The Extraordinary KOTO
Monday, 2 March 2020
What a power-packed and fascinating day. We were on our small bus at 8am, wending our way through the crazy Hanoi traffic to the KOTO Cooking school.
Motor scooters and bicycles are everywhere, horns sounding to warn those crazy enough to walk or drive in front of them. One way street signs are merely a “suggestion” to motor scooters, and they really are parked anywhere on the footpaths –sometimes lined up in long rows, or wherever there is a space.
Arriving at KOTO Cooking Classes, we crossed the road, and manoeuvred carefully between parked motor scooters, bicycles and people trying to sell us odds and ends. And then we were inside.
What a wonderful place this is. KOTO is Know One, Teach One and was set up by Jimmy Pham in 1999 to train disadvantaged & at-risk young people to become chefs or front of house staff. There is a strong Aussie connection - the program has been accredited by Box Hill TAFE, and there are now more than 1,000 graduates, working in restaurants in Vietnam, Australia, New Zealand and other parts of the world. I encourage you to read about it - LINK.
Our morning started with a welcome from Chef Mark in the downstairs restaurant. We then broke into 2 groups and were taken to the nearby market. Walking down narrow, dark alleyways wide enough for 2 people, we’d hear the “meep, meep” (yes, just like Road-Runner) of a motor scooter sounding its horn so it could get by. It felt like we had to press up against the walls to let them through.
The market was busy, filled to overflowing with people selling and buying a multitude of products including locally grown fruit and vegetables, eggs (hen, quail, free range), herbs and spices, beans, rices, pork, beef, chicken, fish (from rice paddies and the sea), prawns, pippies – just about any food you’d want to buy.
Mark and one of his staff helped us navigate our way among the crowded stalls, with motor scooters and bicycles sharing the same narrow pathways. It was boisterous and noisy – lots of fun, with some great photo opps. They bought some produce for our class and for the restaurant – and soon we headed back to KOTO, meandering back through the narrow alleyways, avoiding more motor scooters.
Our classroom was upstairs via a winding timber staircase to the 2nd floor. Our aprons were waiting for us alongside chopping boards, stainless steel bowls, sharp knives, herbs, spices, fish sauce, oils – all the ingredients we needed to use as we learned how to cook delicious Vietnamese street food.
But before we started, Thao Nguyen, KOTO’s GM, spoke to us about the history, and also told us her story. She is a very confident, well spoken woman of maybe 25, who spent several years of her young life living on the streets of Hanoi. She had no idea of what she could do, or wanted to do – no sense of what was possible. Until she happened to meet Jimmy Pham.
Her story is so compelling, so extraordinary – a wonderful testament to what Jimmy and his supporters and investors have achieved. And a thank you to Hugh Guthrie for being very much a part of this.
Time to cook! Chef Mark demonstrated how to make a delicious sweet, sour & salty dressing, and then it was our turn to do the same, mixing it into either vegetables for the non-meat eaters, or into the minced pork. The uncooked food was then whisked away, to be cooked by the chefs in the restaurant and given to us for lunch.
Part 2 was making fresh spring rolls (all veg mint, basil and coriander, some with pork or with prawns), and a salad of green papaya and carrot with peanuts. Loads of fun, and definitely delicious!
We left KOTO after lunch, and walked across the road (meep, meep … meep meep meep), and around the corner to the Temple of Literature, a temple of Confucius and part of the National University, Hanoi. It was so nice to get away from the noise into this series of walled compounds with 5 separate gardens filled with old trees, and large garden beds with enormous lily ponds. Ornate pavilions are between the courtyards.
The gardens are beautifully kept by gardeners wearing the traditional cone hats, and purple shirts that stood out against the green grass and yellow dahlias.
I found the sculptures of turtles in two large open “halls” with magnificent timber columns. These are the Stelae of Doctors, turtle statues carved out of blue stone, that have the names and birthplaces of all 1307 graduates from 82 separate Royal examinations. A fascinating, although challenging place to photograph - partly because of the size, and also the light.
Then all too soon, it was on to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, a short taxi ride away. We timed this to be at the Mausoleum building by 4pm to see the Changing of the Guard. Two soldiers in white uniforms guard the door to the building, a large austere structure that houses Ho Chi Minh’s body. Each hour, three soldiers march along the path, and up the steps – two change with the guards on either side of the door, while the third makes sure their jackets are uniformly arranged. Fascinating - and good photography.
Tuesday, 3 March 2020
This morning was our first class, including the critique of 5-7 photos from each of us. I was very happy with the comments I received, so that was a great start.
This afternoon we visited the old, traditional area of Hanoi – a labyrinth of narrow streets filled with bars, cafes and shops selling everything from cooked food to home goods to fresh produce. This is everything I expected to see in Vietnam - narrow streets, a cacophony of noise from people, music from cafes and the pervasive “meep meep” from motor scooters. It was a feast of options for photography as long as you kept your wits about you – lots of fun!
By 5pm it was time to taxi back to the hotel and work out where to have dinner. Across the road from our hotel is a relatively new restaurant, and on the list of places recommended by Liza. Of course this meant crossing the road – and completing this safely definitely whetted our appetites! I thoroughly enjoyed the vegetable pho, a stir fried option that I hadn’t known about.
Now it’s time to review photos from today, and finish packing. Tomorrow we drive to Ha Long Bay for our 2 nights on a modern junk!