Vietnamese & Thai Cooking Classes
Asheville, NC
Luna’s culinary experiences
Luna were born and raised in Vietnam from a family where the art of cooking is inbred in every member. Her mother owned a famous eatery in Saigon. Her sister had been the cook for many American Ambassadors to the Vatican for 10 years. Her sojourn of more than 20 years in Italy was a fortunate one as she was impregnated with the two Epicurean cultures, the Vietnamese and the Italian. She was the Chef and partner of "Bali", an Indonesian restaurant in Trastevere in Rome. During the years of service with the American Embassy in Rome, she taught Italian cooking and Qi Gong to the American personnel.
In 2002 Luna opened "At Luna’s", a Vietnamese restaurant in Asheville that she closed in 2003, preferring instead to cater to smaller groups providing gourmet food with care through cooking lessons. Luna also took a Baking course at AB Tech and was Serve Safe Sanitation Certified.
Luna has natural insight in using and combining herbs and spices. She pays great attention in treating food texture, using different methods and temperatures to create succulent sea food dishes, crisp and moist vegetable, juicy and tendermeat.
A food purist, Luna believes in conserving the authenticity of each dish and ingredient. Happily, she employs modern equipments and methods to make the creation of food less aggravating and time consuming..
About Classes and Choices of Menus
To make the best and freshest menus, Luna provides cooking classes
according to seasonal ingredients, themes and special needs. The dishes in the menus complement each others. For example: if there is a robust Southern Thailand Oxtail curry, then there is a fresh Green Papaya Salad to refresh. Catch the last fragrance of the summer: Dishes using a lot of fresh herbs; Hearty stew and curry for chilly nights; Celebrate the abundance of Autumn; No wheat meals; Low Carb Low Sugar for Diabetic needs. Family meals, and Street Food and Snack.
Occasionally there will be series of 4 week classes for people who are interested to learn thoroughly and properly the spirit of Vietnamese and Thai cooking.
Every class consists of a balanced meal of 4 courses, a recipe booklet to take home and the pleasure of sitting down to a delicious meal that you have created. In the summer we will go the organic
garden where we can pick up the fresh herbs and vegetables that will be used for the meal.
Luna’s Approach to Vietnamese and Thai Cooking How to cook delicious Thai/Vietnamese food? To be familiar with the ingredients and their tastes are the key to understand the interplay of these ingredients in a dish. As we know, there are 5 tastes in SE Asian food: Salty, Sweet, Sour,
Pungent (hot) and Bitter. Learning to blend each flavor to a balanced proportion in each dish, in order to
obtain a delicious outcome, is the essence of Asian cooking. Mastery comes with Familiarity
Taste your food while cooking. Traditional Asian cook books are very vague concerning measurement in recipes. Most good cooks continue to taste while they cook. If you continue to cook Vietnamese/Thai food, let’s say at least once or twice weekly, slowly your taste receptacles will learn to discover the new combination of tastes.
The more you cook the more you will become familiar and become an expert. Follow the recipe instructions, knowing that it is just a starting point. But, taste your food while in the process of cooking, as taste is very individual. Ingredients also vary according to the brand and the freshness. One lime may be more sour than another one.
Balancing tastes is an essential task in cooking.
Good organization and attitude is rewarding.
You are learning Asian cooking because you love these foods. You want to create them yourself but, you are not familiar of how !
Then consider your cooking day a special treat, a special trip for yourself!
Why not ?
It is an adventure in the world of tastes! You are going to enjoy it! Take it seriously but, also Easy.
Have all ingredients, sauces, and herbs and all cooking instruments ready and neatly prepared.
Read the recipes first to know how much time you will need.
Give yourself ample time so you do not feel pressure, only pleasure.
Allow yourself to make mistakes. Important is to have FUN, Sanuk in Thai -
Experiment with food and with yourself.
“When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece” John Ruskin 
Ingredients
Luna uses only the best and freshest ingredients for her home & for classes. Vegetables come mostly from her home organic garden; Sea Food is bought from an authorized and trusted purveyor: www.inlandseafood.com, who caters to the Fresh Market, EarthFare and most of the prestigious restaurants in town. For meat, Luna buys from local and organic farms as www.EastforkFarm.net, and www.hickorynutgapfarm.com.
