Asian Cooking

Think you know Chinese cooking based on what you’ve often eaten from a “Chinese” restaurant? Chances are the sweet and sour dishes and deeply breaded and fried chicken are flimsy versions of fast-food Chinese distilled to appeal to a fast-food American audience. Maybe you’ve never even tasted authentic Chinese cuisine.

Authentic Chinese cooking schools are largely small, private programs tailored to teach amateur or home cooks and/or professional and student chefs. How exactly would you learn Chinese cooking unless you seek out classes, courses and a chef/school steeped in the tradition?

What You’ll Learn in Chinese Cooking Schools

If you’re a student cook or chef a traditional Chinese culinary program could provide you with some very unique skills not available in one of the popular culinary arts schools. Many specialized Asian cookery schools offer courses for individuals and for many restaurants and culinary businesses that need expert training in Asian or Chinese cooking, kitchen skills, menu development and presentation.

Skills you’re likely to learn in a Chinese culinary course or school:

• History of Chinese cooking
• Cooking methods, such as steaming, stir-frying, roasting, smoking and preparation of cold/raw plates
• Noodles and rice
• Traditional Chinese flavors
• Pastes and curries
• Traditional kitchen equipment, including knives and wok.

Skills You Won’t Find Anywhere Else

Consider a native Chinese chef a rare resource. Even better a school that features guest chefs or visiting chefs—they have skills, dishes and culinary knowledge you may never have the opportunity to learn again.

Professional chefs live for this type of training and many even travel abroad to gain an even deeper understanding of his or her culinary specialty. And if your goal is to be a maverick Asian chef then you’ll seek any opportunity you have to learn an authentic skill, gain knowledge of ingredients and expand your professional repertoire.

Popular Chinese Cooking Schools

The Asian Culinary Arts Institute (ACAI) in Minneapolis-St. Paul delivers both amateur and professional grade courses and classes in Indian or Chinese cooking. You choose from Foods of India for home chefs or professional cooks; or from Foods of China for home chefs or professional cooks. Either way you learn the foundation of traditional Chinese cooking and authentic ingredients. Classes for professionals are very small and intensive. Guest chefs are often featured from various regions in China; each offers student chefs an in-depth lesson in a regional dish and culinary culture.