In May I had a fabulous accidental opportunity to take Thai lessons twice thanks to my friend, Katie whom I met in Mumbai in 2013. Sadly for me, she left Mumbai in March 2014 to move to New Delhi. Then in May 2014, she moved back to the U.S. for her husband’s job. She’s a talented designer and you can see how talented she is on her work site here and her personal site here. I love her taste.
I’m one of those people who are lazy about taking classes. Katie invited me to join her to learn Thai cooking back in March 2014, but the classes took place in the morning and my son was little and stayed home (he’s still little and stays home), so I could not commit to it and passed the opportunity. Several weeks went by and suddenly she had to literary pack her home to move to New Delhi with a very short notice for her husband’s job. She emailed me after she moved to Delhi and said she had two classes left that she could not take as she had to move away and asked me if I wanted to take her spot in the class. I was shocked to hear that she had already moved away and I didn’t get to see her one more time before the move, but I was touched to know that she thought of me to take the classes. I was reluctant probably because it was outside of my comfort zone, yet I took it as a sign of my destiny to take the class, so I did. I am so glad I did and thank you, Katie!
I never thought that learning Thai cooking was so enlightening. I always thought that Thai cooking was so hard that there was no way I could cook Thai food well. I never even imagined that I would take a Thai cooking class from an Indian instructor, either. Vandana, a native of India, lived in Thailand as an expat with her family for 2 years for her husband’s work assignment. She loved Thai food. When she realized that she would leave Thailand at some point which means that she and her family would miss authentic Thai food, she thought she would have to make Thai food herself for her family. That way they can enjoy authentic Thai food wherever they go. So, she did. Her passion is shown in her work.
The dishes she made within 2 hours was amazing. I enjoyed every bite of the food she cooked. What was even more surprising and impressive to me who loves interior design was her home. I loved the marriage of Indian design and Thai decor. Vandana’s home looked like it popped out of a magazine. Since I took my camera with a 50 mm lens, the photos I was able to take were quite limited as I could not zoom out. However, I hope you’ll enjoy seeing her home.
Here are the images of Vandana’s beautiful home and the final dishes that I published on my instagram.
Here is my attempt of my Thai cooking at home. Everyone loved it!
Vandana’s photo on the left provided by courtesy of Vandana.
Vandana is truly inspiring. She totally changed my perspective on cooking classes. Not only am I more inspired to be adventurous with cooking at home, but I am eager to take more cooking classes (what?) and learn from the master chef! I have not contacted Vandana in a while, but she said she also offered other cuisines such as Indian cooking as well.
*I just learned that Vandana recently moved Dubai, United Arab Emirates!!! That is sad news for me and Mumbaikars. I was hoping to take some other classes taught by her. If you live in Dubai, I highly recommend taking her classes! If you are interested in taking classes from Vandana, please contact her at vandysingla[at]yahoo[dot]com (please replace at and dot).
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