We're a new food retail concept that's just opened: a cross between a cookery school, high-end takeaway, bakery and wine shop, that enables people to come and create everyday meals with a Michelin Star Chef
We’ve just had a great session making chocolate truffles & mince pies. Here are the recipes for those who came (we’d love to hear what you thought about the session so please leave us your feedback below!) and who those who didn’t make it here this morning, why not have a go:
Good friends of The Kitchen, Streaming Well recently approached Thierry to get involved with a pilot for some diabetic recipe videos.
Type II or adult onset diabetes is a serious and a growing problem in Britain affecting more than two million people. They are a fantastic company building awareness in the UK about Diabetes through wellness & healthy lifestyle videos. The goal is to show recipes that are healthy, tasty and easily manageable.
Here Thierry and fabulous Nutritionist Dr. Janet Aylott (www.nourishconsulting.com) prepare a creamy chicken and mushroom pasta dish that serves 4 people. This is a simple and tasty diabetes friendly recipe for your entire family to enjoy (just click on the video link below)
We’ve been having such a fantastic week at The Kitchen… everyone is getting into the festivities of Christmas – the shop is all dressed up, Christmas tunes are playing and Thierry & Jimi are whipping up some fabulous treats such as our homemade mince pies, festive fun cup cakes, beautifully decorated biscuits and not to forget the mulled cider and wine!
On top of all this joviality The Kitchen itself is flying high too with some great mentions in the press this week. If you didn’t manage to see it The Telegraph listed our gift vouchers in the Top 50 Gifts to buy this year. Also we donated a prize to the worthy Kids Company prize auction in conjunction with the Evening Standard so if you fancy bidding for a Michelin Star canapé making session with Thierry, check out Lot 83 and make a bid – it’s for such a good cause.
So if you are around why not pop into see us, whether it’s for one of our master classes (chocolate truffles and mince pie making class coming up on 22nd Dec, with the kids to make Christmas Tree decorations or simply to have a mince pie and glass of Jimi’s mulled cider!! Whatever the reason, we hope to see you soon.
We had another fantastic evening at The Kitchen last night with Hameed for our Indian Home Cooking master class – check out these pictures!
“I had a really nice time yesterday, I enjoyed every moment of it and the guests were brilliant and were very eager to know more about the South Indian cuisine. There were a few requests such as to include a fish curry and more salads. It is my immense pleasure to spend the two lovely hours helping people to know more about the Indian cuisine” Hameed
Dates for the New Year are to be announced very soon so please send us an email (hello@visitthekitchen.com) if you’d like to join our waiting list. A brilliant original Christmas present for friends and family!!
And we’re really excited about our Wine Tastingthis Thursday (19th November) – we have a few places left so give us a ring if you’d like to book on – 020 7736 8067
Guests arrived last night to a glass of sake to get them into the swing. Shirley started the session with a talk on the origins of Japanese Vegetarian Cooking. For centuries in Japan Buddhist precepts forbade the eating of meat, so the Japanese diet was largely based on vegetables. In the Zen temples of Japan this vegetarian diet is called Shojin Ryori, & can be considered the basis of Japanese cuisine. Such a wealth of information – if this is something you’d like more information on you should really check out her book ‘Food of Japan’
Highlights of the class included learning the Japanese technique of deep frying and about pickles & dressings.
Next date is scheduled for Monday 18th January…just give us a call to book (020 7736 8067)
You’ll look at some typical temple dishes, such as Goma Dofu (sesame ‘tofu’) & learn how to make use of vegetarian protein sources in unusual and delicious ways. You’ll also learn how to present your food beautifully & simply. (Recipes include Miso soup, using a vegetarian stock, grilled aubergine with Miso dengaku, vegetables shira ae with tofu and dressing, Sesame dressing, dried & simmered tofu, Hijiki sea vegetable sautéed with carrot & abura age (deep-fried tofu), Deep fried ‘robai’ wheat gluten).
We’ve just had our first Dish Dash session this morning – what a great success! In just under 1 hour our first Dish Dash customer Christina learnt how to make our quick, simple & seasonal pumpkin soup – and left laden with large portions to enjoy at home with her family. She even had time to make some homemade croutons.
Check out Thierry’s pumpkin soup recipe below on a recent blog post and a small tip for you: save the seeds – you can toast them to make a wonderful garnish.
Coming up you can learn how to make Moules Mariniere, Thierry’s infamous Chocolate Brownie cake, delicious homemade sausages and much more.
Has anyone read Bee Wilson’s article today in The Telegraph online? It’s all about the children activity packs given out to kids to keep them entertained whilst eating out in restaurants. If you haven’t I suggest you do and ask yourself, what is it with us today that we keep disengaging our kids away from food? What has happened to the love of food and good conversation? Why do we need to have ‘activity’ packs to keep our kids from running riot whilst enjoying a treat of having a meal out?
If I think back to when I was a child – meal times could be dull at times, but I do remember the food we ate and the places we ate out. Nothing appears to be about the food anymore especially when it comes to kids – kids crappy menus riddled with cheap fried foods and now activity packs. The most significant part of this article is at the end where Bee Wilson says: “There was something to be said for the old days, when children in restaurants were simply offered smaller portions from the adult menu. You were allowed to taste the same flavours as the grown-ups and the food itself provided the entertainment. There were hours of fun to be had from chewing bread sticks and sucking sugar lumps.” Hear, hear Bee
In celebration of November, Halloween and all that excess pumpkin flesh from your lanterns I have been making pumpkin soup in the cafe and it’s proved to be a best seller! So if you can’t make it down, here’s how to do it:
To make enough for 10 portions:
½ pumpkin, seeded, skinned and sliced into pieces
1 litres milk
2 sliced onions
1 litre good stock (chicken or veg)
Salt & pepper
Pinch of cinnamon
20ml double cream
Simply sauté the onions in olive oil for 10 to 15 minutes until soft, add the pumpkin and cook on low simmer for 10 to 20 minutes. Cover with stock and milk and place a piece of parchment paper on top. Bring to the boil and cook for at least 20 minutes. Lower the heat and add salt & pepper to taste, plus a pinch of cinnamon to enhance the sweetness of the pumpkin. Cook on low simmer for further 15 minutes. Blend in machine whilst hot and then put back in pot, add a dash of cream and bring back to a low boil. Voila! (Add extra milk if the soup is too thick.)
Serve hot with toasted pumpkin seeds as a garnish, or a teaspoon of crème fraiche floating on top.
Last night we were really pleased to introduce our new Indian chef Hameed Marickar Farook – a great addition to The Kitchen master class team.
Hameed is an accomplished chef in his own right and being from the Madras region of Southern India is extremely knowledgeable on his local food.For Hameed, Indian cooking is all about understanding the different flavours of ingredients.With experience attained from his mother, and professionally, he’s a master at showing how Indian cuisine can be made simpler with a few tricks.
He started last night’s class by teaching a very good Masala base, which when mastered is the base of all Indian Curries.Then went on to teach about fresh and zingy chutneys, all from the Madras region, using exotic ingredients such as fresh pineapple and mango.Everyone enjoyed an enormous plate of spicy curry, along with a glass of wine and then took home plenty of other delicious offerings made in the class.
With the party season fast approaching I thought I’d share my Mulled Cider recipe with you…
Makes 10 200 ml servings (careful its potent!)
2 litres of good quality strong medium sweet cider.
(I would suggest Thatchers Vintage Reserve 8.2% or Westons Organic – anything from these two makers would work well though – steer clear of cheap fizzy cider like strongbow or Magners)
1 shot sweet citrus liquer (peach schnapps, apricot brandy etc)
4 pieces star anise
1 cinnamon stick
1 teaspoon cinnamon
100g brown sugar (or clear honey)
1 clove
1/2 an orange
50ml water
2 thinly sliced apples or pears
Simply put all the ingredients in a big pot and bring to a low simmer, stir for 5 minutes to get all the sugar etc to dissolve/incorporate and serve hot. This will intensify with flavour and alcohol over time – so be careful!
Thank you to Nick & Masaki for another fantastic beginner’s sushi master class last night at The Kitchen. Everyone left totally inspired and with sushi rolls coming out of their ears! We’re looking forward to seeing some pictures up here soon.
This Sunday we’re looking forward to welcoming back highly experienced & accomplished Maitre D, Francois Bertrand for our next Carving Master Class.
We have a couple of spaces left so if you would to learn the tricks of the trade, give us a ring to book in! You will learn how to carve a leg of lamb, John Dory fish & roast chicken impressively at the table and then enjoy a glass of wine and dinner after all your hard work, what better way to spend your Sunday evening.
Since coming to the UK, Francois has been no stranger to Michelin-starred establishments, having worked at The Square, Mirabelle, Le Caprice, Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons & Le Gavroche before arriving at Aubergine in Chelsea. And he has just won an M.C.A from the Academy of Culinary Arts.
Adam came to our last class….“Great night last night. Really enjoyed it – who knew carving a chicken could be so easy!! Really good “teacher” too – very interesting and informative as well as having a superb background and experience”
Masaki from Dinings Restaurant is back with us this evening for our next Beginner’s Sushi class and we’ve also just released many more dates so check out our specials page for more information.
I read with interest the story http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6880386.ece about Gordon Brown’s favourite biscuit.Here at The Kitchen we are never afraid to voice our opinions about our biscuit related matters.I have mercilessly grilled Thierry this morning and have uncovered the truth that the humble shortbread is his favourite!I fully anticipate that this information shall appear prominently on the front pages of all major newspapers tomorrow morning and shall undoubtedly spark a war of the words amongst the great chefs of our capital.Personally I enjoy a Jaffa Cakebut I don’t want to get into the whole biscuit versus cake debate.
In other news we’ve got Shirley Booth in tonight for her fabulous Japanese Home Cooking master class. Shirley is President of the British Sake Associationand is bringing along a nice bottle to try – I think we are in for a great night!
Like many of you out there I am avidly watching the latest series of Masterchef – The Professionals, whilst we are busy busy here at the Kitchen with our sessions, Master Classes, new dish-dash events and planning for Christmas, I have a little ritual which I stick to every night.Back home, glass of red, nice quick fresh pasta with broccoli and chilli (or a Kitchen Thai Green Curry if I’m feeling lazy) and the latest episode on the Sky Plus.I applaud all the entrants this year and think the standard of cooking has been really high, some of the tests they put the candidates through are very tough and my girlfriend delights in questioning my ability to execute some of the technical dishes.What annoys me though is how complicated some of these chefs make the dishes.Here at the Kitchen we are great believers in simple food and being true to our ingredients – why go over the top when a simple plate with one or two ingredients can speak volumes.So I was delighted to see one of the candidates (Ryan, I think – looks like a robot!) make a simple dish of ravioli that looked fantastic.Chef Michel was also suitably impressed.It has inspired me to update our current pasta dish to a Mushroom and Spinach Tortellini, which I think will really impress not just our customers but the friends and family they are cooking it for, our new menu is coming soon and has lots of simple, impressive dishes, so keep an eye on the newsletter for details.
