Mae Nam’s Kirikayan Luxury Pool Villas & Spa is hardly ‘up the mountain somewhere’, but it is tucked away up one of the side streets (Soi 1), just 100 metres on the left before you reach the police station on the right as your approaching from Chaweng. Go up Soi 1 for about 500 metres and you’ll first catch sight of the imposing and extensive hillside layers of the resort. It’s lush and it’s luxurious and it also has an excellent restaurant by the name of Sankala Fine Cuisine.

Such is the current popularity of Thai cuisine that most resorts are now offering Thai cooking classes. But they all vary hugely in their style, approach, location, content and cost. And because of this I’ve been sitting-in on different classes and reporting back my findings. This time it was an enjoyable change to head away from the sea towards Kirikayan and the shady retreat of Sankala.

But, before I go any further, let me point something out: there are two distinct elements to taking a Thai cooking class. The first is how much you learn about making Thai food. And the second (and possibly more important aspect) is how much you enjoy it. It will be disappointing indeed to look back on it later and only be able to recall an unsmiling chef and the view of the brick wall of the kitchen. To be successful, such a class needs to be enjoyable, take place in a pleasant location, and you need to have a relaxed and competent teacher. And, happily, I was pleased to find that all three of these elements were present at Kirikayan.

You’ll find that the restaurant is immediately impressive and its outlook over the descending layers of tropical greenery is open, expansive and airy. The décor is refined, with heavy, quality furniture and an immensely-lofty ceiling that’s textured with dark slatted timber and festooned with fans. It’s open on two sides, and the longest wall is also textured; this time with a mass of round stones down which a whole wall of water is gently flowing. It’s relaxing, cool and pleasant and an ideal environment to hold a cooking class. All that’s needed now is a light-hearted and engaging chef who ‘knows his onions’, so to speak!

And that’s exactly what you’ll also find at Sankala. Executive Chef Khun Wassana Subangam – more usually known by his nickname of Khun Nong – is both experienced and laid-back. He has an excellent pedigree, having previously worked at Dusit Thani Laguna Phuket and recently more locally at Lamai’s Pavilion Samui Boutique Resort and also at Buri Rasa in Chaweng. He’s pleasant, he’s smiley, his English is good and he’s well-aware of all the little tips and tricks needed to make a successful Thai dish and how to pass them on.

When I arrived with my companion, the cooking station was already laid out and waiting for us. There was a well-thought-out L-shaped table with a double burner on one leg of the ‘L’ and a nest of neat little covered ceramic bowls to hand on the other leg, each containing the ingredients needed for the first dish. But this is where the class at Kirikayan proved to be unique. Because also laid-out and ready for us was another table with an attractive display of carved fruit. And this was where we were guided after donning our aprons and hats, because this is the only class that I’ve come across that also includes a basic fruit carving lesson as part of the deal!
Guiding us through this was the shyly-smiling Khun Maithong Muangkod, nicknamed Look Moo (which delightfully translates as ‘Little Pig!). She turned out to be a ‘dab hand’ with a knife, and our 45-minute session produced results all right, but was mainly spent trying to emulate her effortlessly-skilled way of grasping the fruit and knife without decoratively carving our pinkies as well! This is one art you need to practice to even begin to get it right.

We’d already selected what dishes we wanted to make from the choices on offer and so we then moved on towards the cooking station and the waiting Khun Nong. He explained all the ingredients to us, one at a time, telling us what they were and the effect they had on a dish. We were directed to taste each one and sample its aroma; an import step in learning Thai cooking. He demonstrated each stage and we followed suit, paying attention to advice like, “… although the ingredients are set, everyone can change the amounts according to preference – just keep tasting and modifying as you go.” A good teacher is always full of tips like this and stands them out from the ordinary. And then we followed his lead with the second dish we were making, before sitting down to enjoy the fruits (and vegetables) of our labours.

Cooking classes at Sankala are held every day at 2:00 pm. There’s a standard list of all the usual Thai dishes for you to pick from, or you can opt to request a particular favourite if you’d prefer. This is flexible: choose three or just one, and with or without the fruit-carving. The pricing is 750 baht per dish, with two being the minimum, and the fruit-carving coming in at 500 baht extra. The tuition is exclusive and on a one-to-one basis, with a maximum of two people at a time per class.

There’s lots of cooking classes available on Samui and no doubt even your own resort has one. But, at Kirikayan, visitors are more than welcome and the class is excellent and just a little out of the ordinary. And this particular class comes highly recommended!