I believe the best place to tell a story is over a home-cooked meal around a dinner table. For me, there's something magical that happens when people share a meal, especially one they prepared together. Strangers become friends. Friends and family become a little closer.
That is why I'm opening my kitchen to you and inviting you to join me around my dinner table.
Thai food isn't about a perfectly executed dish. It's about making each guest feel welcome.
In Thailand, many have very little. A family, including the kids, will go out of their way to make guests comfortable, slaughter a prize hog to serve, and even wait to eat themselves until all the guests are full. (This is why as guest you never lick your plate clean, you always leave at least a grain of rice.) The fact that Thai people are so willing to give so completely of themselves without any expectation of reward or compensation in return has always been a guide towards how I want to live my life.
WHY THAI CUISINE?
What I especially love about Thai culture is that no one leaves a Thai meal feeling like an outsider, hosts make everyone welcome. Food is served family style--everyone eats the same thing together. Hosts modify the meal to accommodate everyone's dietary restrictions/allergies.
As someone with dietary restrictions, I'm especially sensitive to having gone hungry as a kid because I couldn't eat anything at a party or at a family holiday dinner I'd been invited to.
I love that Thai cuisine is:
- Fresh
- Uncomplicated
- Economical
- Accommodating
TWO WAYS TO LEARN
I offer two complementary formats for you to master Thai cuisine. You can take an in-person class and then go deeper with the online session. Or, you can start with the online session, and then get hands on instruction after.
Both classes offer:
- An overview of the Thai flavor profile
- Sources for hard-to-find ingredients
- Recipe cards for each dish prepared
- Tips for accommodating allergies or dietary restrictions
- Private members kitchen where you can learn from each another
- A live call
- Q/A with me
Online from Your Kitchen
For those outside San Francisco or more comfortable learning in their own kitchen, join me in my virtual kitchen. During the initial launch, for the introductory price of $10, you get:
- In-depth discussion of what makes the Thai flavor profile unique
- Instruction for preparing two popular dishes: Tom Yum Soup and Thai Basil Eggplant Curry
- Tips for accommodating allergies or dietary restrictions while maintaining the Thai flavor profile
- Resources for finding and purchasing hard-to-find ingredients
- Lifetime access to the lessons. As new lessons and editions are released, you'll get them too!
- 26 weeks Q/A with me as you try out the recipes in your kitchen
- Coming soon: Instruction for preparing Pad Prik King Stirfry and Pad Thai Noodles
- Coming soon: Point-of-view video instruction
Live Small Group Class
For those in the San Francisco Bay Area or are traveling here that would prefer an in-person hands on lesson, you can join The Road to The Good Life Cooking Club.
Membership in the Cooking Club costs $149 per person and includes:
- 3-hour hands on cooking class where you'll prepare a soup, curry, stirfry, and noodle or rice dish
- Introduction to what makes the Thai flavor profile unique
- Tips for accommodating allergies or dietary restrictions while maintaining the Thai flavor profile
- Recipe cards for each dish
- Swag bag
- 30 days Q/A with me as you try out the recipes in your kitchen
WHY LEARN FROM ME?
I love cooking, started when I was 8 years old and haven't stopped since. My love of the Pan Pacific and of Thailand was instilled in me just as early as my love of cooking from my grandfather who ran a successful Pan Pacific Travel Agency and frequently traveled to Asia.
My passions collided in 2001 with an opportunity to work with a Thai chef using my marketing skills to create a personality/brand for his restaurant, develop the operations and compensation structure to support that culture/brand, and then create the packaging/promotion to bring his dream to life.
I ghost wrote a cookbook with him, translating all of his loose Thai recipes into repeatable recipes Westerners with little to no formal training could master in their kitchens. I developed hands on demonstration classes that got diners involved.
Family drew the chef back to Thailand, but I continued cooking Thai food and hosting team building nights where teams learned how to cook Thai food together. I've prepared over thousands of Thai meals in a variety of kitchens, including over camp stoves for a 60+ artist dinner in the Black Rock Desert. And I'm sharing this expertise with you.
Got questions about the class or what you'll learn? Send me an email. I can't wait to have you join me in the kitchen!
