Experiencedays.co.uk has a wide array of ‘experience days’ to suit every guilty pleasure, ranging from spa pampering temptations to a tonne of adventure experiences. There are airborne exploits such as skydiving and flying lessons, thrills such as track days and off-road stunts, and a wide array of water sports – all of which are available in a variety of locations throughout the UK. And it was through the Experiencedays.co.uk website that I stumbled upon something closer to my heart, The School of Wok which offers a gourmet day out. More specifically The School of Wok is a Chinese Cookery school based in Covent Garden specialising in Oriental seafood and fish cookery courses. The school is unique as it is one of only a handful of Chinese cookery days in the UK. Founded by Jeremy Pang, The School of Wok has officially been in operation for about a year, but prior to that Pang use to teach cookery courses from home.

The course was priced at £95 and the session began with some basic knife skills with a Chinese cleaver led by our instructor Stefan. We chopped our way through a spectrum of vegetables that formed the mise en place for our meal.

Stefan demonstrating knife skills

We then moved onto making prawn, vegetable and chive wontons and the prep work for our dish of sweet and sour prawns and squid. We also spent some time scaling and gutting the seabass, to be steamed and served with a sauce of crushed soya beans and chilli.

Making wontons

Our wontons

Finally we go to indulge in some cooking, and we worked the wok with our sweet and sour dish and some egg-fried rice while the seabass was being steamed and the kitchen assistants fried the wontons.

The cooking station

Egg fried rice

But the best part was the eating of course. The sweet and sour was delicious (if I may say so myself), and I loved the freshness of the seabass accompanied by the spiciness of the sauce. The egg-fried rice was good too, but I would have preferred a stronger ratio of prawn to vegetables in the wonton mix and a recipe where the filling held together better.

Sweet & sour and fried-rice

Steamed seabass

The teaching was relaxed, engaging and informative, and the school is well laid out nicely equipped with induction hobs. I enjoyed the day. It’s always fun spending time cooking and eating, and the food was good. This was a basic introduction to Chinese cookery and ideal for those with little experience of Chinese cooking. But if Chinese cooking is not your thing, there are other experiences to be had on Experiencedays.co.uk.