A 12-month Lanna cooking apprenticeship in the hills of Hang Dong, Chiang Mai — taught by a mother-daughter kitchen three generations deep in Northern Thai tradition.
Before Tai could see over the counter, she was already standing on a stool beside her mother, learning to pound curry paste the way her grandmother once taught it.
Ferment Space grew out of a family kitchen that has fed Chiang Mai since long before it had a name. Ratana Jaikusol learned to cook at her own grandmother's side in the Lanna villages of the North. She opened Ratana's Kitchen in 1997 and spent 27 years cooking Northern and Central Thai food for more than 100,000 guests — with her daughter growing up right there beside her, prepping herbs before school and cooking the line through the restaurant's busiest years.
These days it's Tai holding the ladle, and Ratana watching proudly from the next stove over — the roles have softened, but the kitchen still smells the same. Every class at Ferment Space is really just a mother and daughter, still cooking together, just with a few more people now pulling up a stool to join them.
Exactly as Lanna cooking has always been passed on — not from a curriculum, but from one person to the next.
Born in 1955 on Thapae Road, Chiang Mai, into a Tai Yuan family of the Lanna Kingdom. Ratana learned to cook at her grandmother's side — pounding curry pastes by hand and fermenting soybeans and greens with the herbs of the North. She founded and ran Ratana's Kitchen for 27 years before retiring in 2024 to teach full-time.
Tai grew up inside her mother's kitchen and owned her own restaurant by age 18. She completed the Master Thai Chef Program through Thailand's Department of Industrial Promotion (DIPROM), holds a HarvardX certificate in food fermentation, and is a first-year student of Thai Traditional Medicine — where, as in Lanna tradition, food and medicine are treated as one practice. She is also certified in Thai street food cooking through Thailand's Vocational Education Commission, and completed official food hygiene and sanitation training under the Ministry of Public Health's food premises standards.
A multiple-entry visa for people who want to live, learn and experience Thailand long term — supported with full consultation, document preparation and submission, on either our 9-month or 12-month program.
Each class builds on the last — starting with local, seasonal Lanna ingredients and the fermentation that underpins Northern Thai cooking, where you'll make your own soy sauce and fish sauce from scratch. Every dish comes with the history behind it, moving through curry pastes, street food, and royal Thai technique.
Traditional Chiang Mai flavors, herbal dishes, local techniques, and mountain-culture recipes passed down through generations.
Classic Thai dishes from Bangkok and central regions — balance, spice, and royal-inspired cooking techniques.
Both programs include full DTV visa support and are taught by Ratana & Tai. Pick the length that fits your plans.
The ฿10,000 DTV visa assistance fee covers consultation, document preparation, and submission on your behalf. Because this work begins as soon as you enroll, it is non-refundable once we start on your case.
If your visa is not approved, your Cooking School Program fee is fully refundable. If an application is denied through one consulate, we'll help you reapply through another eligible consulate at no additional agency fee.
Fresh from the kitchen — new classes, seasonal ingredients, and student moments, posted as they happen.
The Destination Thailand Visa (DTV) is a landmark long-stay visa launched by Thailand in July 2024. It gives you a 5-year multiple-entry visa with stays of up to 180 days per entry — renewable for another 180 days without leaving the country. It was designed for digital nomads, remote workers, retirees, freelancers, and people who want to deeply experience Thai culture. Unlike a tourist visa, the DTV lets you truly live in Thailand — build community, work remotely, and return freely for 5 years.
The Thai government created a "Soft Power" cultural education pathway within the DTV. Enrolling in an approved Thai culinary and cultural school satisfies this requirement. Ferment Space provides you with an official enrollment letter and embassy-aligned documentation — the exact paperwork needed for your DTV application. Our 12-month program covers Thai culinary arts, fermentation, Lanna cultural history, and seasonal cooking traditions.
Because Ferment Space isn't just a cooking school — it's a gateway into the Lanna way of life. In Northern Thailand, food is inseparable from culture. When you learn to make a proper Khao Soi, you're also learning about 700 years of Lanna kingdom history and the trade routes that shaped this cuisine. Our program gives you:
A tourist cooking class teaches you a recipe. Our program teaches you a way of being.
Lanna (ล้านนา — "a million rice fields") was an independent kingdom centered in Chiang Mai that flourished from the 13th to 18th century, with its own language, script, architecture, and food traditions entirely distinct from Central Thailand. Living here, you are surrounded by this heritage — in the temples, the markets, the way people greet each other, and above all in the food.
Lanna cuisine uses ingredients rarely found elsewhere: pak waan (sweet leaf), ma dua (bitter eggplant), phak chi lao (dill) — forest ingredients from a mountain culture. Learning this food turns you from a visitor into a neighbour.
Most Chiang Mai cooking schools are designed for tourists passing through for one afternoon. Ferment Space is built for people who want to stay:
Each month builds your knowledge progressively through a different pillar of Thai culinary tradition:
Month 1 — Fermentation: The foundation of Lanna cuisine. Make your own soy sauce and fish sauce from scratch, plus pickled mustard greens and soybean paste, using local ingredients.
Month 2 — Lanna History & Food Culture: Kingdoms, trade routes, and the cultural influences that shaped Northern Thai cooking — and the history behind the dishes you'll cook all year.
Month 3 — Curry Pastes: Hand-pounding aromatics, understanding Lanna vs. Central Thai curry bases.
Month 4 — Soups & Broths: Tom Kha, Tom Yum, Khao Soi — slow-cooked depth of flavor.
Month 5 — Stir-Fry Mastery: Wok technique, heat control, the "breath of the wok."
Month 6 — Salads & Larb: The Lanna art of balance: sour, salty, spicy, fresh.
Month 7 — Street Food Favorites: Pad Thai, Mango Sticky Rice, Sai Ua sausage, Khanom Jeen.
Month 8 — Noodles & Rice: From rice paddy to table; Thailand's many noodle traditions.
Month 9 — Thai Desserts & Sweets: Coconut sweets, sticky rice desserts, ceremonial flower-shaped treats.
Month 10 — Royal Thai Cuisine: The refined, elaborate dishes of the Thai royal court tradition.
Month 11 — Fusion & Modern Thai: How young Thai chefs are reinventing tradition for the modern world.
Month 12 — Seasonal Feast & Graduation: A full community celebration feast and ceremony.
Every enrolled student receives 12 free sauna & ice bath day passes. Facilities include a wood-fired Finnish sauna for deep recovery, a cold-plunge ice bath for cold therapy and mental resilience, and quiet garden space to relax between classes.
We are at 7 Moo 9, Nam Phrae, Hang Dong, Chiang Mai 50230 — a quiet property about 20 minutes south of the Old City in the Hang Dong district. Hang Dong is where many long-term expats and local Thais choose to live — quieter, more authentic, away from tourist crowds, and close to excellent local markets. A Grab from the Old City takes about 20 minutes and costs around 80–120 baht. Open in Google Maps ↗
The DTV visa support fee is ฿10,000. This fee is non-refundable because it covers the work we complete for your application. However, if your application is denied by one country or consulate, we will reapply for you through another eligible location at no additional agency fee.
Our 12-month program totals ฿60,000 — ฿50,000 for the Cooking School Program and ฿10,000 for DTV visa support and processing. Our 9-month program totals ฿55,000 — ฿45,000 for the Cooking School Program and the same ฿10,000 visa support fee.
If a visa application is unsuccessful, the Cooking School Program fee is refunded in full, while the ฿10,000 service fee remains non-refundable because the application work has already been completed.
After the first year, you can continue enrolling with the school if you wish to maintain an ongoing student status and continue using the program for future DTV purposes.
Our re-enrollment options are:
Note: this is entirely optional. You are under no obligation to re-enroll — it's simply available if you'd like the flexibility to continue your studies and maintain your relationship with the school while traveling in and out of Thailand.
Your financial evidence must meet the DTV requirements. Funds should be shown as cash or savings, not funds held in investments or other financial instruments. If your documents don't meet the consulate's requirements, you may be asked to resubmit additional or updated documents.
Visa processing time depends entirely on the Thai consulate or embassy where you submit your application. At the moment, we'd recommend allowing approximately 4–5 weeks. We've seen some applications completed in 1–2 weeks, but timing can change depending on the specific consulate, workload, and individual application — we never want to overpromise a timeline we can't control.
The fastest way: WhatsApp us at 093-272-0050 and we'll personally walk you through the program, visa paperwork, and any questions. You can also join our free DTV Community WhatsApp Group to connect with current students, get real answers from people already living the program, and stay updated on class dates. Email us at fermentspacecookingschool@gmail.com anytime.
The studio sits above a canal on the quiet edge of Hang Dong, ten minutes from the ring road — jars fermenting on open shelves, a wood-fired pavilion, and the Northern hills just past the treeline.
Scan the QR code, or tap below to join students and graduates chatting about the cooking school and the DTV visa process.
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