SONOMA – Beneath the cacophony of the bustling kitchen is a dull thud that comes regular and strong like the beat of a drum machine. Granite strikes granite as a mixture of cumin, coriander, Thai green chilies, lemongrass, Thai ginger, the rind of a kaffir lime, shallot, garlic, cilantro and shrimp paste is pounded with mortar and pestle into the essence of green curry.
This sound is the soul of Thai cooking – and the rhythm is believed to reveal the personality of the person pounding, chef Chat Mingkwan tells students in a recent cooking class at the Ramekins culinary school here.
"Men in Thailand walk around in the morning to hear women pounding curry," Mingkwan says in the tone one uses when relaying tales rather than truths. "It's a version of the mating call, because it's said you can detect the disposition of a woman in how she makes curry."
While it's suspect that the Thai wife-selection process boils down to curry technique, stories like this make cooking classes entertaining for every amateur chef. That, and helpful tips from a personable and knowledgeable chef such as the proper way to cut a pineapple, the selection of white mushrooms over brown for better color in a hot and sour soup, or the characteristics of a good fish sauce.
Oh, and you also get to eat everything you make.
Ramekins, just four blocks off Sonoma's historic plaza, turned 10 this year and has eased into its role as a vacation destination for Saveur magazine subscribers who know the difference between matchstick and julienne cuts, as well as locals who buy their groceries from farmers markets or Napa's Oxbow public market.
"I love to cook," says Teresa Sarno, 30, a city planner from West Palm Beach, Fla. Sarno and her husband recently spent three nights at The Inn, a bed and breakfast just upstairs from the school, and took Thai cooking as part of their California vacation.
"It's just convenient," Sarno says. "You come down from the bedroom and cook. And you know it's fresh because you just made it."
Ramekins is styled like a Tuscan villa, with faux stone walls and a welcoming courtyard shaded by leafy sycamores. While the handful of rooms offer comfort in that floral bed-and-breakfast way, food and cooking is the main attraction and makes its way into decorative touches such as ladle towel holders, pig bookends and asparagus banisters.
The heart of the building is the wide and open kitchen that is the setting for all things food, with classes highlighting the cuisines of places like Mexico, Morocco and Italy, and specialty cooking like holiday candy, New Year's appetizers, and cooking in the foodie- preferred smoker and grill known as the Big Green Egg.
"It's hands-on and you get stories from the chef," says kitchen manager Stephen McBurney. "Food – it's a necessity, you have to eat. So why not learn to cook good food? This is a chance to unlock the mysteries of cooking."
During the recent series called Essentials of Thai Cooking, a hands-on course that spanned two days, classes began with an introduction to Thai ingredients. There are Thai chilies, which are actually indigenous to Central America and ended up in Thailand thanks to Marco Polo, says Mingkwan, a native of Thailand who has written several cookbooks and teaches Asian cooking throughout the Bay Area. The chilies come in three colors – yellow, green and red – and are the same chili in various stages of ripeness.
Then there's fish sauce – pick one that is amber in color, not black, which he says is a sign of MSG – and make sure it's in a glass bottle instead of plastic. Galangal or Thai ginger should be infused into the food or mashed with a mortar and pestle. The rind of kaffir lime has antibacterial qualities, and the leaves should be used like bay leaves, as a flavor enhancer and then removed from a dish before serving.
After Mingkwan goes through these ingredients and several others, passing around samples for students to taste and smell, students head to prep stations where two Ramekins volunteer helpers have measured out ingredients for dishes like grilled beef salad with chili and lime dressing (neau nam took), galangal coconut chicken soup (tom kha gai) and stir-fried ribbon noodles with beef and broccoli (pad see iew).
"In Thailand, food is the key element to bringing people together," Mingkwan says. "Instead of saying hello, you say, 'Have you eaten yet?' That's how important food is to that country."
Soon the kitchen is abuzz as students smash lemongrass, stir coconut cream and scrape cilantro leaves from a cutting board. Enticing smells waft through the building. Mingkwan says cooks developed the intense flavors characteristic of Thai food to counter the mouth numbness that comes from chewing betel nuts, a common practice of generations past.
The chef walks around tasting curries and dressings, and shows students the correct way to cut a tomato or squeeze a kaffir lime – slice it in half, put one half in the squeezer one way, then turn the lime over and squeeze it again to release all the juice.
"It's fun, I meet a lot of new people," Mingkwan says. "I love to see their faces light up when they taste the food they cooked."
And the best part after the meal is that cleanup is included in the fee.
Call The Bee's Gina Kim, (916) 321-1228.
