Sometimes this little old blog of mine throws some super exciting opportunities my way - activities I wouldn't do normally end up being evenings so well spent. Like a couple of Mondays ago when I headed to Le Cordon Bleu cookery school for an evening masterclass with Michelin starred chef Pascal Aussignac, the Norwegian Seafood Council and Great British Chefs. Pascal is of Gascon fame and has several restaurants across London including his Michelin starred original site, Club Gascon.
After being welcomed with a glass of bubbly and some nibbles it was straight in to the state of the art teaching kitchen to get cooking. We started with the "basics" - Pascal's crunchy grapes. A quick and easy showstopping canape idea, we made caramel from sugar before adding crushed seeds and nuts then rolling our grapes in the sticky crunchy mixture. A really fun idea for a pre dinner snack to impress your guests.
Then it was on to the main dish of confit Norwegian cod, butternut squash puree and cubes, black garlic treacle sauce and a verjus sabayon. We watched, learnt and followed along, finishing with a puff of juniper smoke and a blow torch to the fish before plating up our creations.
While we got to enjoy our creations we watched a demo by one of the school's chefs - Colin Westal - who whipped up another cod dish before we could even finish our plates of food!
The Cordon Bleu cookery school, which is based in Holborn, offers all sorts of short courses - some day courses, some evening - that cover a huge range of topics, from knife skills, to patisserie, to a day of general cooking (stocks, meat, butchery, eggs etc). This was the second evening course I've attended there and both have been hugely educational, massively inspiring and lots of fun - I really recommend checking them out if you want to learn more about food at one of the most respected cookery schools in the country. Full info on what's available here.
After being welcomed with a glass of bubbly and some nibbles it was straight in to the state of the art teaching kitchen to get cooking. We started with the "basics" - Pascal's crunchy grapes. A quick and easy showstopping canape idea, we made caramel from sugar before adding crushed seeds and nuts then rolling our grapes in the sticky crunchy mixture. A really fun idea for a pre dinner snack to impress your guests.
Then it was on to the main dish of confit Norwegian cod, butternut squash puree and cubes, black garlic treacle sauce and a verjus sabayon. We watched, learnt and followed along, finishing with a puff of juniper smoke and a blow torch to the fish before plating up our creations.
The Cordon Bleu cookery school, which is based in Holborn, offers all sorts of short courses - some day courses, some evening - that cover a huge range of topics, from knife skills, to patisserie, to a day of general cooking (stocks, meat, butchery, eggs etc). This was the second evening course I've attended there and both have been hugely educational, massively inspiring and lots of fun - I really recommend checking them out if you want to learn more about food at one of the most respected cookery schools in the country. Full info on what's available here.
Yummy! It looks so delicious!
ReplyDeleteSuch a fun and lovely food.
DeleteRosie xx
Everything looks so pretty x
ReplyDeleteThe pressure of having a Michelin chef watching helped the prettiness levels!!
DeleteRosie xx