Help rebuild upon a wok

Discover the Thai cooking school with the perfect

recipe for human kindness.

From Senior Traveller, Feb 24, 2020

It takes courage to stand up for what you believe in … and even more courage to do something about it.

This is a story about Courageous Kitchen – Bangkok’s revolutionary Thai Cooking School.

But it’s not just about a tour where you learn how to whip up Thai taste sensations.

This story goes so much further. It’s a delicious mix of cooking and caring from a couple who have come up with the perfect recipe for human kindness.

Dwight Turner is the epitome of “courageous” and so are the people he helps. The former English teacher hails from Atlanta – the “social justice and civil rights capital of America”. So he believes it’s in his DNA to fight for what is right.

When Dwight met a refugee family in Bangkok and saw that they did not have any food to eat, he put a plan into action that has evolved from supplying meals, to teaching English and Thai and to showing refugees how to cook – arming them with skills they can use to earn aliving … eventually.

There is a catch to this story.

Refugees are not recognised in Thailand. They can live here while waiting for UN refugee status. But they are not allowed to work. So how do they pay rent and feed their families?

“They risk it,” Dwight says. “They have to.

“They get jobs in construction and other areas where they are not in the public eye. But if the authorities catch them working, they are put in jail. Then the cycle of hunger and homelessness and despair continues.

“Some families have two or three members in jail.

“We had to do something.”

Cue Courageous Kitchen and our Thai cooking class.

I am in a group of five journalists, checking out how to see the “real” Thailand by joining a series of Urban Adventures day tours. These tours are selected because they are run by locals. It’s an eye-opening way to see the country – especially today.

Softly-spoken Dwight and his wife Panisha have taken us on a market tour to buy the fresh ingredients we need to make Pad Krapow Moos (pork with spicy basil), Pad See Ew (flat noodles in soy sauce) and lotus cookies.

The market, full of colour and spice, is one of hundreds dotted around this city of 16.9 million people.

“You can understand, when you see food on almost every street corner, how hard it was to comprehend that a family could be going hungry,” Dwight says of his first encounter with refugees.

“But there are 450,000 refugees from 30 different countries, living here. And many are in the same situation. They have no money and no way of earning any.”

Courageous Kitchen HQ is a short walk from the market. The classes are held in Dwight’s house with cooking stations set up in the front yard and a dining table taking centre stage in the living room.

We meet two of the school’s “graduates”, Alina and Bella. Both are Hmong Vietnamese refugees who knew little more than their remote mountain tribe life when they arrived in Thailand nine years ago.

But there is no time to dwell on the personal stuff. There is food to cook; lessons to be learnt; fun to be had.

We are treated to two appetisers not normally on the agenda. The sauces for miang kham (betel leaf wraps) and kratong tong (filled pastry shells) have been gathered and the fresh ingredients pre-cut so we just have to learn how to pull it all together. Both are tangy little parcels of Thai freshness but we are warned not to eat too much as the main dishes are substantial.

Our group is then divided into two – those who want to cook pork and those who prefer vegetarian meals.

I join Alina’s meat-eating maestros to prepare Thailand’s unofficial dish – Pad Kaprow Moos – spicy pork and basil stirfry.

We first watch Alina demonstrate how it’s done. She makes a paste of palm sugar (or you can use brown sugar), soy sauce, oyster sauce and dark soy sauce.

Then there’s a burst of steam as she fries pork mince, an onion and green beans with the paste and finally adds basil to the mix.

We are each assigned a cooking station and a wok … it’s our turn.

It’s a very simple dish (once you know the ingredients) so it would be hard to go wrong. But our dishes don’t look as polished as Alina’s. While Bella’s group is finishing off their Pad See Ew, our Pad Kaprow Moos is plated up next to a serving of rice with a runny fried egg on top. The yoke is popped so it dribbles just so!

When we sit down to enjoy our creations, it’s also our chance to ask Dwight how Courageous Kitchen works and how we can help.

“Just taking part in these cooking classes, helps,” Dwight says. “We needed a practical way to teach refugees life skills and we needed a practical way to make money to make that happen. The cost of these classes goes straight back into the school.

“It means we can go into the communities and teach languages. And we take refugees into the markets and show them what all the food is and how to cook it.

“Sometimes it’s the children who have to stay at home and look after their brothers and sisters. They have to cook so we teach them how to do it safely.”

The refugee situation in Thailand is complex, confusing and confronting. The first step for refugees is to apply for UN refugee status.

Alina’s family of seven have finally received that … after nine years. But that’s not the end of the battle. Thailand does not accept refugees so now they must apply for resettlement. It’s another long-winded process of approaching embassies – more time waiting while they are not allowed to work.

It’s a process that has seen Alina’s father and brother jailed for getting a job. She cannot visit and so has not seen her brother for eight years. She can’t risk the authorities catching the rest of her family.

But it’s not all doom and gloom, Dwight explains.

“The positive side is right here in front of you.

“We have plenty of success stories … people who have gone on and are thriving in places like New Zealand, the US and Netherlands. Some have worked intensely in our program, others may have just been here short term. Our goal is to give them a helping hand so that when they are resettled, they have skills to work.

“They might not be master chefs but they can walk into a kitchen see what’s going on and have the skills to adapt.”

Dessert is calling. We learn how to deep fry lotus cookies and dress them with icecream and logan fruit dyed with bright purple butterfly pea and water chestnuts dyed with beetroot. They are quite the picture and almost as sweet as the girls teaching us how to put it all together.

Alina and Bella reluctantly share their courageous stories. They are confident cooks but still a little shy when it comes to personal details. They have reason to not trust strangers and they look to Dwight for confirmation they are doing the right thing.

“You’ve got this,” he reassures, and with some gentle prodding they start to open up.

Alina is a friendly 28-year-old whose bubbly personality belies a troubled life. Ask her what goes into the lotus cookie dough or what sauces to use in Pad Kaprow and the details flow freely.

Ask her how Courageous Kitchen has changed her life and the details turn to tears – hers and ours.

Alina found Dwight teaching children English in the refugee community.

“I became the eldest kid in the class,” she laughs. “He helped me learn English and Panisha taught me Thai and they both taught me how to cook and now how to teach others to cook.

“When I came to Courageous Kitchen, I thought I would be cleaning.

“I was eating in the kitchen, staying out of the way.

“But Dwight asked: ‘What are you doing? Come out here.’

“I thought I was in trouble for eating. But he wanted me to eat with them.

“Nobody ever did that before. People don’t treat us so good.

“It’s so different here. They treat me like a daughter.”

Alina describes how learning to live in a city has been hard. Her family are farmers. They lived in hill tribes and did everything for themselves.

“It’s very difficult for kids and older people. They can’t go out. Kids have to be quiet because the police can arrest us at any time.

“When my father got arrested, my brother had to work. They caught him and he has been in jail for eight years.

“Courageous Kitchen got my dad bailed out for two years then the police came and took him again.”

Dwight asks Alina what her superpower is. Getting the girls to focus on what they are really good at is his way of instilling even more confidence.

“I’m tough,” she says. “I can do anything and even when bad things happen in my life, I just have to work harder. I am going to be a chef.”

Bella is just 16 and while she also has the weight of her family on her young shoulders, she is full of hope and ambition. She wants to be a translator.

“I could not speak English or Thai when we first got here,” she says.

“I went to international school for two years but then our money ran out and I couldn’t go any more. I decided that I can’t go back to school. It costs too much and I need to work to help my family. So I am here learning and teaching.”

And Bella’s superpower? “My superpower is laughing … and I am not scared any more.”

Thai food has never tasted so good … and so bittersweet.

? The writer was a guest of Urban Adventures and has never come across a more inspiring tour.

www.urbanadventures.com/bangkok-tour-thai-cookery-class-with-courageous-kitchen

www.courageouskitchen.org