Frequently Asked Questions

Our goal is to boost your home cooking confidence with engaging culinary education structured into three phases:

• Reception (15 mins before class): Welcome with our signature drink and potstickers.
• Preparation & Knowledge Transfer (2.5 hours): Learn ingredient sourcing, prep, and key techniques with lots of tasting and laughters. NO DRINKING during this time.
• Cooking & Dining (1.5 hours): After the hard work, cook, enjoy the meal, and share laughter.

We don't have individual cooking stations where all clients get to cook their own, but we cook communally as a team. Your involvement in the class is up to you, depending on whether you prefer to observe, take notes, or get in on the action. Certain classes are way more hands-on than others.

We are situated in Waterfall Estate in Midrand, Johannesburg: just 5 minutes from The Mall of Africa, and 30 minutes from Johannesburg, Pretoria, and the Airport.

Our halal classes are thoughtfully designed to meet Muslim dietary requirements:

• Pork and Alcohol-Free: We ensure that all dishes are completely free of pork and alcohol, including the ingredients in sauces and condiments.
• Certified Halal Meat: We exclusively source our meat from certified halal butchers, such as Faheem's Meat & Deli, Forsmay Butchery, and Chalmer Beef.
• Authentic Flavors: Our classes primarily focus on Thai and Vietnamese cuisine, which traditionally do not use alcohol in their cooking. By substituting the protein source, we make these dishes halal without compromising their authentic flavors. We also modify classes like Korean Fried Chicken to be halal.

While we take great care to provide halal options, we are not halal-certified vendor. Additionally, our regular halal classes, which are also open to the public, may include non-Muslim customers who choose to enjoy a glass of wine with their meal.

For those seeking an entirely alcohol-free environment, we offer private classes for groups of 12-14 or semi-private events with a minimum of 6 people. To arrange a drinking-free halal class, please provide a 2-month notice to help us promote it to our halal clientele.

Since 2017, our mission has been to share the love of authentic Asian home cooking. Asian cuisine is characterized by its use of alcohol and the universal preference for pork as the primary protein. In China, pork is simply labeled as "the meat" on menus, without further specification.

Our commitment remains steadfast even years later. In 2021, we introduced halal classes, all thanks to Fehmida Jordaan (known as Fehmz), who enlightened us about this underserved clientele. However, this is an additional aspect of our core business, and we don't plan to make all our classes and products halal, particularly due to the scarcity of halal-certified Asian ingredients that match the taste of non-certified products. While there are plenty of halal products available in the market, they are often not certified when imported, as South Africa is not primarily known as a Muslim country.

Don't let the term "halal" deter you: these classes will offer the same authentic recipes, prepared without pork and alcohol. These classes primarily delve into Thai and Vietnamese cuisine, where alcohol is not typically used in cooking. By substituting the main protein source, we make these classes halal to accommodate Muslim clients without altering the integrity of the original flavors.

For three reasons:

• Better Learning Experience: We often handle unfamiliar dishes, new ingredients, and new cooking techniques. When clients are fully occupied with hands-on cooking, their ability to absorb new information may diminish, resulting in reduced knowledge retention. With our approach, which combines 50% demonstration and 50% hands-on cooking by volunteers, you benefit from multiple sources of knowledge. You receive instruction from the chef, engage in Q&A sessions with other participants, and learn from volunteers' mistakes. Additionally, experiencing the superbly cooked original recipe provides a reliable reference for your future home cooking endeavors.
  
• Catering to Different Learning Styles: We recognize that people learn differently. Some prefer hands-on experience, others prefer observation, and some simply enjoy the meal. Our communal approach accommodates all learning styles and facilitates learning from each other's experiences.
  
• Covering More Recipes: A 100% hands-on approach would require additional time for demonstration and replication, limiting class capacity to a maximum of two dishes. Our communal cooking style allows us to efficiently cover 3-4 recipes in a single class.

Nothing but a healthy appetite and a good sense of humor. We prepare everything for you.

We limit drinking to sit-down meal times (last 90 min) only so we can complete the full curriculum before the lesson becomes too social.

Yes, but with restrictions: ½ bottle of wine or 2 cans (330ml) of beer per person and no hard liquor.

Most red wines don't pair nicely with Asian food due to the frequent use of vinegar, acidity, and fermented ingredients. Our all-time favorite is G&T, and we run a G&T bar in the class.

10 years old: it's not the age but one's passion and interest to cook that counts. However anyone between the ages of 14 and 17 must be accompanied by an adult.

All sales are final, and no refunds are given. Date changes are allowed if made more than 28 days from the class date. Between 28-14 days, changes will incur a fee of R 200 / person. Within 14 days of the class, no date changes can be made under any circumstances. Please send someone else in your place.

Please review the dietary information for each class to ensure its suitability, especially when booking for a group. We do not accept cancellations due to dietary misalignment.

Unfortunately no. Because the kitchen set-up to run an efficient Asian cooking class is very different from an average household kitchen. The supporting team is also the most efficient and effective at our studio. It takes 48 hours to prep and clean one cooking class.

Yes and no. Currently we don't have dedicated classes for house staff. They are welcome to join our regular class. If your staff can learn from observing, and confident enough to ask question and can handle lots of knowledge transfer, they will learn a lot.

If you are not sure, we advise our clients to come to relatively easy classes such as Stir Fry 101 and Korean Fried Chicken together to test his/her ability to replicate the dishes back at work.

Due to potential conflicts of interest and the protection of our intellectual property (IP). In the past, our recipes were published in trade magazines, sold to restaurants and catering businesses, used to launch new cooking classes in Limpopo - all without our knowledge.

Considering the 100 hours invested in developing each class, it is our responsibility to safeguard our IP. Clients will only receive hard copies of recipes and our classes are strictly limited to home cooks.

Food consulting, recipe development and chef’s training are separate services offered. In the past, we trained culinary teams from Saigon Suzy, Creation Wine, Hilton Hotel, Lepogo lodge. Please contact Rany (064 527 3067) for more information.