Chennai’s cookery classes

Love to eat but have no clues on how to cook? Fret not, Chennai has its share of cookery classes conducted by renowned chefs. Enrol yourself at any of these courses and become a master or mistress of your kitchen.

Traditional Indian cuisines
Sign up with Manju Mathur (Anna Nagar; Ph: 26211986) who conducts classes in North Indian cooking. She teaches about forty dishes—chaat, curries, Indian breads, snacks—in a span of seven days, and it’s learning-by-doing. If you want to master the taste of south India, Revathi (West Mambalam; Ph: 044 24852680) will help you do so.

Multicuisine
Chennai Culinary Institute at Teynampet is the best place to gun for if multicuisine is on your mind. Chandri Bhat promises to teach you how to cook Indian, Continental, Thai, Mexican cuisines, and very soon you’ll find yourself dishing out desserts, soups, salads, appetizers, bakes with the panache of a pro.

Chinese and other cuisines
Cook haka noodles or sweet n’ sour vegetables like they do in a Chinese restaurant with Sara Koshy (Ph: 24415602) and Sabeetha Shyam (Ph: 24414429) from Cuisine Craft (Valmiki Nagar). They impart a few secrets of rustling up scrumptious veg and non-veg cuisine, soups, and salads and even a few mouth-watering Italian delights.

Microwave cooking
It’s now become a trend to use microwave to do all the cooking. But for a beginner the dos and don’ts could be mind-boggling. Sign up with Jeyshree Rajamani (Adyar; Ph: 044 24421248) and you will be comfortable making your favourite paneer korma or sambar, daal and even desserts in the microwave. Her classes are ideal for pure vegetarians. Those who love chocolates could learn a few tips here as well.

Living in other extreme of the city, Umeetha (Egmore; Ph: 9840238804 / 044 28190351) makes some amazing eggless and vegan cakes (dairy-product free) and takes classes too. Both microwave and oven cooking are her specialities.

So what’s cooking?