Cr: timesamui.com
Samui Institute of Thai Culinary Arts is a cooking school in Samui that was established in 1999 by master chef Roongfa Sringam and American media producer and food entrepreneur Martin Amada. It’s a 300 square meter facility that has two teaching kitchens, a dining room and a retail shop.
SITCA’s first hands-on cooking class attended by visitors to the island was a success.
Soon after, thanks to the growing popularity of Thai food worldwide, there came a demand for intensive training for chefs and cooks. To accommodate this, SITCA decided to create a curriculum that caters to foreign culinary professionals and amateurs.
Cr: SITCA
Their Intensive Training course is a more in-depth class that delves deeper into Thai cooking and is offered as 6-day and 12-day training classes. While SITCA’s Carving courses focus more on learning the art of fruit and vegetable carving.
Intensive Training
The intensive training SITCA offers to professionals and amateurs is divided into two programs. One is a 6-day training and the other is a 12-day training. Both programs are created to give participants a better understanding on Thai cuisine and expose them to tips and tricks shared by the professionals.
Cr: SITCA
6-day Thai Cuisine Immersion
The 6-day training is designed to let the students go back to basics and be introduced to all areas of the cuisine including salads, soups, curries, stir-fries, steamed dishes and desserts. In this class, the students also learn important tips in preparing authentic Thai cuisine.
Sessions begin every third Monday of the month with each class starting at 10:00AM from Monday to Saturday.
12-day Training for Professionals
For a more intense training, the 12-day program which is usually participated by professionals, includes teaching them more than 100 recipes in the duration of 2 weeks. The master chefs also share tips and tricks in preparing authentic Thai cuisine.
There’s also an added bonus of a full day introduction to the art of Thai style fruit and vegetable carving.
Carving Courses
If you are more interested to learn carving fruits and vegetables, SITCA has a separate course for this!
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The carving courses are great in order to learn how to prepare simple fruits in a more beautiful, elegant way. It’s a 3-hour session that is held on 3 consecutive days, with a total of 9 hours of hands-on training. Aside from fruit and vegetable carving, students are taught two ornate flower patterns during day 1 and day 2 of the program.
Carving tools and the 38-page step-by-step instructional booklet are provided by SITCA and are included in the 6,000 Baht charge for the carving course.
Cr: SITCA
One-day Carving Course
For those with limited time, SITCA offers a one-day carving course that costs 2,500 Baht which includes a custom carving knife.
If you want to participate in their carving course but are not able to go to Samui, they also offer a 57-minute step-by-step instructional video. This includes the step-by-step booklet and knife. For more information on how you can avail of this, you may contact SITCA by sending an email at [email protected] or call them at cell +66 (0) 65 351 9636 | Landline +66 (0) 77 413 172.
With more than two decades in the industry, SITCA has conducted thousands of cooking classes for non-Thais visiting the island. This is a great opportunity for professionals and non-professionals who are interested to learn how to cook Thai food and have a deeper understanding on Thai cuisine.
It’s definitely a must-try activity if you’re on the island and it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to be taught by one of the master chefs on the island.You can visit SITCA’s website for more information on their programs and schedules.