We had heard about the various cooking classes in Vietnam, but didn't book one until we found ourselves at a loose end for an afternoon, and Hanoi Cooking Centre had a class available. When we got there, we found that we were the only ones...in the class!
Young chef Hau was wonderful, taking us around the market to show us the various foods available that we wouldn't have seen at home. Some of the things that we were particularly interested in he purchased for us to try, even though they weren't on the afternoon's menu.
The class was VERY hands on, with little, apart from the rice, pre-prepared. Hau astounded us with his ability to chop fast and finely, and took pains to ensure that we learned how to hold our knives correctly and keep our fingers out of the way. We complimented him on being "encouraging" and "patient", and the cooking class morphed into a language lesson as we swapped meanings and spellings of these and other words in each of our languages.
When it came to the cooking, we were right in there, too, frying the ginger chicken and stirring the corn and coconut soup. (I guess that the degree of involvement with the actual cooking may depend on the class size, as there is only one four burner stove, but for us we were doing it all.)
When the meal was finished we were ushered upstairs to a small but elegant restaurant, where we were served the fruits of our afternoon labours. The food was wonderful, and (as usual in Vietnam) copious. We only hope that when we pluck up the courage to cook these dishes at home that we might enjoy similar success.
At the end we got to keep the apron, which is a cute gimmick. Some have pointed out that HCC is more expensive than other cooking classes, and this appears to be true. Also, some have complained of the need to get a taxi to and from the venue. We haven't done any of the other classes, so we can't compare. However, we can say that this was one of the most entertaining and enjoyable things that we did in Vietnam.More