If you live in Victoria, you might have heard of The London Chef by now. It’s not quite in the downtown core, but lucky for me, it’s close to my home, and I have enjoyed their delicious salads, baked goods and sauces from their cafe and pantry before. (Try their Smoked Tomato Butter – it’s excellent)

Dan Hayes- The London Chef himself – has kindly invited me over to join his Lunch and Learn cooking class today. I knew he was offering cooking classes but didn’t know much about it. But I have walked by when the class was in session and have been curious. So I accepted his invite in a heartbeat!

Today’s menu was Vancouver Island Seafood in a Thai Red Curry Broth.
How the class works is, basically, you sit around the beautiful kitchen, and Dan will cook the meal in front of you. So it’s not really a “cooking class” par se, it is called “lunch and learn”, and I bet you learn a lot. Dan showed us how to prepare Dogfish – which I have never seen before – and it was really interesting. I have cooked some easy, North Americanized Thai food at home before, but in this class Dan showed us various ingredients, such as Shrimp paste, Palm sugar, Galangal and Kaffir Lime leaf(this was my favourite- smells incredible)…now I know where to pick up these ingredients and I’m so excited.

Dan’s a great teacher and storyteller, I honestly enjoyed watching him cook and listening to him. One thing he said – that he liked watching people eat what he makes at The London Chef, because that doesn’t happen in a restaurant environment so often -made a lovely impression on me. He seemed like he really enjoyed cooking for people.
And here’s the best part – the lunch!

Lunch and Learn classes are typically $25 per person.
There are other classes/events available – for more info, check out The London Chef website.