Cook-a-long

The Open Kitchen is the training restaurant for the London City Hospitality Centre (LCHC). The London City Hospitality Centre (LCHC) is a partnership initiative of Hackney Community College, the London Development Agency, the Worshipful Company of Cooks and employers. In addition to operating a restaurant where their students cook the food, they also offer evening cooking classes.

Thanks to another Time Out voucher, I only paid £29 instead of £59 for a French cooking class (part of the Mediterranean Feast). To be honest I was a little disappointed when I was sent the menu:

Mussels

Chicken

Strawberries Escoffiers

I don't like mussels and I'm not overly keen on chicken... But anyway, the whole point was to learn something new and meet people.

The evening started with the Spanish trainee chef cooking all dishes and explaining as he went along. The tricky bit was that he didn't really stick to the recipes that had been handed to us. But we had support at hand, which really helped, as I couldn't remember what he had just shown us. Fortunately, we were cooking in pairs and together I think we did all right. The sauce that accompanied the chicken (and included cream, wine and foie gras) was especially nice - if I may say so myself. 

The gas stove was super hot and that made me a little nervous. I'm still scared of my oven to be honest! Anyway, I had the task of placing the chicken in the frying pan which was filled with a mixture of oil and butter. Scared of getting burned, I proceeded to kind of chuck the chicken in from a distance. As you can probably imagine, not a clever idea. My cooking partner must have thought I am right pillock...

And here's the result (and it confirmed that I really do not like mussels... I did try them though!):

Plating up decoratively was clearly not part of the course...