Learn Cooking in India

Indian Spices

Nimmy Paul’s Cooking School is known as one of the best cooking schools in the world. They have been featured in over 10 publications including Gourmet, Travel+Leisure, Saveur, and New York magazines. Impressive considering it is run out of the home of Nimmy, Paul, and their son Joseph’s house in Kochi. It is also probably one of the most affordable private cooking lessons you will ever experience at $30 for a demonstration plus meal or $100 for a full day hands on program.

Nimmy was a local cooking teacher and caterer in Kochi, a costal town in the Kerala State. When tourism picked up in the area in the 1990s, Nimmy started bringing people into her home to show them what Kerala cooking was all about.

Kerela is in the Hindu region of southern India and its culinary dishes consist of mostly vegetarian fare as beef is strictly off limits for consumption by Hindi. This does not stop Nimmy from teaching you techniques for cooking meat, as there is a growing population of Christians in the area who do not share the same dietary or religious restrictions.

Coconuts are a common ingredient of dishes in the area as the actual name Kerala means “land of coconuts”. Coconuts included with various spices from the area like black pepper, cloves, coriander, turmeric, garlic, and others make up the majority of dishes. With these ingredients you will learn to make food that is rarely taught anywhere outside of India.

If special arrangements are made in advance, they offer the ability to stay with them in their home for a few days, which could possibly be one of the best experiences you’ll have in India.

Make sure to check out their website at http://www.nimmypaul.com

Be sure to also check out Paul’s Photostream on Flickr to see the latest dishes they are making: http://www.flickr.com/photos/keralacookery