Cooking with Sandy

Sandy Sawangnipun

Today, I was invited to sit in an afternoon cookery course with Sandy Sawangnipun at her cooking school called 'At Home Thai Cooking School.'

Cooking in a Beautiful Setting

Sandy has lived on the island for 5 years, is a talented singer, speaks excellent English, is an accomplished cook and an excellent teacher. Last year she started her cookery school and offered one class per day, as well as alongside working in a busy restaurant in the evening. After a year, she decided that she wanted to focus on developing the school and quit her job and is now offering 2 classes per day, one starting at 10am and the other at 2pm.

Today Sandy had 3 students; Lina, Fanny and Satu, all are from Finland and work for TUI. It was Fanny's first time in Thailand and she had never eaten thai food before, so Sandy was careful to advise her of what was spicy and also how she could cool the spice with coconut and sugar.

Cooking with Friends

Their first dish was Pad Kra Pow Gai (Chicken with chili, garlic and basil). Sandy took the ladies through how to make the sauce, asking them to taste it along the way and showing them ways they could change it to match their own tastes. At the end, everyone had produced a beautiful Pad Kra Pow Gai and so it was down to Sandy to taste them all and declare Satu the winner.

The Winning Student, Satu

After devouring the first meal, Sandy moved onto Pad Thai with Squid and Penang Sauce. Unfortunately one lady was unable to eat squid so Sandy showed her how to adapt the recipe. Sandy will always try to adapt the meals to peoples dietary requirements, but it does help if you can tell her in advance. 

Pad Thai with Squid

After this second course, most of us were full and so for the last dish, Red Curry with Roasted Duck, she offered as an eat in or a take away option. Duck was not an option for one lady, so Sandy's helper quickly chopped some Chicken for them and again Sandy easily adapted the recipe for her.

A very happy Fanny!

It was lovely to see someone work so hard to make her students happy and to ensure that they would be able to recreate the recipes at home. If you would like to take the course contact Sandy, send her an email; sandyspotlight@gmail.com, go to her website; www.athomethaicooking.com or call
Sandy +66 93 442 8223.

Lina & Sandy discuss how to get the spices right