I had an accident a day before our Thailand and Vietnamese Cuisine class so I had to skip it. After a few weeks, I was informed that I can take the make-up class in CCA Manila’s original Maginhawa branch. I had to take a leave at work since the schedule was a monday. I felt this is also a chance to see what the Maginhawa branch looks like as compared to the new BGC branch.
I was a lost a bit as I was not familiar with the area and the CCA signage wasn’t put up yet at the time. Good thing I still arrived on time. When I entered the lecture room, I was welcomed warmly by the Batch 27 students! I felt at ease right the first minute, I knew by then I would be having such a blast!
Similar to what I’ve used to, chef Jay started with the history of TH and VN cuisine then shared some tips for the dishes we were about to cook. During that time, the groupings was decided as well. In my original class, we only changed groupings once. But in Maginhawa, they change groupings every single session. Chef Jay said it’s to ensure we learn how to work with different people better.
Before each group can cook, Teacher Chef Jay did a demo of every single dish for the session. This ensures that we learn how to best prepare each dish and can help equip us better as we do it ourselves. He also gave us free rein to change up the recipe to enhance it or suited to our liking. Net, the important thing is we learn.
These are just some of the dishes chef Jay prepared for the class. They looked good, aren’t they?
In the original batch that I’m in, we usually split the dishes amongst ourselves so we get to cook 1 dish per person. In Batch 27, they do it differently, everyone contributes to the dish thus not one person really did an entire dish by themselves. So I’m sharing here bits and pieces of the process as I contributed to 3 dishes.
First up, Coconut Custard. I rarely make desserts so I’m glad I get to try it. I prepared the custard and my teammates did the finishing touches (i.e., torching with sugar & topping with mangoes). The end product looked super good!!
Next up, I helped prep the garnishing & the yellow bean sauce for the Banh Pho Bo w/ Yellow Bean Sauce. The shrimp broth was prepared by a student for the whole class to use then the groups just have to prepare everything else. I’m really impressed with how my group mates presented the dish, it looked sooo yummy!
Next up is Cha Gio with Nuoc Cham Dipping Sauce. This one I made my own from start to finish. The mistake I made here is I put too much ingredients inside every rice paper. I also could have chopped up a lil to make it look better. Anyhow, I learned so much. I also have to say that the sauce was yummy. Maybe I should put up a sauce business 👩💼
The Maginhawa branch is much smaller than CCA Manila’s BGC branch but I really love that the students are so close since there are only a few of them. They also have a photo station so we can take pics of our dishes better.
Presenting to you the Thailand & Vietnamese dishes our group cooked & prepared 🙂
I must reiterate my teammates are so good at presenting dishes, I was so amazed. But not quite surprised, both of them already had actual food businesses in the country.
Thailand Cuisine
- Tom Yum Gong
- Phad Thai
- Coconut Custard
Vietnamese Cuisine
- Banh Pho Bo w/ Yellow Bean Sauce
- Cha Gio with Nuoc Cham Dipping Sauce
Thank you to chef Jay and the batch 27 of CCA’s Fundamentals in Culinary Arts. I really had a great time! I loved the cozy and warmth being in this kitchen. Even the students from the baking arts course were so accommodating and nice! We even had a cake to eat while we were cooking.
It was super nice being able to experience both branches of CCA Manila. While I didn’t like the accident that I had, it gave me the opportunity to try out the CCA Maginhawa branch. Oh, the Maginhawa’s kitchen is more bearable when it comes to the heat.
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