Krua Thai Cookery School – learn the art of Thai cuisine in the heart of Edinburgh
Rujira, known as Ru, opened The Krua Thai Cooking School, after years in the hospitality industry specialising in traditional Thai cuisine.
For both cookery styles a big part of what makes them special is the attention to detail and presentations skills – and it is this meticulous attention to detail, alongside a passion for study and an unwavering work ethic which has helped Ru to her success and accomplishments.
She now trains professional chefs from around the world, as well as opening up the school to enthusiastic cooks who want to learn new skills and even Edinburgh Fringe visitors who signed up for a skills masterclass.
From Thailand to Scotland
As a young girl back in Thailand Ru was encouraged to study, and she knew education was the route to a better job. She studied both hospitality and business studies, qualifications which could have led her into teaching or working in a bank in Thailand, but Ru had other ambitions.
She was working for a travel and shipping company when her life took an unexpected turn.
“I originally planned to go to university in India to further my studies. But I needed to speak English to do that. I was working for this company which arranged travel, mainly for the Korean National Tourism Corporation, to improve my English. The job also included checking exports and ensuring the paperwork was all in order,” said Ru.
During her work she met a Scotsman. Three years later she found herself living in Edinburgh, married to a Scottish architect and later had a son who has now gained a PhD In Mechanical Engineering.
Still planning to work and study further. She got a job teaching Thai language at University of Edinburgh. At the same time she worked as a chef at an upmarket Thai restaurant for 10 years. She later studied HND in culinary management course at Edinburgh Telford College and later studied a degree in hospitality at Queen Margaret University.
“When I look back I don’t know how I did it,” Ru laughs. “I was at university, studying seven days a week along with extra English language classes, working and bringing up my baby.” But she never missed a class. “The one thing the majority of Thai people respect more than anything else is house rules, and my chef lecturer told me I had 100 per cent attendance while I was at college.”
She was learning the art of nouvelle cuisine and had an internship at the Caledonian (Hilton) Hotel.
Her hard work and sticking to the rules attitude plus a lot of self-motivation meant she fitted in well in the kitchen. And her Thai cookery skills were soon discovered by the top chefs. The vice-president of the hotel group loved Thai food, so she was asked to help devise and cook a meal for 14 board directors of Hilton International Group. Later she cooked for 25 presidents of Hilton Worldwide for their board meetings.
“I would have done it for nothing while working my internship at Hilton, but at the end of the month I got a lot more than I was expecting in my bank account!” she says.
Her skills in creating beautifully flavoured, delicate and delicious Thai dishes, which not only tasted amazing but looked just as good, decorated with intricately carved vegetables, became well-known within the group and she was often called upon to cook at the chain’s most prestigious events. This meant travel, being accommodated in first-class hotel rooms and paid well to do what she loved – cooking. “We could be prepping for days to do one meal, the managers and executive chefs were under a lot of pressure,” she said. But Ru’s calmness under pressure, her willingness to learn – and to teach – continued to be noticed and rewarded.
Meeting Albert Roux
It was whilst helping her ex lecturer on a stand at an ScotHot exhibition in Glasow that she met the late chef Albert Roux.
I’d been asked to do some fruit and vegetable carving at a trade stand”, she said. “I heard Albert Roux was there to present awards to the winning chefs when he came to our stand I gave him a Thai salute and ask if I could take a photo with him and showed him a few carvings. Then two days later he asked me to work at the Langham hotel in London for his special event.
Working for Chef Roux, Ru says, was a fantastic experience. She said the way he treated the staff and other chefs, courteously, graciously, was impressive. She says I learned a lot from chef Roux.
“Chef Roux came to my house for dinner, and I cooked Thai food for him,” she recalls. From here a life of cooking for the rich and famous began as well as sharing her skills in fruit carving and Thai cuisine. She was once worked at theGatsby Club (now the Lawn) catered for the centre court during Wimbledon Championship for Albert Roux, at other times training Chez Roux chefs at Andy Murray’s hotel -the Cromlix, cooking at exclusive special events.
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The cooking school
In 1997 Ru decided to open a cooking school where she could teach the skills she had to others, in the way she wanted to and the Krua Thai Cookery School was born.
Ratio professional chef training. 60 per cent of chefs are from superyachts, flying in from around the world to this corner of Edinburgh. She is also a member of the Royal Environmental of Health Institute of Scotland (REHIS) teaching Food Hygiene courses for chefs and oil and gas companies.
She loves to inspire people, even those who do not think they like cooking and shows them that cooking can be an enjoyable, inclusive pastime.
The cooking school is not the frenzied kitchen of stress, noise and shouting that you might see on TV but a place of calm, a seat of learning too.
Not only does Ru teach the skills to create beautiful dishes which taste and look spectacular, but that attention to detail goes into the ingredients chosen, into making food healthy and nutritious too.
“We aim not only to teach the secrets of great tasting food, with flavours which blend together perfectly, but also how to make healthier choices in ingredients and methods of cooking.”
Ru’s life style continues to be busy. This year she was asked for help by the church and accepted to be part of the team to cook for 90-125 homeless people.
Find out more
For more information on Krua Thai Cookery School, visit their website here