Be your own chef

Sandra Cam slices a thin piece of carrot. She carves out a head, two feelers and wings, and a hole on the upper side. Carefully, she pulls the head through the hole. And voila! A red butterfly appears in her hand.

In great excitement, she shows her creation to three classmates at an afternoon cooking class, who are also trying their hands at the difficult craft. They have broken several butterflies' fragile necks in the process.

Cam crafts another carrot butterfly, and rests the pair on top of green vegetables, fungus and bean curd in a pot. She pours on them some Japanese miso soup, and heats the pot on a stove. By the time the soup is ready, she has finished another dish: asparagus shoots wrapped in tasty bacon rolls, alongside a refreshing cabbage salad.

The teacher, Zhang Laicai, tastes their works and lauds their improvement. After class, they put the dishes into thermal containers so their families can sample their hard work.

It is Cam's second class since she started the Japanese and Korean course a week ago at this newly-opened cooking institute in Beijing's CBD. Having lived in the capital for five years, the homemaker from Macao says her family has not become accustomed to northern Chinese cuisine. Now, she wants to spice up the family menu with something besides routine Cantonese food.

She became interested in Korean food after watching South Korean TV dramas.

"I am always curious about how they prepare the food and what seasonings they use to create those yummy dishes," she says.

And simply dinning in Korean restaurants, which are booming across the country, was not enough. So Cam looked for schools near her home that teach South Korean cooking but could only find Korean-speaking courses.

"It is great to find such a clean workshop. Cooking wares and materials, everything is prepared. The teacher is always ready to answer our questions, handle possible cooking disasters, and provide valuable tips," she says.

"Though we cook every day in the kitchen, it is in the class that we find out how to make nutritious dishes and how to arrange them on the plate."

The past few decades have witnessed the impact of modern life on Chinese urbanites' dining. More people, especially the young, would rather eat out than cook at home.

However, some city dwellers who are tired of dining out are gradually returning to the kitchen. They believe home cooking is healthier, can save them money and strengthen bonds between family members. An increase of TV cooking programs, books and websites also suggests that eating at home has become fashionable.

Allegedly the first cooking institute for amateurs in Beijing, Pop Cooking has attracted many home chefs, like Cam, since it opened in late September. It offers Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Western and mixed cuisine courses. Each class consists of four to six students under the instruction of the teachers, who are qualified and experienced chefs.

"We have around 40 students. Most choose Chinese cuisine, and most are working people in their 20s and 30s starting from scratch," says Chen Danfeng, assistant manager of the Beijing-based company who owns Pop Cooking.

Li Jie wasn't interested at all when she first attended the Chinese cuisine workshop with her husband Deng Wenjie in October. Like many grown-ups from one-child families, she knew nothing about cooking. "I hardly cooked growing up, because my parents wanted me to devote my time to study. And I didn't feel comfortable among the smokes and smells of oils and flavorings when cooking," she says.

The reason she came to Pop Cooking was because her husband likes cooking and wants to improve his skills. He suggested that the classes might also help Li change her attitude towards cooking.

"The class is not boring like I thought it would be. I have a lot of fun there, and have made some good friends," she says, adding the class has also helped her become closer with her husband.

"I called my mother the other day to tell her that I will present her some of my best dishes during the Spring Festival. She was really surprised and happy."

An interesting statistic that Chen Danfeng revealed, is that about one third of the students are men. "Many girls come here in preparation to be a good wife and mother. We have also received phone calls from guys, who ask if we can set up classes only for men, for they feel embarrassed taking cooking class with women," he says.

"We encourage them by telling them that their female classmates will wind up jealous of their girlfriends or wives."

Some women also send their husbands to the studio and pay for their class. Wang Xiangyi is one such case. "My wife is very busy at work and travels a lot. So I do the most cooking at home, which, however, cannot satisfy my wife," Wang says. The middle school computer science teacher has almost finished the 12-class sessions of the Chinese cuisine course, which costs 2,700 yuan ($365).

"The course charges are much cheaper than our monthly costs of dining out. And my dishes taste much less oily and salty and are more nutritious than what many restaurants provide," he says.

"At first, some of my colleagues and friends made fun of me. They thought donning an apron and learning cooking with women is not what a real man should do. But they stopped laughing at me after eating my dishes. And my wife rewarded me with a digital camera."

The workshop has also drawn two students from the United States who now study at a middle school in Beijing. "They love Chinese food, especially the Sichuan cuisine. They want to master some dishes so that they can cook for themselves after returning home," Chen says.

(China Daily 12/13/2007 page20)