one of my favourite things to do on the weekends is to take cooking classes at one of the many courses offered around town. there’s the standard blue elephant cooking school (eh. so so) and the oriental hotel (short courses with visiting celebrity chefs are excellent)

i’m happy to learn that the le cordon bleu is planning to open another internatinal branch right here in bangkok in collaboration with the dusit thani group. i took a few patisserie courses with them in london, and it was great fun. le cordon bleu bangkok is expected to be open sometime in 2006, will be ofering short courses ranging from patisserie to cusine. diploma courses are also available – in conjunction with the duist thani college.

another noteable cooking class being offered is at the marriot riverside: mandara academy of spa cuisine. quite interesting actually, it’s different from cooking classes offered at “other hotels”. a lot of attention is paid to the nutritional value of the ingredients used in preparing the dishes. it’s a one day course, but nonetheless fun. B6,000 for class and one hour spa treatment and B5,000 for class only.