As a thoughtful and generous birthday gift my brother arranged for us to have a cooking lesson with “food at 52”. Located in John’s, the chef’s, home in Clerkernwell the cooking lesson was relaxed and intimate which was very welcome.

Food at 52 currently offers a small range of lessons including Italian, Fish, Thai, Morrocan, Southern Indian and the lesson we went for, the Stress Free Dinner Party. The Stress Free Dinner Party is basically what it says – John teaches you dishes which, though striking in presentation and taste is still sure to impress your guests and at the same time allow you to spend time with and entertain them.

On the menu for today was:

Starters

– Chicken Liver Pate with Almonds
– Pan Roasted Shallots with Parma Ham and Pecorino

Mains

– Oven Roasted Duck with Chilli & Soy
– Salade Nicoise

Desserts

– Fruit Tarts with mascarpone

For today’s class there were nine of us (normally the class has a maximum of 10.) Kitted out with our own aprons and chopping boards, and after a quick run around introduction, it wasn’t very long until we were getting our hands dirty. The smaller group was great as it allowed us to mingle quite well and therefore the class felt quite warm and friendly. John our host was great – very relaxed and no ego at all for a chef! ha ha. Seriously he was very nice.

As a venue John’s kitchen was perfect. It is totally gorgeous. Half the time I spent gazing around the room looking at this massive space which was light and airy and chock-filled with some really cool ingredients and equipment. Yes I was suffering from serious Kitchen Envy!

But I’m getting off track! The cooking is what it was all about. John took us through the five recipes throughout the day preparing various bits and pieces in seemingly out of order timing but in the end was good organisation. It worked quite well actually because he showed that a lot of the dishes could be prepared well in advance. Unlike a professional cooking class, however, we didn’t prepare our own idnvidual dishes butinstead contributed at various moments for communal dishes. It was interesting seeing the various skill levels of the participants. I know that Patrick certainly impressed everyone with his fine skills with the knife!

The cooking session in totaly goes for about 5 hours but not to worry – we did not go hungry! About halfway through we sat down and ate Pan Fried Shallots (so delish) and the Salade Nicoise, accompanied by quite a bit of wine (heh heh.) Now I’m not normally a fan of Salade Nicoise but it was actually very tasty. Unfortunately, though, it seemed like I ended up with all the olives and anchovies!

After this mini-break we then finished off the main courses and prepped dessert. I didn’t think this took too long as cooking up the duck that had been marinating and pressing in our bases for our tarts was all we had to basically do. But I think it ended up taking at least over an hour – though the time flew. Soon after this John sent us off to his very funky lounge room. He had all sorts of things in there from his former business where he used to build and design things for movies!

We came back to a transformed kitchen and sat down for quite a civilised three course meal. Building our tarts for our desserts was the most fun aspect. Once again Pat shined as the example for how to plate up your dishes – both main and dessert! Here’s how I went with my plating (I’m loving how Pat’s cam makes the plates look better than they did in real life!):

Finally, did I mention that John has an assistant in the kitchen which was fantastic because it meant no washing up – now that’s what I would call a Stress Free Dinner Party for sure! 🙂

Great birthday present! Thanks Pat!