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LEITHS LIFE

Week 11 – I am now a Leiths Graduate !

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Dissected and Tasted Exam cook

This final week at Leiths was devoted entirely to students Practical Exams with them being spread over 4 days and the Friday earmarked for potential resits. We had been practising our Ballotines and Tarte Tatin since gaining the knowledge of our task during the exam, and our Fridges were crammed with Chickens awaiting their deboning fate ! My own practice time was more limited as my exam was on the first day –  What would become Manic Monday !

I did one complete run through of all of the dishes we would need to prepare,  trying my utmost to follow the Timeplan I had devised, and to finish within the allotted five and a half hours. It was an extremely punishing and busy cook, and incredibly I finished on the dot of five and a half hours – albeit the last 30 minutes was spent awaiting my Tarte to bake whilst washing up. In practice my Tarte was a little – shall we say – over Caramelised, but the rest of the dishes came out well. I slightly tweaked my Timeplan to give an option to make the required Creme Anglais earlier during the cook and decided to do no more. As I only had the weekend before my exam there was no more time to practice, and therefore I determined to cook nothing on the Sunday and chill – hopefully being ready for the exam itself on Monday.( Some other students who had their exams later in the week would be practising every day – God only knows how many Ballotines were in their freezers !)

The Exam itself – Whilst having a mini meltdown during the exam over different dried mushrooms (not understanding which were required for Consommé and which for the Ballotine stuffing), the rest of the cook went quite well. The exam commenced at 8.30 but we had to be in school at 08.00 am for registration, and in the kitchen at 08.15 for Mis En Place. There was certainly no opportunity to rest during the cook and you needed to work with speed and efficiency over the allotted time. However for me I felt it went better than my Intermediate Exam where their was a bread to make – something that is susceptible for variations on the timing needed for Rising and Proving etc. This exam was more prescriptive, and whilst there were a lot of tasks to complete – especially early on – following a good time plan, remembering to season appropriately, and being able to multi task enabled me to finish on time at 14.00 and have all of my food on the plates at service time ( other than the broad beans, which I just could not be arsed to depod !  ) We then had to endure nearly a three and a half wait ( spent in The Eagle) whilst our food was tasted and Methods reviewed etc. This was an incredibly nerve racking period and resulted in us returning to school and awaiting our fate in the Dining Room all as nervous as hell.

Finally we were called back in the kitchen to our individual benches to see how our food had been dissected by the Tasters. Belinda – one of the School invigilators in my kitchen – quietly sided up to me and whispered I had passed – she explained my method would be discussed with me shortly but that she wanted to put me out of misery. I was absolutely elated and relieved 😌- could not believe that these 9 months had finally resulted in successfully completing my Practical to obtain my Diploma ! Phew ! Others were not so lucky – 2 out of 8 in my kitchen failed on the day, and from our class of 16 there were unfortunately 5 who failed for various reasons. These poor souls had to redo the exam on Friday morning on the day of our Graduation Party. The good news was that 4 from 5 retook the exam and passed, so we were only left with one Student who would not be getting their Diploma.

So then it was Graduation Party time, which took place off-site at The George IV pub in Chiswick. We were promised Burgers (?), 2 glasses of Champagne ( before paying for the rest of our drinks) and a live band. There was also prize giving for Overall Best Student, Best Marks in the Theory and Wine Exams, and Best Portfolios. Congratulations to the Winners , but Surprise, surprise no Prize for me , but I did find out my marks in the Theory and Wine Exams,  which I came in at 85% and 88% respectively, so was happy enough with that ! Beforehand Myself and 4 other classmates had a lunch at La Trompette around the corner to the party Venue which we thought was very appropriate seeing that our Tutor Michael had worked in their kitchens after his Leiths tuiton. The party was great fun, culminating in dancing to another band in the pub at around 12.30 before a bunch of us – Teachers as well – went Fine Dining at West Kebabs at 2AM ! What a wonderful way to end to my life at Leiths – to be with Michael and others in such refined surroundings  ! ( and good luck to David who will be heading off to Thailand soon, and Emma who also announced her departure from Leiths yesterday)

Leiths Diploma – Tick the box, What next …..

 

 

 

 

Week 10 – End of Term Frivolity And a Surreal Gin Demo !

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Blue C with Michael

Incredibly that’s it – Bar the End of Course Practical Exam next week. Our 9 months of Professional Food and Wine Diploma has come to an end and what an amazing and crazy 9 months of my life it has been. Still have no idea quite what to do with my new found education but we will come back to that. Let’s round of the Course with notes on this final week- which not unsurprisingly has had an air of End of Term frivolity about it -or it did after we had all endured Monday mornings Theory exam anyway.

Most, if not all students spent their weekend cramming with revising for the 09.30am 2 hour Theory Test. Some had not really started their revision to the weekend and this would have been quite stressful. We have so many notes after 9 months of, fairly, intensive tuition, it would be impossible to memorise it all over one weekend. In truth we had a pretty good steer as what to expect in the exam and I found parts of it very simple, but of course there were elements where your mind went blank and you were struggling to recall specifics, for instance – How to make a pancake batter ! ?

Exam First Page

We had also been warned there would be a completely new part of the exam : recognition of ingredients which were laid out on a bench on various trays with numbers. We all thought this would be a “Gimme” and we could glean 20 easy points towards the overall 300 points (which were attainable overall ) but we were so wrong!

 

 

 

 

 

There were little cups of ingredients with unrecognisable contents ( powdered gelatine which looked like couscous), a brown grain which turned out to be Freekah ( which I have cooked with but simply could not remember its name when under exam conditions),  a weird vegetable which I had seen on the market but could not name -Kohlrabi, and a huge kidney which I am hoping was a Calves Kidney, but the juries still out on that one.

Anyway,  test done, and we all await to see if we have passed by Graduation Day next week. I would hope that most of us had knowledge enough to get through the 60% pass level, as even if there were quite a few questions that you were unsure of, the easier parts of the exam should be enough to outweigh them. The great news was that we had the rest of the day off and we could all relax a little as the remainder of the week was to be a relative breeze. Indeed the atmosphere was so end of term like I was half expecting us to be asked to bring in some games to play and some music to while away the days left.

Instead we had surreal entertainment from Alexander Darcey from Sipsmith Distillery who gave us a lecture involving a potted History of Gin, and the Gin industry in the UK today. Amazingly the number of Gin Brands has increased from 10  to 600 over the past 20 years with approximately 191 distilleries in operation. It appears to have originated in Holland and was known as Jenever ( distilled from their National liquor, flavoured with Juniper Berries ),  and their soldiers carried it in flasks whilst in battle, and the term “ Dutch Courage” appears to have its origins derived from the maybe, tipsy, fearless style of fighting it engendered. In the UK back in 1751 it transpires Gin was being distilled from almost anything you can think of and was being made in almost every residence – in sinks, bathtubs and every receptacle imaginable. However this led to it earning a reputation as “ Mother Ruin” as people were dying in the streets from this unregulated Moonshine that was being distilled from such things as Turpentine !

Expect the Unexpected – Sipsmith Demo !

I could go on and on about the History which was fascinating, but fast forward to our lecture which involved tastings of pure Quinine ( the third most bitter taste humans can identify ) , pure Tonic Syrup, and 6 different Gins.

Amongst them was a 57.7% ABV Sipsmith VJOP standing for Very Junipery Overproof which when drank straight was incredibly intense in its Juniper infusion and difficult to drink, but when watered down with a Tonic was actually very pleasant. These drinks were accompanied by some Trotters Crisps and Pork Scratchings the provider of which was also represented – the Union Jack waistcoated Rupert. Rupert told some amazing stories. He gave us a poem about a Pig who devoured its Owner as a Pre emptive strike when it realised it was being raised for the slaughter ( macabre), and a Dinner he was attending which was a Pain and a Pleasure themed event involving drinking from a serrated glass that cut into you as you drank, but then you supposedly enjoyed its contents even more as the joy of the alcohol tempered the pain of the glass !? This was also connected with a bondage themed Dinner ? The Demo finished with half the students quite tipsy after 6 Gin Samples, loads of Food arriving right at the end of the Lecture when we had more or less finished ( wierd timing), and the Sipsmith Reps singing us a rendition of The Owl and the Pussy cat. Or maybe that’s how I drunkingly remember it all. The most entertaining outside Lecture we have ever had and closely aligned to the atmosphere of the week !

This was a hard act to follow, but we also had Petersham Nurseries come in and provide us with lovely samples of cooking including Zucchini Frito with Sage and Lemon, and Salt Baked Hake with Shaved Radishes, Fennel and Asparagus amongst over dishes. One of the Reps attending, Emma,  had been at Leiths 2 years ago and was now Head of Patisserie in charge of 10 Chefs – good success story. They also had some interesting chat about the industry, especially as to how they reacted to a very bad Review of their new Covent Garden Restaurant in The Times recently. They had recognised that maybe some of their dishes were not right for the number of covers that the restaurant was experiencing and they spent the next week adjusting some of them in recognition of the bad review. As they commented, such a critical review could have killed a small Independant Restaurant but their brand was strong enough to overcome it, and their bookings did not suffer. However, even so, they took it up amongst themselves to respond in the kitchen.

On Wednesday we learnt our fate as regards what we are expected to cook in our Practical Exam the following week – an issue that had been discussed ad nauseam amongst students for the past few weeks.  It transpires that we will be preparing Mushroom Consommé ( clearing YAY!), Chicken Ballotine( students fav dish ), Potato Fondants and Veg, and Puff Pastry /Tarte Tatin. For me this is all OK , feel comfortable to cook all, but it is over a five and half hour period which when you try to prepare the Timeplan for is very, very tight and stressful. However, I am happy there is no bread( too many variables in timing with the proving and rising) , and no cakes IE sponges etc. Everybody ran off and bought half a dozen chickens to practice deboning them for a Ballotine so don’t be surprised if there is a shortage of chickens in London this weekend !

Our final 2 days were spent on Dinner Parties for 8, wherein we had been split into groups of 4 to devise a 3/4 course menu for 4 other students (plus yourselves ) with a budget of £8.75 a head. The group you cooked for would return the compliment the next/ previous day. Our menu consisted of Lemon Ricotta Tortellini with a Sage Butter, Apple and Mint Granita, Sea Bass Fillet with Soya Meringue, Pak Choi And Pan Fried Cauliflower, and Strawberry and Rose Crumble with clotted Cream Ice Cream. It all went off with ease and tasted great – good feed back from Tutors and our Guests.

Lemon Ricotta Tortellini

Sea Bass with Soya Meringue

 

 

Strawberry and Rose / Clotted Cream Ice Cream

Maybe our offering was not so original / not pushing the boat out experimentally as some were, but good quality cooking. We worked well as a team in a relaxed fashion and I think showed maturity and confidence with our prep and cook that we would not have been able to achieve some months back. A nice relaxed last day before the inevitable Practical next week, which for me is Monday – actually glad to be getting it over with rather than waiting for the end of the week.

During the week we also made a gift to our Term Teacher Michael Cropp who has been a fantastic, patient and skilled Mentor these 9 months. After a bit of spy like interrogation we established he was keen to visit Clare Smythes Restaurant CORE so we clubbed together and bought a £400 voucher for him/wifey to visit. I feel lucky and privileged to have been under Michaels wing for the past 3 terms, and if the culinary expertise he has in just his little finger has been somehow imparted to me then I will be eternally grateful.

Next week – Exam !!!!! Report back here soonest ! 

 

 

 

 

 

Week 9 – Last week to be Marked !

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Chicken Ravioli – Morel Sauce

I cannot believe that we entered this week knowing that on Friday we would be receiving our last marks in class for our cooking ! Whilst we have another week to go before our course ends, week 10 involves our Theory Test , Skills Practice and our Dinner Parties and none of this involves in class marking. So Friday, which was our creative rabbit day, would conclude our chances for improving our marks on any of the skills we are being graded on.

Before that we started the week with a Mock practical Exam wherein we were given one hour and three quarters to produce a chicken Mousseline Ravioli and Morel sauce under exam conditions – no talking , no conferring. Some students had already practised over the weekend and said the timing was tight. I had not done so but they were correct, I was done 2 minutes after service time and of our 8 students on our side of the kitchen only 1 student managed to finish in time. The teachers said thereafter it was a tough call, but if I had reduced my sauce in a wider saucepan this would have sped things along more quickly and I probably would have met the time target. Even so I was happy enough and the dish looked acceptable and tasted delicious !

The following day we had to prepare scallops for the second time ( with pickled mooli and a peanut sauce) and “false” scallops – a dish of king oyster mushrooms which you slice up the large thick stems, score the tops, and then Pan fry them.

Scallops or Mushrooms – looks can be deceiving!

Once done they resemble scallops but you have produced a vegan dish, as it was accompanied by a Hazlenut Vinaigrette and salt baked celeriac which we then used half to make up a Purée and the other half to pan fry. It was fun making the Celeriac as we had to quarter it and make up a very salty dough to completely encase it and after baking smash it open to extract the, now, very salty celeriac.

Cracking open the Dough

I had tried this at home a few weeks previously and the dough set so hard – like concrete- it would not come away from the baking sheet and I had to throw the baking sheet away ! Not a good day in the kitchen. At school all was ok and I think I know where I went wrong now !

Our last bread of the course was also on the agenda – a buttery brioche which we were to use to accompany our Pear and Saffron Chutney ( which we had made a week ago), together with a Foie Gras parfait. The Parfait was made using raw Foie Gras and Chicken Livers wizzed up with shallots and a reduction made from Port, Brandy and Madeira, and using loads and loads of butter and eggs.  It tasted fab and would be taken home for additional servings.

1M calories per mouthful…..

The brioche was also fun to make, slapping it onto the bench and basically pecking it to develop the gluten whilst incorporating the butter, one piece at a time. This involved trying to stretch the dough with one hand to shoulder high without the strands breaking –  tiring but fun ! It tasted great, but I guess, when eaten with the Foie Gras, is not exactly for the diet conscious – butter overload !

So our last graded session on Friday was to be a Rabbit meal which we were able to choose ourself having been provided with a whole rabbit under instructions to utilise as much as the animal as possible and prepare the meat in at least two separate ways. I, as many did, used the loin to be the inside of a Ballottine wrapped in either pancetta or Parma ham, but to differentiate mine I shredded the meat off the hind legs and minced it up to get a rabbit sausage meat and spread this on the pancetta before rolling in the loin.  This meant you had a Ballottine that had a kind of Mousseline around the loin encased in the crispy pancetta. I also used the offal and front leg meat to make a rabbit “Haggis” and to accompany it made a silky smooth Fennel Purée, and then also roasted some Fennel in saffron and stock topped it with a Walnut,Rosemary and Parsley crust. This was then finished with a Rabbit Jus which had been bubbling and reducing away for around 5 hours.  I was very happy with the end result and managed to get 5,s for meat cook, presentation and Veg – a great way to finish the Course and surprising as I had been out the night before and had got home at 2am completely trashed and therefore had only 4 hours sleep. Had sweats in the kitchen all day and my hands were shaking when glazing the brioche, and probably drank about 5 litres of water during the days cook. Why did I do that as prep for the last days cook ? But strangely enough the prep worked ! Maybe need to repeat it before our end of term Theory exam scheduled for 09.30 am Monday ! 🙄

Apart from our own cooking, we were treated to a few great Demos from outside Chefs this week. The lovely Atul Kochhar came in to Demo us some wonderful Indian food including a great ChemeenManga Curry ( Prawn and Green Mango to you and I) and a delicate Chutney ni Murgi – or Chicken cooked in tangy herb paste.

From a very different angle we had a visit from young Chef Ben Marks who runs Perilla Restaurant in Stoke Newington. He has trained at Claridges, Noma and The Square, the latter of which is where he says he learnt his creativity from. He made a fabulous dish called Yesterday’s bread soaked in Moules  Mariniere, and a crazy Burnt Onion Soup which was served in a hollowed out Onion which itself was blow torched to within an inch of its life.

Atul at work

 

Cremated/ Burnt Onion Soup !

And inside very grey!

 

 

 

 

Lastly we had a presentation from glass manufacturer Riedel on Monday AM which most students bunked off from, but was fascinating and involved a lot of wine drinking. Basically Riedel produce glasses specifically for individual grape varieties and name them so, protecting their patent as strongly as Champagne protects its exclusivity.

Riedel

What’s incredible is how the shape of the glass and width of the aperture can make wines taste so different, demonstrated by trying the same wine in a variety of glasses to taste how the vessel produces a different delivery to the mouth and affects the taste. It’s difficult to believe but after experiencing it I am converted. Another alcoholic prep for the Monday Mock Exam of Ravioli !

And there we have it – week 9 and our food education more or less finished. No more marking – the grades we have achieved for our course work now stand and cannot be improved upon, We are all busy revising this weekend ( or should be) for our Theory exam and on Wednesday next we find out what we need to cook for our Practical Exam the following week. The heat is on !

 

 

Week 8 – Lobsters and Crabs laying their lives on the line for us !

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Scallops, Pea Purée and Pancetta

This week can be summarised as Cakes and Crustaceans as most of our time was spent making a classic Gateaux Opera and thereafter by sacrificing Crabs and Lobsters for our culinary delicacies.

The first 2 days of the week were spent on the Gateaux making an amazing rubberlike, indestructible sponge base which did not rise at all. This would form the 3 thin layers for our take on the infamous Opera delight. Forming the other layers were Coffee Syrup, Coffee Buttercream, Chocolate Ganache, Tempering Chocolate for Choccy decorations,  and a Chocolate Mirror Glaze to finish off the top. The results were credible but strangely after 2 days to construct and bake the cake we were not marked on the taste but were marked on presentation which we literally had to rush in 5 minutes flat as we ran out of time on the morning session. This needs to be looked at for  future sessions as we all wanted more time to decorate the cake in a refined manner but had to finish up in a crazy chaotic frenzy.

Over the 2 days we also made a Strawberry Jam and Pear and Saffron Chutney – the later we will be serving with a Foie Gras Parfait in a weeks time. Strawberry Jam was easy and I must say tastier than any shop bought stuff !

My Jam and lots of other Jam !

Thereafter we were onto Seafood and were provided with both live Crabs and Lobsters to kill, which took some of the students out of their comfort zones resulting in a refusal here and there to go through with the Kill Job. I had done both during my work experience in a Padstow so had no issue with it at all. It was a good learning experience understanding the best way to extract all of the meat from both Crustaceans in the most efficient manner and knowing very clearly what to avoid – Dead Mans Fingers and other unsightly Gills etc.

The Crab we turned into a beautiful Crab, Pink Grapefruit and Avocado Salad, but a posh one – involving an Avocado Puree and a Grapefruit Jelly as well as the Fresh fruit.

Now that’s a Crab Salad !

As regards the Lobster it’s fate after being killed, boiled etc was a Poached Lobster Salad ( sounds simple) but we made a Lobster Shell Oil to dress the salad and glaze the Lobster with And also a Tarragon Mayo and had various Edible flowers to pretty it up. I totally went overboard on the Flowers focusing on an Instagrammable Dish more than a Culinary exercise and I did explain to the Tutors this is one of the most important ways of advertising for restaurants these days and excused my Chelsea Flower Show themed dish on this fact ! 

Another seafood delight was shucking Scallops And Pan Frying them to accompany a Pea Purée with Crisp Pancetta. I also went a bit rogue and turned the Roe into a Purée by blitzing it up with butter. I did not have time to get the consistency right but it tasted good and I was complimented for trying something different.

We have the feeling that we are already at the end of term as the afternoons were filled with Demos from outside Chefs rather than any new skills being taught. We had a visitation from Jamie Rafferty who calls himself a Holistic Chef and taught us all about Raw Food. Amongst other recipes he served us a Pecan Bolognese, Courgette Linguini and Brazil Nut Parmesan. This was an interesting take on a classic meal whilst not tasting meaty, but this was not his aim – he uses classic Recipes as reference points to serve up a Vegan version of it.

Henry Harris who use to be the Head Chef at Racine And has just opened a Pub named the Hero of Maida Vale came in to show us some of his classic French dishes.  He cooked us Calves Brains in Black butter, Duck Hearts on Toast and a beautiful Steak Au Poivre. I loved the Calves Brains but seemed to be the only one !

Lastly and something completely different was Norman Musa who gave us an amazing Malaysian Demo that involved Steamed Sea Bass with Lemongrass And Ginger and an aromatic Seafood Curry. Norman was a real character and got as many of us up and assisting him during the Demo,  and his food was pretty good too. Could have been spicier for my liking.

We had an afternoon session focusing on Revision for our up and coming Theory Test scheduled for 11th June and this freaked out a lot of people as we now realise not only how soon this is but also the amount of stuff we have learnt over 9 months and the incredible amount of info we need to revise to cover all bases. I for one have not started revising and will have to devote some time and get disciplined during the following week to avoid an embarrassing failure !

Just before Friday Lunch we were all told our results from the WSET Wine And Spirits Level 2 Exam And it appears all of our class passed and I received a Distinction which I am very proud about. We immediately celebrated my hitting the local Portuguese Restaurant at Lunch and ordered a couple of bottles of Alvarinho which were speed drank and that is why we were so chilled out on the Malaysian Demo on Friday afternoon ! Now the question – progress to Level 3?

Lastly it was School Photo time on Friday morning ! The traditional idea is to photo all the students in front of the School so you can see the Leiths branding as a back drop. However despite Notices all around the surrounding roads some idiot had left their car right in front of the school and they could not be located to move it. Therefore we relocated to the local park and all carried the benches and chairs with us down the road to the revised location. It was hilarious and we were all feeling strange that we were out of school in our Chefs Uniforms – something unheard of ! We all felt like naughty school children and attracted the attention of local builders and passers by. But thankfully it did not rain and we managed to get a photo for posterity of our Class Blue C.

Don’t ask what the Blonde Helen is doing !

Only 2 more weeks to go plus Exam week. I will be doing my Practical on Monday 18th so will have the rest of the week off. Barring a disaster and a necessary retake on Friday, then I will just be looking forward to Graduation Day and the After Party !

 

Week 7 – From Plants to Shellfish – Sweetbreads to Floating Islands , a Very Varied Week !

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Halibut with Cucember Beurre Blanc

A busy week covering such varied styles of cooking and incredibly different products.

We started the week with making a starter/ Biga for a Fougasse which is a Herbed and salty bread from Provence in the shape of a leaf which would be finished and baked the following day. We also started the dough for our croissants which would involve a 3 day process as over time the dough develops a better taste. The second day we incorporated butter(all 200g of it!) and the following day was shaping and baking cutting out triangles of dough with our state of the art home made  templates. We were given the opportunity to also use the dough to make Pain au Chocolate which was gleefully taken and mine turned out quite stunning ( if I don’t mind saying so myself) to the extent that Michael our teacher said he would pay good money for them and they would not have looked out of place in any French Cafe.

Layering of Pain Au Choc

Croissants were good but maybe my dough was rolled out a little too thick or they rolled a lightly too tightly – Stupid error as it was not the first time I had made them.

Fougasse – topped with Dried Herbs

Making the Fougasse was fun and getting the holes right was tricky as when the dough proves they close up again. However the taste was great and whilst Focaccia has been my favourite bread this term, Fougasse came in at a close second.

Had some great Fish cooking during the week too. First up was a Roasted Salt Cod with a Bouillabase Sauce and Caramelised Baby Fennel. My sauce was a little too punchy but it’s a great dish and will do again at home – just don’t intensify the sauce as much,or let it down with a splash of water at the end.

Salt Cod/ Bouillabaisse Sauce

Also prepared a beautiful Halibut with Cucumber Beurre Blanc. This was my stand out dish if the week and whilst we all receive compliments and good marks when our dishes are well prepared, I was told for the first time that “This was great cooking” – I was very proud !

Another fish dish we prepared was a Peter Gordon Recipe from his book “Savour”. Peter is the Chef at Providores Restaurant in Marylebone (which I have visited a few years back ) and he focus is Pan Asian Fusion dishes. He had been in and given us a Demo on the Monday afternoon and this included the dish we were to prepare later in the week – Seared Yellowfin Tuna, Green Papaya Salad, Lime Dressing, Nori Sauce and a Peanut and Sesame Gomasio.

Mr Gordons Tuna as prepared by Moi

 

 

There are a lot of ingredients involved and a lot of preparation/ Chopping but nothing to complicated and the final dish was stunning, Zingy, Fresh and really tasty. One interesting thing learnt was searing Tuna in a smoking Hot Pan ( 15/20 seconds each side) and then immediately submerging it into Ice Water to stop the cooking process. It ended up with beautiful colour and tasted amazing. New trick to use at home.

Something completely different was prep and cooking of Sweetbreads. We had some students who thought these looked disgusting and were not looking forward to cooking or eating the, on the other hand I love them and was really looking forward to the Sweetbread day. Firstly we had to poach them lightly before cooling them to peel the membrane from them as this is stringy and inedible. Then we pressed them overnight before dusting them in flour and pan frying them. We also made a Marco Pierre White Madeira Jus to accompany them, and a decadent Pomme  Puree involving roasting The a Potatoes in their skins, scooping out the flesh and passing it through a sieve and then beating in an infused mix of Double Cream/ Milk/Thyme and Garlic.

Meat and 2 Veg anyone. “Not my best plate” …..

This made it extremely rich with a wonderful creamy consistency and went so well with the Madeira Jus which was also packed full of flavour. Unfortunately this all happened on a Friday afternoon on a week which I had been out every night and my energy levels and concentration were leaving the kitchen so I undercooked my Sweetbreads slightly and was lost for plating inspiration and just dumped it in the plate out of sheer exhaustion. “ Not my best plate” was Michaels comment, and that was being polite- looked like SHIT, but the Jus was marvellous !

For some reason and probably never to be repeated by any of the students we were also tasked with making Ile Flottante ( French classic Dessert – Floating Islands) , which are basically Quenelled poached Italian meringues sitting on a Cognac infused Creme Anglais.

They are very Retro, and cool from that point of view- the best part of it though was making a Hazlenut praline and then blitzing that to make a lovely caramelised Hazlenut Dust to sprinkle on top. Not difficult and lots extra to take home !

As far as Demonstrations go then we had a great Shellfish Demo that involved killing Crabs and Lobsters ( much to the dismay of many students who are not keen to repeat this next week in class)and also shucking and preparing scallops in advance of our practical experience next week. We also had two plant based sessions. One involved David Bailey who runs a Vegan Food Truck operation called Buddah Bowls which he takes to many music festivals etc. He prepared 4 dishes for us to try which gave us a different style of food to consider and recipes without the protein meat and fish give us.This was followed up with a Plant Based Tasting Menu Demo which involved some interesting plates such as Celery,Apple and Sumac Meringues, Kvass and Potato’s Four Ways.

Just to finish of this extremely varied week we had a practical Demo on advanced Gateaux preparation focusing on a Gateaux Opera that we will undertaking ourselves early next week. Did not look too difficult but every time we think that we experience something quite unexpected.  Its better not to be over confident in our approach to this task – we know from experience that a relaxed or blasé approach can bring the walls crashing down, or at least a very bruised ego and a burnt wrist !

In the middle of all of the above we had a 50 question test to sit too just to keep our minds sharp and ensure we are absorbing all of the new found skills and can recall everything else we have learnt on the Course. General feelings were that this was quite a difficult test and contained elements that were really dredging our minds back to earlier recipes and other elements that we have not even undertaken as yet. Results next week.

Roll on Week 8 with a Bank Holiday to enjoy beforehand !

Ps – next Friday is Official Class Graduation Photo Session, that reminds us all it’s coming to an end closer than we all realise !

 

Week 6 – The Grapes of Wrath

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Bolney Vineyard

Three days out of five this week were devoted to Wine. A visit to a couple of Vineyards on Wednesday, a day off for Wine Revision the following day, and then Friday morning the WSET Level 2 Award in Wine and Spirits Exam.

As mentioned previously the Wine studying was stressing many people out and we were all so relieved to just get the Exam over with so we could focus on our Food and Cooking. The exam itself is 50 multiple choice questions that lasts an hour. As with many multiple choice exams there are 4 potential answers to choose from and in many cases two answers were readily discountable, and therefore you had a 50/50 chance even if you were unsure of the answer. This coupled with the modest pass rate of 55% makes it sound relatively straightforward, however in the previous year there were many students who failed. One of the difficulties is that so many of the Grapes we studied produce wines that can differ in character –  even from the same region – and can vary further when the same grape is used in another country in a hotter climate or at a higher altitude etc – all elements that can effect the resulting wine.

An example of a question could be “Premium wines made from Cabernet Sauvignon grape age well because they have ?” And the possible answers are

– high tannins and low acidity

– low tannins and high acidity

– low tannins and low acidity

– high tannins and high acidity

unless you have studied well you will not have the answer in your brain and therefore it becomes guesswork. The answer in this case is high acidity and tannin. Did you guess right ? In any event it is now done and we all await the results, as without a pass we will not graduate.

It did help visiting the Vineyards earlier in the week – in fact we went to two,  Bolney and Ridgeview, both in West Sussex.

Simon briefs the students

Ridgeview is only make sparkling wines but some which have already won prestigious awards,it is family owned having begun its life in 1995. They are now producing around 300,000 bottles a year from 6 Vineyards. Simon Roberts who has taken over the business from his Father demonstrated am amazing passion for the business as he took us around and organised the Wine Tasting. All of Ridgeviews wines are named after London establishments and a curious fact was provided to us when asked why this is the case – the Inventor of the ‘method champenoise’ was not French but an Englishman – Mr Christopher Merret.

Mr. Merret attended the Royal College of Physicians and produced a paper in December 1662 on winemaking,  describing the process of making sparkling wines involving a second fermentation at which stage sugar was added to provide the bubbles. This process was being described several years before the monk Dom Perignon began his own Champagne experiments in France. Who would have guessed it !

Yes this is the shape of a Cork before insertion

The other vineyard was Bolney which is producing still and sparkling wines all with fruity undertones – the basic style of English wines. All of the their vines are European but grafted onto original American vines  as a pest called Flaxus had killed off all European vines back in the 1700s and the only Vines that were hardy enough to survive were those imported from the USA. We also learnt that there are currently almost 600 Vineyards in the UK and in 2016 they produced 4.15 bottles of wine. 66% of all bottles are sparkling, and the major two grape varieties grown are Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.

 

 

 

The only real disappointment was that in neither of the Vineyards were we able to properly see the Winery in action, and what would have been excellent would have been to see the sparkling wine going through the process of having the frozen yeast deposit in the neck being cut away and then topped up with sugar ( dosage) and rebottled etc. We saw the machinery and the tracks the bottles would follow but no practical example.

The visits were fun though and many students ended up purchasing boxes of wine, so Leiths are now well supporting the English Wine Industry.

Did we cook anything this week ? Yes we did  – it was creative duck day wherein we were obliged to Confit the legs and make a Duck Jus, but then were given free reign on how to serve the rest of the duck. My own concoction involved using the Confit meat with potato to make Duck Croquettes, and I used them as a starter, with my main course comprising of pan fried duck breast in a Honey and Chinese 5 spice glaze, accompanied by Wilted baby gem, a soya gel, crispy shards of duck skin and a deep fried egg yolk. This last component was one of the most advanced elements I had tried and it involved separating the egg and dusting the fragile yolk in flour,egg wash and panko crumbs before deep frying at 180c for a minute or so. As you can imagine the yolk is so easily broken so I was praised for attempting to be creative in this way. ( And of course I did break a few yolks on the way )

Creative Duck Day

I was pretty pleased with my dish – albeit the Jus was greasy and I really wished I had not plated with it, but we were then led around other kitchens to see what other students had produced, and there were some spectacular and beautifully presented dishes. We have some real talent at school and even if I was pleased enough with my own plate I was in awe of some of the others.

We also made a Pate De Campagne using chicken livers and minced Pork together with Pistachios. This was quite simple to prepare and really tasty, especially when served with the Onion Confit we had prepared, and the Walnut and Raisin Bread which grew to be a monster.

A bit of a strange week focusing on the Grape but next week we are back to cooking full time without the preoccupation of Wine studying on our minds. So it’s full steam ahead to week 7 and back to the dreaded and time consuming  timeplans !!!

 

 

Week 5 – Sweet Week !

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Plated Dessert Day – Michelin Star worthy ?

With the Bank Holiday Monday and the Friday scheduled as an optional day focusing on an all day lecture  entitled “ Starting a Food Business” many students took this week as a very short one and were in the kitchen for only 3 days. Those 3 days were all based around Sweet things with the Tuesday being a “ Mis En Place” day for the following days highly anticipated “Plated Dessert” event- a chance to show off our presentation skills using various components of sweet products we were to prepare over a 2 day period.

First off though we were to make our own breakfast of Pain Perdu (French Toast  to you and me) accompanied by Pan Roasted Strawberries and Elderflower Sabayon. The task was to ensure we all understood how to make a sabayon and tick that box. I certainly ticked the box as to preparing the components of the dish but gave no thought to plating and basically piled my strawberries onto my toast followed swiftly by my sabayon, which, despite being the right consistency etc, just filled my plate ending up like a cup of sick on a plate. Amazingly my teacher commented that it looked appetising – I had to steal myself wondering if he was being ironic or not. Here’s my effort which I was too ashamed to post on Instagram – especially when I saw the same dish being beautifully plated by other students. The taste was faultless but maybe I would need to up my game “presentation wise” for the big day tomorrow !

The centrepiece of our Plated Dessert was to be an Almond Pannacotta so this was duly made after infusing toasted almonds with a warmed up mix of milk/cream and sugar, then scalded and being mixed with gelatine so that it would set overnight. A quick almond crumble and a Lemon Gel were wizzed up and these would be added to additional sweet things on the following day, including a Hibiscus Meringue and the very messy spun sugar we would entangle ourselves with ! This basically involved making a caramel with the addition of liquid glucose and once arriving at the temperature of 152c having a viscose mix that could be “spun” and made into threads. In theory this enabled you to be as creative as your mind would allow you to be. EG – Making latticed baskets on the back of lightly oiled ladles, coils around Knife Steels, angel hair balls etc. In practice it meant that I was desperately trying to make a latticed disc by spinning the sugar over a Cutter, but the experience was far more difficult and messy than anticipated. It is certainly something that you need practice at, and the schools kitchen is better to do this in than at home due to the mess that ensues and the difficulty of cleaning pans and utensils with hardened caramel encrusted upon them. Having said this I had actually tried at home the weekend before and my kitchen became a nightmare with spoons and pans coated in molten sugar and shards of hardened caramel scattered across the floor – all being cleaned up before my wife came home to avoid EU kitchen crisis talks !

Effectively our Plated Dessert was Chefs choice in that we could decide how many, and how much of the various components on our finished plate as we so desired – providing the Pannacotta was the central theme. We were also provided with fresh apricots and raspberries to use as required. I made a quick Aprict and Vanilla Purée as I has a plating idea that required streaks of a colourful purée on one side of my plate. The end result was something I was quite proud of ( despite the consistency of my purée being difficult to paint with in the way I wanted) and came as close as I could to a dessert you may see in a Michelin star restaurant. Other students also produced some beautiful dishes proving evidence that a relatively small selection of sweets could be presented in so many various ways- an enjoyable and informative exercise.

The only Non Sweet “Cook” we would be preparing during the week was a Focaccia which we had prepared a simple version of during the Beginners Term ( an age ago !) , but were advised this would be more like the real thing – and it certainly was ! Everybody loved them ! Again we had to start the process the day before by making a “ Biga” basically a “Starter” involving flour,water and a tiny amount of fresh yeast that would sit overnight and help to enrich and ferment our Bread with an enhanced flavour.

The following day was a long process involving folding the mix as carefully as possible to aerate it,  proving it, and allowing it to be gently coaxed and oiled into a large baking tray before sprinkling with more oil, Rosemary and Sea Salt, and eventually the bake. The kitchen smelt wonderful as the bread began its baking time and the scent of Rosemary filled the room – we could not wait to get them out of the Oven and try them as we were on a full days cook and nobody had eaten lunch – 16 ravenous Students all clock watching at 4 having spent the rest of the day making Petit Fours. To a man ( or Woman)  I think the breads all came out successfully and thankfully in generous proportions. Some commented it was the best Focaccia they had ever tasted !

As mentioned most of the morning had been spent making Petit Fours which was not too stressful and quite fun. We all had to make Chocolate Truffles individually, Macaroons between 2, and the Table of 4 would make Nougat, Salted Chocolate Caramels, Lemon Marshmallows and a Passion Fruit Pate De Fruit ( basically a Jelly).

Each of us took responsibility for one of these tasks and produced a table of wonderful looking Petit Fours that were also photographed by the School and used on Social Media- one of our students recognising her burnt hands on a Twitter feed !

Other than a Demo the day before on how to make the above mentioned Petit Fours, there were non others during this week as one of the other afternoons had been set aside for One to One discussions with your class Tutor – a kind of Progress Report. Whilst various individuals would have specifics to discuss the overall feedback was again – “You need to up your Finesse” this is becoming the class Mantra and I think we all need to organise a T- Shirt with this slogan for our Graduation Day !

Next week will all be about Wine as the week culminates with our WSET Grade 2 Exam – we have a day off to revise, and a compulsory days visit to, not one, but two Vineyards ! The school (and we ) are desperate for us to pass the exam, and I think are very worried about our chances !

 

 

 

 

 

Week 4 Advanced Term – Mousseline Meltdown !

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Seafood Feuilletee with Beurre Blanc

When was the last time you either ordered a Mousseline in a restaurant,  or,better still, made one at home ? Well we had our first introduction to Mousseline making on Monday and Tuesday this week, the first Salmon, the second Scallop.

It’s a painstaking process of ensuring all your equipment is fridge cold, blitzing up the product in question in a Magi, and then using a dough scraper to push the salmon/ scallop through a Box Sieve to achieve a super fine purée. You then have to emulsify it by adding double cream,gradually, on a one to one basis in a bowl over ice, which takes forever. You sort of lose the will to live and then – if like me – you accidentally get some of the cold water from your ice bowl into your mixture it does not emulsify properly which you only understand when you try to gently poach it but it just collapses into a pile of nothingness. Well worth all the effort !

Not a great start to the week, but at least the lemongrass and ginger broth for the Salmon Mousseline was very tasty.

The scallop Mousseline ended up in Tortellini married with crab and prawns in an enriched Pasta we had made earlier. This was another bit of a fiasco with not enough Pasta machines to go around, people getting their pasta stuck on the bench, on each other’s pasta (as there was not enough space on the bench), and most people rolling to thin in the machine causing many headaches when shaping. Notwithstanding this chaos I ended up with a dish that looked somehow presentable and tasted pretty good even with a collapsed scallop mix – gratefully masked by the addition of crab and prawn.

The following day we were all so happy to put Mousseline behind us and move on to something new. However it was not really new – we had to debone a chicken again but this time stopping at the legs/ thighs so that we could use the meat from them to mince up with other ingredients for a stuffing that was to go into our Chicken Ballotine. We had to recall how to debone the chicken as there was to be no new Demo in class – albeit we thought there would be – and this caused a headache for some. I find it quite satisfying deconstructing the chicken to its skin and then filling it again with the breasts and stuffing – beats Mousseline any day of the week.

Skin before being reloaded

Thursday was an all day cook utilising Puff Pastry made earlier in the week to make Seafood Feuilletees with a Beurre Blanc sauce. We all think we can make a Puff blindfolded now, so we are Masters of the Universe Puff Wise ! With our “Roasted in a JClothe Ballotine” we had to make a Chicken and Thyme Jus – basically a posh gravy with great depth of flavour and silkiness, if you get it right, and some Veg and a layered potato accompaniment – Chefs choice. This dish all went well for me other than the Potato which ironically was the only thing I had bothered practising at home. In my kitchen at home I had use waxy Charlotte Potato’s with clarified butter to make a Pomme Anna in a small frying pan (Jamie Oliver recipe) and it was fab. In school they had different Pots, I used duck fat which made it grey and greasy and the pots just collapsed as either I had cut them too fine or they were not waxy. I will know better next time. But the Jus was perfect and Chicken pretty good too.

Had an unfortunate accident with our Apricot Sorbet during the week. I had left it on the side whilst being marked and one of my erstwhile colleagues dropped a heavy large saucepan from the top shelf which crashed down on top of our sorbet spraying it in all directions. I laughed at the culprit whose apron and jacket had been splattered only to be told that I had not seen my own Orange back yet which was somewhat resembling a Jackson Pollack painting.  My Chef Whites will need a good wash this weekend !

Our Non cooking activities started off Monday morning with an extremely entertaining Spirits session. The presenter Peter Wilson was very engaging and used pictures of his dog Ruby in his slide presentation to indicate it was time for a drink. It was a little challenging for some to start their Monday morning drinking Vodka/ Gin/ Whiskey and Cognac before lunch, but made all the more memorable by Peter, not once, but twice, tripping over the wires to his laptop bringing the slide presentation to a stuttering stop, his laptop crashing to the floor and on one occasion with accompanying glassware. His Irish humour shone through and we all enjoyed his 3 hour lecture.

We also had a Chocolate Demo and tasting which was quite popular and certain students became excited by the knowledge we would be experimenting with chocolate next week.  The final day of the week was an all day Demo that in the morning involved Terrines,Confit And Foie Gras, and in the afternoon a Croissant masterclass.  I love Foie Gras and some of the food plated up and given out to taste was some of the best we have had for the whole course , even if some people had ethical issues with the Foie Gras process. We were all a little shocked to learn that each 100 grams of Foie Gras contains 400 calories so we probably all consumed in excess of 2000 calories during a two and a half hour Demo!

Who knew that Foie Gras was also behind the invention of the Sous Vide ? A producer of Foie Gras in France was tired of losing 50% of his produce when being cooked as it was melting away. He came up with the idea of sealing it in a bag and cooking it in water to ensure none of the product disappeared, and thereafter, after this success, he went on to work with Alain Ducasse and Thomas Keller and came up with the Sous Vide method of cooking and machine. Good food history there !

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another good week, and a long weekend to look forward to before next weeks sweet offerings.

 

 

Week 3 – A surprise visit from Pru !

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Tarte Tatin

Monday morning and it’s Calves Liver – not exactly the food that would have been top of my favourite dishes to tackle at the start of a new week. It appears I was not alone in my thoughts as – guess what ? – not a huge number of liver fans out there amongst the students ! The positive elements to accompany the liver were a Tare Sauce ( involving Soy Sauce, Mirin, Sake, Ginger and other ingredients) and a Coriander Crumb with a Roasted Shallot- maybe these could help to disguise the taste of the liver ?

Yuck, Liver, but was praised for my presentation

Well they certainly assisted but for me it’s a textural thing, so although the dish was tasty, the sauce really good ( and it could probably work with other meats)  the main element still made the dish inedible !

During this first morning we also started to make a Rich Vanilla Ice Cream ( not to go with the liver), and slow roasted Tomatoes (8 hours !), whilst scorching Red Peppers to loose their skins for the base of our Red Pepper and Tomato Consommé to be completed tomorrow.

Tuesday morning saw us hard at work whisking like crazy our Egg Whites and Shells for our next Consommé and who should pay us a visit at this precise time ? –  none other than Prue Leith herself, performing a tour of the kitchens watching us trying to make our crust and getting it to rise to enable our Consommé to clear. She stopped and looked over my shoulder and made a comment about the rise on my crust which gave me an opportunity to have a quick chat with her about the alchemy of the process. She is quite an imposing and elegant figure and it was an unexpected pleasure to get to meet her briefly. Maybe inspired by this little chat my Consommé was quite successful and clear, however my Pepper Brunoise were too small so I need to rethink my knife skills further to achieve what they are looking for. Mmmmmm………

Tuesday also saw us making Puff Pastry, I am quite happy with this process and even quite enjoy it – seems all of us are in agreement as it is much easier than Flaky pastry as you do not have to worry about adding the butter in stages – with Puff, once the butters in, its in ! Just remember how many rolls and folds and keep your edges and corners straight and you should be fine!

The Puff was to be used on Wednesday for a classic Tarte Tatin- something I have never cooked before. This process involves caramelising apples in sugar and butter, preferably without letting them burn, laying on top your chilled Puff Pastry, and then finishing it off in the oven still in the frying pan, before inverting on to a plate for service. The inverting process can be tricky as you can easily burn yourself with piping hot caramel splashing about, but I think we all managed to produce something worthy and no trips to A&E! We served our Vanilla Ice Cream with this, and the hot and cold Combo was a real pleasure to eat even if my Ice Cream was commented upon as having a bit a fudgy texture.

This week we also had our first experience of making a Jus. You see this in top restaurants all the time and other than appreciating it is some kind of sauce to finish and enhance a dish I was unaware of the real process involved to make it. In essence it is a stock based reduction sauce which starts off – in this case – by browning chicken wings to get a nice depth of colour and then using them with browned vegetables to make a stock. We would be making this over 2 days and end up reducing to taste and serving it on Friday with a Sous Vide Chicken breast. This involved another process new to most us – brining and cooking a chicken breast Sous Vide style. You could simplify this style of cooking by just saying it’s chicken cooked in a bag , which essentially it is, but held in a water bath at 64degrees for an hour and a half and when it’s finished you know that it will be cooked with all the moisture retained. Finish it off in a searingly hot pan for 30 seconds or so and you have a beautifully cooked, moist chicken breast with a crispy Caramelised skin, taking out the risk of over or under cooking it. Cheating ? Who knows, but as we were advised in the Sous Vide Demo, you should always ask yourself whether this way of preparation will enhance your dish or not. If not don’t do it !

The other very tricky task we “endured” this week was a Rabbit Ravioli. Whilst the rabbit filling aspect was relatively straightforward (braising, chopping small, sauce to mix through) the Construction of the Ravioli itself drove us all to distraction. We can all make Pasta now but we were advised to pass it through the machine to the final setting ( so thin you can read your time plan through it!) and then lay out on cling film on the bench before cutting out 7.5cm circles , filling with a teaspoon of rabbit filling, and enclosing with another pasta circle making sure you squeeze air out, don’t wrinkle it, make sure you have a good seal etc etc…….This was a nightmare as the pasta was sticking to the table, breaking up as we tried to close over the filling, and eventually our teachers decided that we should have gone to the penultimate setting on the machine and also used different size cutters.

Rabbit Ravioli with Mustard Sauce, so over it …..

Half of us had already progressed to far for this advice to assist and had become somewhat disillusioned by the whole process. “I am so over this” was heard a number of times around the kitchen. Next week we will have a similar experience making Tortellini so hopefully we can improve !

Demonstrations were varied as always including another Wine Demo focusing on Other Black Grapes And Red Wines ( ah …Malbec at last !) and a very time consuming process of making mousselines, which apparently we had to pay attention to very closely as we will be doing this next week to. Passing a chicken breast by chopping it fine and scraping it through a Box Sieve for 30 minutes or more looks like so much fun ! Roll on week 4 !

 

Billingsgate Fish Market Visit

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Billingsgate Fish Market

Tuesday morning what should have been 16 of us were due to meet at the market for a guided tour of everything fishy. A few decided their beds were more inviting than an early trek across London to E14 but the majority of us were in white coats looking like doctors preparing to go on a hospital round.

We all met at Billingsgate Market Cookery School who were due to host us and show us around. At 6am when we all arrived the market had already been in full swing for a good few hours opening at 4 am and we were told that it closes down at around 7 to 7.30am ( other than Saturdays when it stops trading around 09.30am) so we needed to be quick if we wanted to see all of the sellers plying their trade. The market, whilst used by many commercial organisations (restaurants and the like) who may buy in bulk,  is also open to the public. The prices are generally half of those in traditional markets and fish mongers – this I can confirm as I usually buy my fish from Borough Market and it was clear the prices were approximately half of those charged there.

The market was not as big as I had imagined and other students who had been to other markets – specifically Tokyo being cited – commented that it was quite modest in comparison. Even so there was enough to see for a 90 minute visit and we were guided around with stops at many stalls to talk about the types of fish on offer and given advice on ensuring we understood freshness and what to look for when purchasing.

Of course there was a large array of seafood for sale as well as fish, and we inspected the Lobsters, Crabs, Prawns and all the different molluscs you could imagine. Little tips were proffered, like Lobsters with blue tails are from UK (probably Scotland) , Yellow tails were Canadian. It’s illegal in UK to sell Lobsters with Eggs but you can sell Canadian. However you would not want to buy with eggs as they are much heavier and the eggs are pretty useless other than for garnish. We were shown the difference between male and female crabs and advised there is a lot more white meat in males. Also where and how Crabs carry their eggs. You should never boil lobsters alive as it stresses them out ( surprise surprise!) so either kill them by stabbing the back of the head, or stun them by freezing them for 20 mins or so before boiling.

Skate Wing

We saw Skate Wings that still had their mottled skin on, which is not how we usually see them, and many sizes of Cod and other Cod family members. Lots of other varieties, including a Doctor fish which had a little scalpel along its body.

Some interesting throw away facts – Scallops are fascinating ! Some change sex as they mature, and some are “ hermaphrodites” in that they are both male and female in the same shell ! They also have upto a 100 eyes around their fringe or mantle.

Tilipia, whilst native to Africa and being the fourth most popular eaten fish in the USA, is farmed in Dalston in big baths ! Now that’s real hipster ! I wonder if they have beards and ride vintage bicycles whilst supping on craft beer ?

Another great discovery was the enormous chest of drawers at the end of the market that contained – wait for it- drawers upon drawers of live eels ! What a novel way of keeping them and one we were all fascinated and surprised by.

In close proximity to the eels were all the salted fish – Bacalhau- or salt cod to you and I, and many others such as haddock which is stained yellow (using turmeric) more for tradition than anything else. It did help to disguise a slightly older fish in days gone by but apparently now people just expect to see the yellow colour.

Also at the end of the market were all the frozen fish and it was explained to us that some of these are very high quality, having been caught and cooked at sea and frozen immediately on the boat, and thereafter, docking at the harbour with the freshest frozen fish possible.

We all enjoyed our morning at the Market and although it translated to a long day and some tired faces later on in the kitchens, I think we all learnt something new and hopefully were inspired to try our hands at cooking a more varied selection of fish and seafood dishes over the coming weeks and months.