If you want to know what to expect on a half-day cooking class tour with Thai Farm Cooking School in Chiang Mai, keep reading.
We used Cover-More Insurance for our holiday to Thailand.
Booking a Chiang Mai Cooking Class
Cooking classes have popped up all over Thailand, and there are plenty of options in Chiang Mai.
We booked just a few days in advance. For us, the menu mattered, and the biggest thing was that not only was it kid-friendly, but that the kids could do just about everything.
Our kids love to cook, and we knew they wouldn’t be happy simply watching us. They needed to be able to participate.
In the end, we picked Thai Farm Cooking School and went with the half-day morning tour. They also offer a half-day afternoon tour and a full-day class. A few times throughout the year, they host a special 1-day cooking class and rice planting class.
Tour Pick-Up
The morning tour picks you up from your hotel between 8 and 8:30 AM and drives the group to an inner-city market.
Once all 10 of us were in the van, it took 25 minutes to get to Ruamchook market.
Ruamchook Market Tour
The guide brought us to the rice stall first and explained the different types of rice.
We then learned about seasonings from one of the vendors. They picked out their favorite brands, and those who wanted could purchase them to bring back home.
After the quick lesson, we were given 15 minutes to wander around the markets. We used this time to get a coffee, try a few new food items, and use the bathrooms before the 30-minute drive to the farm.
Arriving at the Organic Farm
Upon arrival, we were each given an apron and a straw hat. Lemongrass tea and water were available for us to enjoy before we toured the farm.
Thai Farm Tour
After drinking lemongrass tea, we took a tour of the farm. Our guide taught us about the different types of ingredients used in Thai cooking.
She talked about some of the differences in northern Thai cooking.
Of course, what you see growing on the farm depends on the time of year.
Kitchen Facilities and Menu Options
The kitchen is inside, though there are lots of windows, and it is an open-air facility.
Our teacher had a table in the center where she went over how to make each meal.
Each person had a menu and could choose what they wanted to make. My family decided ahead of time to make different things so we could taste a variety of Thai dishes.
My kids were the only kids in the class. There was also a mother and her adult daughter, as well as couples.
As participants in the half-day tour, we had 5 choices to make.
The first step is to pick a curry, which you will make fresh with a mortar and pestle. Our options were green curry, red curry, yellow curry, Masaman curry, Penaeng curry, and Khao Soi curry. We also chose chicken or tofu to add to our curry dish.
For the soup course, we chose between Tom Yum soup, Tom Kha soup, and Tom Zab soup. The menu explains that these are a hot and sour soup, a coconut milk soup, and a soup with sweet basil. The protein options for soup are prawns, chicken, and tofu.
Our main meal consisted of a choice between Pad Thai, Pad See Ew, and spring rolls.
Dessert is mango sticky rice or bananas in coconut milk. If you choose mango sticky rice, you can enjoy either pandan or butterfly pea sticky rice.
While the full-day cooking class has time to relax on the farm, the only additional dish cooked is a stir-fry.
We felt like a full day was too much for the kids, but if you prefer the longer class, the stir-fry options are sweet and sour stir-fry, stir-fry with cashews, and stir-fry with basil. The stir-fry dishes include a protein.
Soup and Noodles
We cooked 2 dishes at a time and ate them before cooking the second set.
The instructor taught us how to make all of the dishes that our group had chosen, so we were all chopping and cooking at the same time.
There is a group of people who set up the platters with our ingredients portioned out. Our plates had more food on them as we were cooking for 2, while everyone else was only cooking an individual portion.
Some of the items were already chopped, while we had to cut up some of the food ourselves. This helps to speed up the process.
Enjoying the First Course
We all finished cooking our soup and main dish around the same time. After carrying them outside to the table, we sat down to enjoy the meal together.
My daughter and I made Pad Thai and Tom Zab soup with chicken, while my husband and son made spring rolls and Tom Yum soup. There was enough for us to try each other’s dishes.
Curry
After a 10-minute break, we got back in the kitchen and began making the curry.
The kids loved using the mortar and pestle to grind the ingredients.
My daughter and I made the green curry with chicken, while the boys made the Khao Soi curry with chicken.
Dessert
Dessert is the only meal where we didn’t see the entire process, as the sticky rice was pre-made for us due to time.
We did put the finishing touches on it and chose between adding pandan and butterfly pea flower.
A couple of people in our group chose to make banana in coconut, and there was enough left for us to taste it.
My daughter and I chose pandan mango sticky rice, while the boys chose the butterfly pea powder, as they do not like bananas and wanted to make something different from what we made.
Thai Farm Cooking School Wrap-Up
There are many options for cooking classes in Chiang Mai. We were happy with the half-day cooking class with Thai Farm Cooking School, as our children were allowed to participate, and they offered dishes we would enjoy.
It was nice to escape the city of Chiang Mai and enjoy the countryside for a bit. We had time to stroll through the organic farm and visit a local market. There was space to cook, and we did not feel crammed into a restaurant kitchen.
The dishes were easy to make, especially as most of the prep work had been done for us. Our kids were happy that they were not on their own, as they would not have been able to complete the meals quickly enough.
While this is the only cooking class we took in Chiang Mai, I would highly recommend it for anyone seeking a unique experience.
We all received an email with an ebook with the recipes at the end.
More Cooking Classes in Chiang Mai
- Cooking Class with Organic Farm, 10+
- Cooking Class with Market and Farm Visit
- Evening Cooking Class and Market Tour
- Chiang Mai Cooking Class and Market Tour
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