Last night marked yet another first in my life: Attending my first cooking class at the Epicurean World.

My idea of a cooking class was each of us having our very own cooking area, well, equipped with the necessary ingredients and crockery; a hands-on experience. After all, what better way to learn than to experience it yourself?

Stepping into the class last night, I was more shocked than surprised to see what would be occupying my subsequent two and a half hours. Three rows of chairs sat before a large island of ingredients and condiments.

Recipes were handed out to us and while the friendly Chef Devagi (right) demonstrated how to cook the dishes, we scribbled cooking dos and don’ts. It was to be purely a demonstration class.

As I watched, I went from trying to follow her every move and being on high attentive mode to fighting to focus my eyes on her directions. Finally, I drifted away.

"In life, you watch and you learn. You try once, you fail; you try again.

I realise then, that I am not one who can passively sit and watch and attempt to regurgitate all that I see. Which is precisely why I have never attended a cooking class in my life though I absolutely love to cook. For I believe that there is no textbook answer to everything. Not only does this apply to cooking, it applies to life as well. 

In life, you watch and you learn. You try once, you fail; you try again. It’s the experience that counts and not by rigidly applying the ‘correct’ method. There is more than one solution to every problem. It applies to cooking as well; there is no single perfect recipe. It is perfected through trial and error.

A simple example of how majority of the people I know follows the so-called ‘textbook route’ of life. I’m twenty and I have a plan. I aim to go backpacking, in Europe, before I enter university next year. Of course, in order to feed that dream of mine, I’ve got to work, which is what I’m doing right now. Effectively pushing my uni education one year back. When asked what my plans for the future are, that is the answer they would hear.

Some of the more common replies I’d get are, “Stop daydreaming, it’s really expensive. Why don’t you go to uni first, get a good job and do that when you’re rich?”. Or, “You’re wasting precious time! By the time you finally decide to go to uni, you’ll be fighting with the next batch. Hurry go get through uni and get a job. It’s a competitive world out there!”

So I hear that and I think, what’s the rush? We are going to be working all our lives or until retirement at least, aren’t we? Why is it that by taking a year off to do something you always wanted to is deemed as wasting time or day dreaming? Plus, who can say for sure what will happen tomorrow? Why not do it while you still have the chance to.

In my opinion, I’m better off being the way I am as compared to some of my peers. At 20, they're clueless as to where they’re heading. They just aim to get into whichever course that accepts them in uni and attain a degree. Basically, they live each day as it comes. Now, I don’t mean it in a spontaneous way.

Is that the sort of ‘route’ I’m expected to take? Complete my studies in the shortest time possible and then emerge myself in the working world?

My point is, who really is to say what is right and what is wrong?

I once heard someone say, “try and fail rather than live with the regret of not knowing what could have been.” It stuck, and that is exactly how I’m going to lead my life."

P.S. When it comes to cooking, the same principle applies. Always look in your fridge and see what you can make of what you already have. You never know.
 
I have digressed so much, but if you’d really rather just go for a cooking class, click here. Epicurean also conducts ‘survival’ cooking classes, perfect for those who are toying with the idea of studying overseas. Classes are priced at $50 per lesson lasting two and a half hours.