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"Cooking, in effect, took part of the work of chewing and digestion and performed it for us outside of the body, using outside sources of energy. Also, since cooking detoxifies many potential sources of food, the new technology cracked open a treasure trove of calories unavailable to other animals. Freed from the necessity of spending our days gathering large quantities of raw food and then chewing (and chewing) it, humans could now devote their time, and their metabolic resources, to other purposes, like creating a culture."

Michael Pollan

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Entries in cooking class (2)

Sunday
Mar202016

Cake baking and decorating with Juliet Sear

Last Saturday I went to an Easter baking and cake decorating class at Borough Market. The teacher was Juliet Sear, one of the UK’s leading cake designers and baking experts. She sells to some of the country's most prestigious department stores, Fortnum and Mason and Harvey Nichols, and has baked cakes for numerous celebrities. She is also a food writer, consultant, has done stints on TV and teaches baking master classes. Anyone else feeling a little incompetent? 

I felt very lucky to attend this event at Borough Market’s invitation. It's the first cooking class they have done in their event space, The Cook House, which until now has mainly been used for tastings, dinners and photo shoots. It is a lovely space; tastefully furnished and full of light. It's great for cooking lessons with a well equipped demonstration kitchen on one side and a dining area, which can also be used as extra workspace, on the other.

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Tuesday
Feb102015

Cooking Alaturka

On our trip to Istanbul, I took my sister to a cooking class at Cooking Alaturka. I was mainly in it for the five-course meal with wine at the end – surprise! – and that was definitely the highlight.

The cooking class is fun. My first impression of Chef Feyzi was that he seemed like a typically surly exemplar of the species, but he turned out to have a great sense of humour.

The class is aimed at beginners. Students are involved in simple tasks like peeling and chopping. Chef Feyzi does the rest. However, this should not deter more advanced students; if you are a good cook you will probably get more out of it in the long run, since you will find it easier to recreate the dishes at a later date. 

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