Cook school is a first-class day out
Can you tell the difference between sugar and salt? I thought I could until I tasted my home-made panna cotta. Luckily, I wasn’t the only dunce in the class at Martin Wishart’s Cook School, writes Susan Welsh
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AS THE taxi pulled up, the driver looked me up and down, gave a half-crooked smile and said: “You’ve been to Martin Wishart’s Cook School, haven’t you?”
I couldn’t help but be impressed by the speed at which he had correctly guessed where I had been.
“You’re right, but how on Earth did you know?” I asked.
In a rapid style reminiscent of Sherlock Homes, he said: “You’ve got a blue plaster on your finger, which suggests you’ve cut yourself in a kitchen; you’re carrying what looks like a Tupperware box filled with green soup; there’s a distinct whiff of garlic coming from you, and you look happy.”
He was scarily accurate. I had indeed hot-footed, or should I say hot-souped, it from the Edinburgh Michelin star chef’s school in the port of Leith.
For some, the idea of slaving over a hot stove may sound like torture, but I’d suggest they are in the minority these days.
Spending the day in the kitchen with a fabulous chef, or chefs who have trained under renowned chefs, who are willing to share their knowledge, experience and offer hands-on assistance helping others to create mouthwatering restaurant-style dishes, has become big business.
It’s also a fun way to spend a day out and a million miles away from the hideous domestic science lessons I endured at secondary school when the most exciting dish on the menu was a boiled egg.
Cook School by Martin Wishart promises to deliver an all-round culinary education and aims to give students a background in both classic and modern culinary styles – no mention of boiled eggs, thank goodness.
Practical day classes include modern cookery; fish and shellfish; desserts and baking; easy entertaining; stocks and sauces; Italian cooking, and vegetarian cooking. Places on the children’s classes, a new venture for the school, have been snapped up faster than proverbial hot cakes.
I was one of a group of eight students split equally between the sexes and aged from their 30s to their late-60s. All shared a love of food and reasons for attending this practical modern cookery class ranged from a treat to themselves to a retirement present from colleagues.
After being welcomed, we were introduced to Ryan Stewart, our chef for the day, who explained that adhering strictly to Martin’s guidelines, he would demonstrate how to prepare a three-course seasonal restaurant-quality lunch comprising courgette, basil and Parmesan soup; roast halibut with spinach, endive and apple salad and a crisp potato rosti, and to finish, panna cotta with fresh Scottish strawberries.
My heart sank as I took in the list of ingredients as there seemed to be an awful lot of them. I need not have worried.
The combination of practical demonstration, background theory and simple techniques and friendly chat made us eager to have a go ourselves.
As the pud needed time to settle, we tackled it first. At our individual workstations, the ingredients had been helpfully laid out for us. Double-checking against our recipe, I poured in the sugar and began stirring. So did every other woman in the class. When Ryan came round to see how we were doing, he pointed out that the ladies had added salt by mistake. One nil to the men, who had the sense to taste the white stuff first, and well done, chef, for resisting the temptation to call us dunces.
We started again and I promised to pay more attention, but minutes later, despite being warned of its sharpness, I managed to slice a nice chunk of skin off the top of my finger with a razor-sharp mandolin.
But before long, I had a pot of gorgeous smelling, vivid green courgette soup bubbling away nicely on the Miele induction hob while I tossed salad and fried fish like an expert.
The proof of the pudding, they say, is in the eating, and before we knew it we were tucking into our own melt-in-the-mouth pudding, soup and fish in a very stylish dining-room adjacent to the kitchen.
The soup was heavenly, the halibut divine, and as the lashings of wine provided were poured, the conversation naturally turned to food. Funny anecdotes of dinner-party disasters were exchanged as quickly as praise for each other’s dishes.
After a very pleasant break, we returned to our workstations, where we watched Ryan demonstrate how to make good chicken stock, tomato consomme and tomato chutney while answering a host of food-related questions from his eager pupils before he sent us happily on our way clutching bags filled with plastic pots containing our leftovers.
Martin Wishart, 38, worked with chefs Albert Roux, Marco Pierre White, John Burton Race and Nick Nairn and developed a passion for food at a very early age – a passion which has clearly rubbed off on his team.
He opened his eponymous restaurant in the Scottish capital in 1999 and, earlier this year, opened the cook school just five minutes away from his restaurant.
For an entertaining and educational day out, it’s fantastic, so long as you don’t mind taxi drivers knowing where you’ve been.
Prices vary depending on which type of class you attend. For example, the modern practical class I attended costs £130. For full details of what’s on offer, call 0131 555 6655 or visit www.cookschool.co.uk
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