Cooking up a storm!

So today was birthday experience No. 4 'Supper Suppers' at the Nick Nairn Cook School and as I type I am groaning because I am so full of delicious food! Since there was wine to be had for lunch Jonathan very kindly drove me to the school (about an hour away) and just before 10am I went in to meet my 23 fellow classmates for the day. There were refreshments including shortbread in the dining room then we were taken through to the kitchen classroom to have a familiarisation tour of each 'station'. First of all we had to choose a partner (a little worrying since everyone else seemed to be there with a spouse or friend already), but a very nice lady (and, I was soon to discover, fellow teacher) called Christine asked if I was there on my own and we agreed to partner up. I have to say that Christine was a fabulous partner but next time I would definitely want to go with Jonathan. Anyway - here is Christine at our station...

After we were shown where all the equipment was and a few kitchen safety and hygiene tips given we went to the demonstration area to start to watch chef show us how to make things. Our chef for the day was John Webber who was very entertaining if a little long winded at times and there were odd occasions where I would have liked him to stop talking so that we could get cooking. But his demonstrations were excellent - and it was great that the angled mirror above him showed us exactly what was going on in the pans on the hob in front of him.

First he made a custard based vanilla ice-cream, then he showed us how to make an amazing french toast ham and cheese sandwich. He then demonstrated how to prepare the tomatoes we would need for later dishes and how to prepare the marinade for Moroccan Charmoula chicken. We then took to our stations and prepared our tomatoes and marinaded our chicken. That done we were treated to a portion of the sandwiches chef had made plus scones with cream and jam!

Back in the classroom and we learned how to make brie baked in filo pastry with red onion marmalade...

We leaned all about knives and how to use them correctly and how to dice an onion correctly which we then had to practice...

I loved that the cooking was all quite a relaxed pace and we never felt hassled to get things done. Chef and his assistant Tristan were incredibly helpful and nobody ever criticised our technique. The other great thing was that all our dirty pots, pans, bowls, utensils etc. we simply put on a table and someone whisked them away to wash them for us!!

Anyway, to continue with the day...

Chef then demonstrated a linguine in white wine and cream sauce which we then cooked as our 'starter'...

After that we were shown how to cook our chicken and cous cous and how to make our main course of Toulouse sausage and curried puy lentils...

We had this, along with the Charmoula chicken, cous cous and baked brie for our lunch, eased down with a beautifully chilled glass of white wine.

By this stage everyone was getting very full and very hot but it was back in the kitchen to make dessert: Brioche French toast with maple syrup, cinnamon and vanilla ice-cream...

It was just before 5pm by the time we sat down to eat our dessert then there was time for a final chat with chef before we picked up our carry out bags of extra food that we'd made but not eaten, a quick look round the shop and then home!

We got our file of recipes and cooking apron to keep as souvenirs, and probably one or two additional lbs to remind us of the day!!

I thought the cook school was fantastic and would definitely go back to do another course.

The experience gets a 9/10 (losing only 1 mark for my partner not being Jonathan and the chef being a little longwinded at times).

Another great day!!