Not a real cooking class, more of a demonstration.

Joined: Dec 30, 2012
Posts: 25
Review of The Hutong
3

The main issue I have with the Hutong cooking classes is that they only have two hobs/burners for the whole group. We had a group of 12 people taking a private class. This means at most 4 people can actually take part in the cooking, while the rest just watch. The 4 who are cooking obviously take 'shifts' at the wok to let everyone have a go at adding and stirring. Other cooking schools that I've been to in China give everyone a wok. I think is much more of a 'cooking' class. The class I had at the Hutong was more of a 'demonstration' than a cooking class.

What was slightly irritating was that no where on the website did it mention the above fact, nor was it mentioned speaking to their staff. We were actually all quite surprised when we ended up in this room with just two woks. I have expected just to do the prep there then go to another room to cook. Alas, this wasn't the case.

Some of our group had been to 'Hutong Cuisine' for a class or two and said that was a better experience. Mostly because everyone had a wok to themselves. They went to an open class (as opposed to a private one) but there were only 5 people there. If I pay for a class again, I'll probably go there instead.

We had our class a fair while ago so I guess they could have changed the set up.

Other than this, as other reviewers have mentioned, the chefs were very professional, friendly and helpful. The hutong setting is very pleasant also.