Saturday's Bhutanese cooking demonstration was a wonderful start to the tasting and cooking demonstrations - visitors keenly took notes on the recipe, discovering that like most chefs, there's always the secret ingredients that aren't 'published' but give the personal flavour (in this case, the extra spices).

Offering the inside knowledge on how to cook a tasty daal soup, cauliflower and potato curry with rice, the Bhutanese cooks found they had to juggle cooking with fielding questions.

Bhutanese cooking yesterday and the first day open to the public - Check out more photos on Facebook

During the wait for the curry and daal to cook, the audience did a short quiz on Bhutan and found that the youngest members had read the information boards and had the answers first! There was also the opportunity to learn the Nepali alphabet while waiting for the curry to cook. These refugees are from the southern part of Bhutan, whose ancestors came from Nepal. So although the official language is Dzonkha, Nepali is their language of choice.

Today the group are showing people how to cook cell roti.

Chuda Ghimirey, Bhutanese coordinator checking the spices in their kitchen Chuda's son being dressed in Bhutanese national costume in preparation for the opening. Men at work - Te Manawa staff and Bhutanese co-ordinator Bhutanese dancers at opening

BHUTAN EVENT SCHEDULE Saturday 31st March 2.00pm – 3.30pm Cooking Demonstration: Rice, curry and daal. Sunday 1st April 1.00pm – 3.00pm Making Cell Roti. Monday 2nd April 10.00am – 12.00pm Bhutanese display and food sampling. Tuesday 3rd April 2.00pm – 3.30pm Come and learn greetings in the Nepali language. Wednesday 4th April 10.00am – 12.00pm Making pickle without cooking. Thursday 5th April 2.00pm – 3.30pm Come for a chat and be introduced to Bhutanese Nepali people. Bhutanese cookpots