The Chef's table

Dear readers,

An apology as i was out of touch for a long period of time. Sorry about that but back on track and ready to share some more news about me, my place of work and overall a lovely summer we are having here in the UK. Also have to congratulate the Royal couple for having their baby boy and boy that was one big news all over the world. 

Now back to business, first important news about our chef's table which took place on the 26th of June, my best friends b'day who resides in Sydney, Australia was hopefully a blast but would have loved if he were to enjoy the dinner with us.

The Chef's table night started for 9 of our guests with a pink champagne, smoked salmon sable, black olive muffin and goat's cheese cream and a wild mushroom risotto fritter with truffle mayonnaise. All the empty plates coming back to the pot wash was a good sign that the guests enjoyed their canapes and the bubbly was perfect for the event (i did taste some afterwards).

As soon as the guests were seated and the wine poured our executive chef, Hywel Jones, myself and Sarah were in action. We created the amuse bouche of seared scallops, with crispy pigs head terrine, carrot 3ways and caper vinaigrette. Then we did pan fried and poached fillet of Cornish turbot, hand rolled macaroni, lemon grass beurre blanc and roasted artichokes. This dish sounds simple but very hard to bring together as different components cook at different timings but are served on one plate. Just imagine and savour the flavours my dear readers!

The turbot was followed by Andrew Morgan's welsh Brecon lamb, slow roast shoulder, peas and broad beans, girolles and jus gras which was fun to plate due to all the components involved. We then moved to a pre-dessert which comprised of a Kalamansi sorbet dipped in white chocolate and popping candy. Kalamansi is, as much as i know, a mix of grapefruit, lime and lemon. This sorbet cleans the palate for the actual dessert and believe it or not i eat this sorbet when i have a head ache. The tang and the sweet just works wonder for my brain (not recommended though).

The dessert had a cannelloni of lemon curd foam, marinated summer berries, strawberry jelly, yogurt sorbet and basil from Lucknam Park's kitchen garden. I thought it was a perfect finish for the dinner. The guests also enjoyed hand made chocolates, macaroons and coffee/tea/infusions.

Dear readers the above menu sounds a lot of different components on a plate but in true reality it was a harmony of flavours, textures, supreme produce and season on the plate followed by presentation. Our executive chef has always believed in flavours and if you meet any good established chef's they will talk about the flavour as a key which sets good chef's apart from other chef's. I have been very lucky to learn this formula at an early age and i wish to continue to do so in the future. 

I guess all our nine

diners enjoyed their evening and so did we. Until then.....good night and speak with you all soon.

Healthy Eating our way

Imagine having a smoked bacon sandwich on a fresh white bread spread with butter and brown sauce and to top it up with an extra helping of salt. What do you think the sandwich, apart from salty, will taste like? I know someone who knows someone who likes to have his bacon sandwich with an extra helping of salt. Now this is what i call as serious abuse of moderation and this is where we have the problem.

Redpepper & cucumber salad

Eating healthy has become the latest craze in today's world but what do you mean by eating healthy? A simple test will possibly answer the above question. Type the word 'healthy eating' in Google search and see how many billion pages of search result you get. Follow 10 random web pages on eating healthy and you will realize that every single one of them has got something different to say. Who to choose, who to follow? 

The Health is Wealth course at +Lucknam Park Hotel cookery school tries to answer the above questions but then again i am not a qualified nutritionist who will study an individual in detail and then suggest what the person should eat or not. What we do is give you an overall idea of healthy eating and then create dishes which have the punch of flavour and at the same time flair of creativity. 

We give emphasis on seasonal produce and good quality produce. Good quality does not necessarily mean costly but for us it is the source of the produce. We also refrain from over seasoning in our dishes. I believe that the flavours should blend first then add just enough seasoning to enhance the flavour. We also stress on the simplicity of the dishes and understanding the cooking methods of the dishes.

Marinated chicken skewer, chickpea and rice

Healthy eating is a vast subject to discuss. I am going to leave you with a couple of dishes which we do on the course and let you decide what do you think of the dishes.

Traditional British Puddings

Apple Pie

There is something about the Traditional British Puddings. They are easy to make but still things can go wrong. Sometimes they can blow you away on how delicious they can taste with a few simple ingredients required to make the British Puddings.

My love for the British Pudding started when I tasted Sticky Toffee Pudding at one of the Michelin starred restaurant in Torquay. Simon Hulstone sent the sticky toffee pudding as a pre-dessert which was more than enough. I had no space left to eat a refined, dainty looking chocolate tart with pistachio ice-cream but i still managed to eat the whole lot. What a pudding it was! For me, it was a feeling of being in heaven and from then the research for the best of British Pudding started.

Egg custard tart

When we decided to open the cookery school at +Lucknam Park Hotel i was billion percent sure to have the Traditional British Pudding as one of the courses. The course did not sell well and we blamed on the facts that the British puddings are unhealthy, no one wants to cook with lard, what is so good about making a crumble but deep inside me I always felt that one day this course will prove popular like few other courses.

Bakewell tart with a twist

Lemon syllabub with short bread

Our first Traditional British Pudding course we had two blokes which is very unusual but then through word of mouth and the simplicity of the course we picked a few bookings and now it has become one of our popular courses. I enjoy teaching/making the short bread, apple pie, bakewell tarts, sticky toffee pudding, egg and nutmeg custard tart, jam roly-poly and lemon syllabub during the course.

Jam roly-poly and warm custard

They say that 'the proof is in the pudding' and I say 'the traditional British puddings are the real proof of how a good pudding should be'.

A special course for special people

Monday morning course started with two familiar faces +Lucknam Park Hotel cookery school. A couple who did our first day first show - 'Michelin Star style Cooking at Home' and then second day second show - 'Seasonal Brasserie dishes' were back and requested if they can do the 'Street Food of India' course. Luckily for them we had no bookings on Monday and I had all the food required for the Street Food of India at the school.

It is always a pleasure to see repeat guests and teach them new skills. We had so many of our repeat guests coming for different courses and learning a new skill, picking up a few tips and then going back and creating the food with the newly acquired skills in their kitchens. 

I have done street food of India course countless time +Lucknam Park Hotel cookery school and still i am not bored about it. Our special guests enjoyed their day and also challenged me if I can present the street food in an attractive way on the plate. Challenge accepted and done, I am going to upload the pic and if you think I did rise to the challenge then please do let me know. 

My street food memories!

Indian Street food is very close to my heart. I think it is because the way me and my mum use to sneak behind my father's back and enjoy eating all the street food until our tummy says no! My father never said no to the street food but he was very much against the hygiene part of it and that's why he preferred that we don't eat too much street food to be sick the next day. But all his warnings fell on our deaf ears.

Fast forward the clock 30 years and now I am running the Street Food of India course +Lucknam Park Hotel cookery school. One of our popular courses, always full and always filled with great energy and fun. There have been occasions where the class has gone quiet while folding the samosas, there have been situations where someone just bit on a very spicy chilli but whatever the occasion it has always been very very positive.

Today was good and the course is getting better and better. Kaathi Kebab, Pani Puri, Bhel, Chicken Tikka, Aloo tikki, Batata Wada are some of the dishes we did at the course. I also managed to show one person how to make a stuff paratha with the batata wada mix. It was all fun. 

Pani Puri

I am going to post the picture of Pani puri which i clicked with my phone. Nothing special and you must have seen it somewhere at some point in your life but this is still the dish which tingles my palate and will be still the dish which will never fail to impress me. You cannot hide in simplicity and this dish is a very good example of that.

A cracking North Indian cuisine course was concluded today +Lucknam Park Hotel cookery school. All the six students who had some or little knowledge cooked Marinated chicken in a rich tomato gravy, Makai Khumb masala, made their own onion dumplings and parathas. I also demonstrated the Kashmiri Phirn (Phirni), Cumin Basmati Rice and Shami Kebab with mint chutney to them. 

The final verdict of all these 7 dishes was very positive. A group who did not know each other at the begining of the course had spent 6 hours in cooking these wonderful dishes, enjoyed the facilities at the school and left with very happy and good memories.

Tomorrow I am working on my favourite, Indian Street food course. 4students who will be enjoying the real Indian street food by creating all the dishes from scratch and then we will have a big buffet of samosas, aloo tikki, batata wada, kathi kebab, bhel and pani puri. My mouth is watering already! 

If you want more information then please do visit www.lucknampark.co.uk, follow me on twitter @dhrishikesh or send me a reply and i will answer all your queries.

Bye bye world!

Cannot wait to tell you this but the 26th of June is the date i am looking forward too. Our first chef's table +Lucknam Park Hotel cookery school will feature Great British Menu finalist and Michelin starred Chef, Hywel Jones and 2009 Roux Scholar, 2010 National Chef of the Year which is me creating a five course dinner along with matching wines, champagne and canapes on arrival and coffee with petit fours to end for £150 only. 

The evening is going to be only for 12guests, so very intimate and relaxed atmosphere. We will be cooking all the dishes infront of the guests who will have a chance to ask us as many questions as they want or maybe get involved in plating their own dish. I got to break this news though, just a few places left!

All the information is on www.lucknampark.co.uk and if you still need more info then shout and i will reply. 

So now you know why i am so much excited about the 26th of June! I will let you know the menu soon