Situated in a period teak house, cooking classes at Mandarin Oriental Bangkok run from 08:00-12:00 daily. The classroom has several benches for partners to cook on and a central station for the teacher, the charismatic Chef Narain, and his diligent assistants who seem to be on hand for anything you may require – from a tissue to another cup of coffee. But, realistically, classes are very small and you will receive a lot of one-on-one instruction from the teacher, who keeps the class moving along gracefully.

During the class, four separate dishes are prepared, but always stick to classic Thai recipes. The menu changes daily according to a schedule so, if you like, you can take a course to learn all the dishes in the cookbook for that class cycle, and, occasionally, chefs even return when they know the entire menu has been changed year after year.

The day I visited we tried our hand at pork balls wrapped in pickled cabbage, pork red curry, fried egg Thai salad, with steamed coconut pudding for dessert. Dishes are never too difficult to prepare. It was nice that Chef Narain offered advice about alternative ingredients readily available back home, in place of the typical Thai ones. Each was delicious and I had the chance to eat it all afterwards in the comfortable surroundings of Sala Rim Naam Restaurant next door.

At the end of the class, everyone is given a goody bag with herbs and spices, an apron and a huge certificate for a touch of achievement to an otherwise easygoing day.

To add some cultural relevance to your trip, arrange your Oriental Cooking School lesson for Saturday or Sunday, as the morning starts with a trip to the local market. Bang Rak Market is a very small wet market with just a few stalls, but it nevertheless gives you an accurate snapshot of local Thai life in the capital, and all the buildings leading from the pier to the market are old Chinese shophouses with life mainly unchanged for the last 50 years.