Making a Meal Out of Cooking Class

Thwack! The blade hits the wooden board, sending a piece of pink chicken bone flying. Silence hangs in the kitchen, broken only by the rhythmic chopping and squelches of hands massaging meat in an effort to dislodge flesh from bone. First-timer Anna loses her grip and the slippery chicken shoots from her palms, skids across the metal worktop and lands with a smack on the floor. She and her classmates erupt into peals of laughter and steady chatter flows.

In a city like Hong Kong, with its thousands of restaurants offering numerous choices and succulent dishes at decent prices, you’d be forgiven for thinking cooking classes might be empty. But island-wide, eager students are wielding knives, whisking mixtures and cracking eggs – not just in an effort to be the next Nigella Lawson, but often seeking a relaxing way to wind down, gather with friends and exchange a few giggles.

We visited four schools offering all things culinary with the hope of picking up a little insider knowledge, a handful of tips for those made-to-impress dinners, and a few free nibbles on the way.

6 Senses
“And why not back and forth?” shouts Helen, querying teacher Denise’s instructions on using a rolling pin. At 6 Senses, no one is shy about asking questions, which is just the way owner Denise Wai likes it. “I never treat my students as students, I treat them as friends,” she says. Students and teacher gather around one central workspace in the light, airy kitchen, and everyone works at the same pace. We’d dropped into a marathon session – three-hours preparing multiple dishes including a variety of pasta sauces and a delicious plump Italian apple torte. It’s a far cry from how Denise earned her cooking credit – she spent her childhood stirring steaming pots in her father’s restaurant. Now she invents recipes, from both East and West, that pupils can “really cook at home”. She even schedules in gluten-free classes and the focus is always on fresh – and mostly organic – ingredients.

What: Group (6 – 12) or private lessons, cuisine ranges from Chinese to Italian.
When: Monday – Friday 10am – 9pm
Saturday: 10am - 4:30pm
Where: 6 Senses, Unit 13A, Cheuk Nang 21st Century Plaza,
250 Hennessy Rd, Wanchai. Tel: 2838 9905.
www.s6nses.com

Chopsticks Cooking Centre
Cecelia Au-Yang has been teaching for 35 years and her clients fly in from all over the world, so famous is her passion for food. “I do it for love,” she says, “I love cooking.” But she allows her students no slack and has them scrubbing, chopping and stirring the instant they join the class. “Ingredients and preparation are the key,” she explains, so getting one’s hands dirty early is essential. Although her manner may be forceful, Yang’s knowledge is endless and so the learning curve for her small classes (normally 1 – 4 people) is steep. The classes are run from her house-cum-professional kitchen (check those wall-to-wall shelves of condiments) in Homantin. To be more health conscious she recently overhauled her extensive collection of traditional recipes, so famous dishes drawn from Chinese provinces are now cooked at a lighter temperature with less oil, lower sodium and a higher vegetable-to-meat ratio.

What: Hands-on group lessons, workshops or scheduled classes in cuisines from East Asia and the Pacific Rim including vegetarian cooking and pastry baking.
When: Times vary, with July and August off.
Where: Chopsticks Cooking Centre
G/F, 8A Soares Ave, Homantin. Tel: 2336 8433.
Chopsticks1971@netvigator.com

Complete Deelite
It’s day four of the basic Wilton cake decorating class and students sit, brows furrowed in concentration, pumping coloured butter cream into rose shapes and then delicately placing them onto cakes. The effect is simple, stunning and even more impressive when you learn that the technique takes a mere eight hours to learn. “The Wilton method of making a rose is famous… and foolproof,” beams Complete Deelite’s Jacinta Yu, who herself sped into cake decorating from a high-powered career in fashion and says it appeals to her creative instincts. The school, smelling as sweet as a candy house, also holds cake baking classes, but if it’s only cake decorating you’re interested in, that’s fine – some people bring shop-bought goodies on which to practice their art. Once they’ve completed the Wilton basic lessons, students can move through two advanced classes or onto making fondant, cup cakes and even candy. “Cake decorating is never-ending,” says Yu, who adds that the only limits are “knowing when to stop”.What: Baking, decorating (including the Wilton Method) and hands-on candy making.
When: Check schedule for details. Classes vary from 2 – 8 hours split into sessions, most come with a starter kit of materials.
Where: Complete Deelite, 6/F California Entertainment Bldg,
34 – 36 D’Aguilar St, LKF. Tel: 3167 7022.
www.completedeelite.com

Cookery.com.hk
On the night we visited Martha Sherpa at her Cookery.com.hk classes, Japanese, Korean, American and English students were all eager to get their hands mucky – and they did. Sherpa teaches restaurant-style cookery in a range of classes from dim sum and regional Chinese to vegetarian and Thai. In this evening class, students de-boned and stuffed chickens, wok-fried garlic, cooked spicy salt fish and blanched Chinese veggies in a lesson that swung between demonstration and hands-on practice. During the class, Sherpa describes special features of Chinese cooking, introduces local ingredients and even covers each dish’s history and popularity – as well as including a few comments on the infamous MSG. “No need to sit, start working!” is her no-nonsense introduction said with a smile, and in the easygoing atmosphere students find lots of opportunities for fun – especially with those skidding chickens. Martha’s authentic Thai class comes recommended by former students, and for cookery keeners one- to three-day courses are intensive and include shopping trips to local markets.

What: Restaurant-style authentic Chinese and Thai specialties.
When: Frequent intensive classes from 10am – 10pm daily. Daytime and evening courses and drop-in classes.
Where: Cookery.com.hk, Flat B, 1/F, 40 – 46 Argyle St, Mong Kok, Tel: 2381 0132
www.cookery.com.hk