Lessons learned in cooking classes
By Mickey Fenix
Philippine Daily Inquirer
MANILA, Philippines—Every time I talk about the Thai cooking lessons I took at The Oriental Bangkok, my friends tell me they still have to taste what I learned.
What they get is my explanation that I love to attend cooking lessons because of the techniques learned. The recipes are with me with a lot of notations on the margins, some explaining in detail several secrets given such as why this ingredient was added at the last moment.
DEMONSTRATING how to do African chicken in Macau. PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER
But those recipes will stay in their folders, unearthed only for reference in my writing.
I am so unlike my sister who has attended almost every cooking class in Manila. Every opportunity she gets, she displays the latest lessons she learned. And so we, her guinea pigs, went through her Chinese phase, her processed-meat period and her very special Continental.
Whenever I am asked why I am not like my sister, I always point out that if she cooks very well, I eat better.
While I love spicy food, my sister will not touch it. I am adventurous but she will not eat what she does not know. And she does not remember many of the food experiences when we were young while I can tell you the aroma of my father’s pancit pasalubong and the taste of my lola’s coffee.
I attend cooking classes conducted by visiting international chefs. I love it when French chefs say “heggs” for eggs just like the Pampangos.
Once, an Italian chef had to have a translator so the lessons took too long. British Sophie Grigson almost burned her scones because she was not familiar with the oven. She led the eating anyway and the almost-burned scones tasted divine.
African chicken
In Macau, I learned how to do African chicken at the Instituto de Formação Turistica. The teacher even asked me to have some hands-on experience. It consisted of stirring the mixture for some photo opportunity.
The African chicken is an example of Portuguese-African cooking that is now a part of Macanese cuisine. My notes on the recipe snakes through the page.
I do not know why in many classes the recipes always have to have corrections, additions and techniques explained in class rather than on paper.
I remember a Chinese cooking class here where none of the quantities were written in the ingredients list. We were supposed to fill those in as the lesson progressed. The reason, I was told, was so the recipes could not be photocopied before the lessons started.
If that were true then it was illogical because I could have photocopied them with the correct quantities after the lessons.
My food-wrapping skill was really tested during that class. We had to do a dumpling and the teacher called on me, of all people, to do as she did. Sad to say, the dumpling ended up very dark with lots of holes because of too much handling. That was when I knew that I would bungle for sure anything wrapped, whether lumpia or siomai. So there goes any future dim-sum lessons.
‘Dim sum’ demonstration
Good thing the dim sum lesson was pure demonstration as we watched a dim-sum contest at the Hong Kong Culinary school.
The skill of the chefs was unbelievable. The round wrapper was formed using their all-purpose cleaver, creating a perfectly thin circle with one sweep of that huge knife while one side was held flat on the table.
So what if I see the technique but cannot do it? Then at least I can tell you, readers, just how the pros do it.
In Iloilo, I just watched as food wrapping got more complicated. We started with empanada then lumpiang ubod and ended up with pancit Molo.
If you have ever seen how to do the Molo that looks like a little head with a little hat, you would want instant replay. Our cook was just too fast for my eyes and she thought that was funny.
But I do cook dishes I learn from those lessons. It is really because I have to demonstrate to my cook the new dishes I want her to add to the house menu.
So she now knows how to cook egg noodles with oyster sauce garnished with kutsay flowers. She does mussels cooked with white wine and parsley. She makes a vegetarian pasta of fresh tomatoes, shiitake mushrooms and black olives. And she has mastered fried crabs cooked in Chinese wine.
The few times I cooked those for friends, I knew how successful they were because friends were now doing those recipes.
But it was my Thai cooking lesson that got me thinking how we could do the same thing here. And we do not even have to start with tourists.
One expatriate’s wife asked me if there were Filipino food cooking lessons where she could learn not only how to cook but what the food was about. Sure, her cook served her delicious Filipino food every day but she, the cook, could not tell her anything about the dishes.
Some chefs and I talked about the prospect and all were excited. I hope the excitement will become a real cooking class of Filipino food. I will even edit the recipes and you can be sure the right quantities will be printed next to the ingredients.
