So, on my recent holiday to Phuket island, I fulfilled a promise that I would sign up for a Thai cookery class so that I could take the secrets of this extraordinary cuisine back home with me. Hours after arriving on the island, I resisted the lure of the sparkling Andaman Sea and headed off to sign up for a two-day workshop at Mom Tri's Boathouse, a small luxury hotel on Kata Beach. With the golden sands only metres away from the hotel, there cannot be a more beautiful “classroom” anywhere in the world.

I arrived on a Saturday morning to join about 20 others for the cooking classes, officially known as the Boathouse Thai Cooking Workshop. The school began eight years ago as a way of attracting low-season guests to the hotel, but its fame soon spread and it is now one of the most popular culinary schools in the kingdom. It now runs throughout the year. The star of the show is the hotel's executive chef Tummanoon Punchun, known for his ability to blend Eastern and Western flavours, known as "fusion" cuisine. Besides his responsibilities at the Boathouse, he also lectures at one of the local universities and at international events.

Being no gourmet, I approached the classes with some trepidation, but I needn't have worried. Chef Tummanoon is not the type who seeks to mystify or turn cooking into an art form for a select few. He delights in showing just how simple Thai cooking is. "So easy, so quickly," he remarks regularly. In teaching, he favours a step-by-step hands-on method. He first explains the recipe, going through each stage of the process. Then all the participants get a chance to try it out. The courses are run over two days - on Saturdays and Sundays - and each of the sessions lasts four hours. When the class ends, pupils get the chance to taste their creations in the restaurant, which overlooks the lapping ocean.

The workshop begins with an explanation of the basic ingredients of Thai cooking. Some of the herbs and vegetables are well known to most - chillies, coriander, spring onion, cucumber - but others are a little more exotic (lemongrass, Thai basil, galangal and kaffir lime). He demonstrates the various methods of chopping, dicing and pounding in a mortar that precedes the creation of the dish.

A total of 10 recipes are taught during the two days. The first four-hour session is devoted to appetizers and salads. The second day features recipes for main courses and desserts. We start off with Tow Hoo Yad Sai, a dish of deep-fried tofu stuffed with spicy minced chicken. It's the first time I've cooked tofu and the first time I've used a wok. I find it easy and the dish is ready within minutes. As the recipes are explained, you feel the enthusiasm of the budding chefs. "But this is so easy!", "I can't believe how simple this is", "This tastes just like the dish we ate last night" were some of the comments.

By Sunday afternoon we had mastered all 10 recipes. These included a spicy seafood soup, stir-fried seafood with red curry, chicken and mushrooms in lime sauce, morning glory vegetables in oyster sauce, a chicken and prawn salad with pineapple, a deep-fried shrimp crepe, a grilled beef salad and a coconut pudding with water chestnuts.

I was grateful that there didn't appear to be any professional chefs among the students on my course. Most seemed to be tourists who had become smitten with Thai food and wanted to take some recipes home with them. One man was the presenter of a Scandinavian cookery show. Although the 20-odd pupils followed exactly the same instructions and used the same ingredients, it was amazing how the flavour of the final dishes differed - an extra dash of lime juice here, another spoon of coconut milk there. And that's the beauty of Thai cooking – there is no correct way, just different ways for different palates.

The popularity of cooking classes has spread across Thailand and there are a host of excellent cooking schools, particularly in Bangkok and Chiang Mai. It seems that tourists today are very keen to do more than just experience local culture, they want to learn about it. Also popular are courses in Thai massage. I enjoyed the course and it was a real bonus being able to surprise my friends back home with a good Thai curry. Now they want me to do a massage course. Anyway, it's a good excuse to get back to Thailand for another holiday.