- Essential ingredients (required for all customers' consumption): Chicken, fish, fish sauce, soy sauce, sesame, coconut milk, mushroom, egg
- Customisable ingredients (swap or skip): Prawns, peanut
1. Thai green curry paste + red curry paste
2. Thai fish cake + Vietnamese dipping sauce
3. Thai chicken satay + Thai peanut sauce
4. Thai green curry
5. Thai red curry
6. Asian cabbage slaws with Thai herbs
1. All sales are final, no refunds are given.
2. Date changes are allowed if made more than 28 days before the class date. 28-8 days before class, R250 fee per person for changes (or send someone else). 7-4 days before class, R350 fee per person for changes (or send someone else). Within 3 days of class. changes incur 50% of the class fee per person, including for attending immediate family funerals (or sending someone else). Clients have 3 months to book replacement class before the credit expires.
3. Review dietary information for suitability, especially for groups. No cancellations due to dietary misalignment. Please read the full T&Cs here.
FAQs
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. Scroll down to view the Google Map in this page.
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. Dumpling 101 classes, for example, requires all clients to fold their own dumplings. Each class typically has 12-14 clients, so we are big enough to have fun but small enough to stay intimate.
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.
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 Butcher, 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.
Not Halal-Certified: 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.
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.
Nothing but healthy appetite and humor; we handle the rest. Arrive on time in comfy clothes and shoes for 4 hours of cooking.
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.
14 years old: 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 R 200 fee/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. Please read the full Ts & Cs here.
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.
Restaurant consulting and chef’s training on specific skills (e.g. stir-frying) are separate services offered, please contact us for more information.
Interactive and interesting classes. You will learn all about ingredients and cooking.
M
Morne van Vuuren
Amazing experience
Ranny was very knowledgeable, enthusiastic, and made the class so much fun! The recipes were authentic and so delicious, and we loved that we got to make multiple curries with different flavour profiles. We appreciated the hands-on approach and the opportunity to practice new cooking techniques.
S
Sunitha Narainsamy
Greating bonding time
We (mostly working moms) loved learning Thai meals that can be quickly made after work. We had so much fun and laughter with Rany's humor and seeing our boss (who is typically great at everything he does) struggling in the kitchen.
P
Peter Dodson (Cape Town, ZA)
Asian Cuisine on steroids
Professional, lots of energy , fun and delicious food
Z
Zaheer Moosa (Johannesburg, ZA)
You feel right at home!
Stunning space and kitchen - ideal location for a cookong class, you feel right at home! Rany is a lovely hands on teacher that shows all her students authentic ways of preparing Asian food, the Thai curry class was no exception. You get to use all halaal proteins and authentic Thai ingredients, all her methods are explained in detail and everyone gets a chance to prepare dishes! You also get to eat all the great food which is amazing so please go hungry! Would definitely attend her other classes as you learn so much and she goes out of her way to transfer her skills onto you. Thank you Umami Food Studio for teaching us these great skills and getting to eat all the amazing dishes!
H
Henriette Joubert (Pretoria, ZA)
Superb
Rany is witty, quick and efficient. Her meals are super delicious, fulfilling and filling. I am certainly coming back for more inspiration!
Z
Zaheer Moosa (Laudium, ZA)
Skills level up class!
Stunning space and kitchen, you feel right at home! Rany is a lovely hands on teacher that shows all her students authentic ways of preparing Asian food, the Thai curry class was no exception.
You get to use all halaal proteins and authentic Thai ingredients, all her methods are explained in detail and everyone gets a chance to prepare dishes. Would definitely attend her other classes as you learn so much and she goes out of her way to transfer her skills onto you.
A
Ahista Hussain
Yummy in my tummy!
I attended the halaal Thai class and I had a superb experience. Randy was so considerate to my halaal dietary requirements.
She communicated on how the meat was sourced and had prepared a halaal stock.
I reproduced the recipe the same evening and also inhaled the halaal dumplings. New skills in hand and yummy in my tummy!
Thank you Ahista. It was great to having met you in Thai red curry class. Pls cook while the memory is fresh and see you for more later.
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Joy Cleghorn
I don't buy sushi anymore!
Your class and ongoing guidance has made me a sushi hero amongst family, friends and colleagues: you gave me the courage to step it up a couple of notches 😍
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Adeshnie Naidoo
Great kimchi
Taste excellent
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Leila
Excellent!
Flavor filled dumplings and dipping sauce with a kick! Delicious!
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Lusani
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Love it
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Susan Thomas
Best Spring Rolls
Absolutely loved these spring rolls. it is complemented perfectly with the vietnamese dipping sauce
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Rany revolutionised my cooking; she is worth 10 stars.
My daughter and I attended nearly all of Rany’s classes. Now, I cook faster with less effort (and far less food waste), creating dishes brimming with flavor. With her infectious passion for food and stellar recipes, she has transformed my cooking forever. My husband worships me now.
What a great experience! Thanks Rany, for a lovely morning!
Thank you Gerhardus for choosing us to celebrate your birthday. Glad you had a good foodie time with your loved one. keep cooking and let me know how it goes!
if you ever need some wholesome healthy broth while fighting illness Rani is a star. Home made broth all other fresh ingredients 3 minutes and you have the bestest soup. thank you for the awesome care and support you have shown.