Blue Elephant Cooking School & Restaurant

Driving along South Sathorn Road, you will notice this charming colonial building. This Thai Chine Building was built in 1903 and originally opened as the Bombay Department Store, then most exclusive and posh Bangkok neighborhood. It was also once the headquarters for Thai Chinese Chamber of Commerce and was taken over by the Imperial japanese army during World War II as their Command Center.  Since 2002, the building have been revitalized and restored by Blue Elephant.

Blue Elephant started in 1980 by Khun Nooror Somany Steppe, a Thai living with her Belgian husband Mr Karl Steppe in Brussels.With a passion for Thai cooking, Khun Nooror and team expanded Blue Elephant and is now one of the top Thai Restaurants in the world, with 12 outlets in Europe, Middle East, Indonesia and Thailand.

At the grand entrance, the team from Blue Elephant gracefully welcomed us. I foresee a grand and posh dinner awaiting us.

Look at the number of awards! This restaurant is not simple at all! Now, I’m even more excited about the delicious food since they have won so many awards.

We were led to the lounge area for some cocktails / mocktails. There, we also got to meet the team from Tourism Authority of Thailand, Bangkok.

Cocktail: Blue Mai Thai – A melange of cool refreshing exotic fruit juices with a hint of alcohol.

Mocktail: Pattaya – A linger-longer, non-alcoholic version of Blue Mai Thai.

Together with some very delicious shrimp chips. And we emptied it within minutes!

After enjoying ourselves at the lounge area, we had a tour around the building. I’m surprised to know that this building is also a cooking school where they teach both foreigners and locals to cook Thai dishes. Interesting! I love Thai food so much and I also want to learn cooking some Thai dishes.

I thought I was going to learn some Thai dishes but sadly, there was no time for it.

This is the classroom for theory sessions and also the place where chefs will demonstrate how to cook. Blue Elephant offers morning and afternoon classes. The morning classes includes a visit to the wet market to purchase ingredients whereas the afternoon classes will have a dessert class instead of the wet market trip. If you are interested to find out more about the classes, please click here.

Look at the deco and the details of the restaurant. It’s really posh and I feel like a VIP (Very Important Person)!

This is where we will be having our dinner. WOW. It’s a private room for us, really privileged.

Look at the Gold Utensils!  We are being served Red & White Wines while waiting for our dish to be served.

Tom Yam Ginseng Kai Dam (Spicy Black Chicken Soup with Ginseng and Thai Herbs) + Ped Doi Kham Longan (Grilled Duck Breast Salad with Organic Honey and Royal Project Logan).

The soup, even though so simple looking, had a very serious kick of Thai Flavour. Indeed, I’m indulging in Authentic Royal Thai Cuisine!

Koi Salsom (Thai Carpaccio Raw Salmon Salad with Thai Herbs) + Doi Kham Eggplant Salad (Purple Eggplant Salad with Grilled Scallops, Herbal Spiciness and a hint of Truffle Oil) – This is inspired by Chef Nooror collaboration with Royal Project Vegetables & Herbs Farm at Doi Inthanon.

I finished everything even though I don’t take Eggplant! It is that good. Together with Truffle Oil, it’s simply divine!

Stir Fried Egg Noodle with Lobster and Truffle Sauce

The noodles are so soft and delicious. Together with the Lobster, Spices and Truffle Sauce, it’s heavenly!

Next comes 4 Main Courses and it was served as family sharing style, typical of Thai food.

Lamb Curry with Chestnut (A yellow curry with tenderloin of lamb, chestnut and sweet potato).

This was the best Main Course of the night. Everyone had countless serving of the curry and it went extremely well with the Steam Jasmine Rice & Wild Rice!

Bamboo Fish (Fillet of Sea Bass marinated with Herbs, grilled in a bamboo case).

Moh Kaeng Kao Lud (Original Thai dessert, made with Chestnuts) + Kao Niew Piek Lum Yai (Black sticky rice pudding topped with logan and coconut cream).

Thai desserts are just so sweet and delicious!

A group photo of all of us!

This is a perfect place to have authentic Royal Thai Cuisine. With such posh settings, definitely a good place for bringing clients or your loved ones. They also do private events and catering too!