Planning to host a dinner party or would you like to build up your confidence before the next time you do? Consider attending Stress Free Dinner Parties course Food at 52 Cookery School near Old Street. It’s one of the school’s many courses designed to help ordinary people with ordinary kitchens cook and eat better. I sat in on the full day course and found it to be fun, enlightening and delicious.
During the course I attended, we (a small group of four which was explained to be only slightly smaller than usual) were taught by Food at 52’s empressario (and ace cook) John Benbow how to make a variety of dishes designed to take the pressure off cooking for guests while still wowing them with your creations. We made and took home the recipes for six dishes: duck two ways with cape gooseberry jam; smoked trout and asparagus tarlets; shallots with Parma ham; cauliflower cake; butternut squash and lentils salad; and stuffed peaches. There were plenty of tips provided as well, like how to perfectly poach an egg and how to make a basic short crust pastry.
Food at 52’s kitchen is a dream setting too. There are all sorts of awesome utensils and gadgets, and most notably a large centrepiece table that’s as communal as it is functional and serves as a comfortable workspace. But nothing about the space and all its accoutrements is so beyond what’s typical in most ‘real life’ kitchens as to leave you thinking that you wouldn’t be able to replicate what you did during a course.
The five-hour Stress Free Dinner Parties course costs £150 per person. I very much enjoyed the session I attended and am happy to recommend it to anyone looking to “tackle meals that can be prepared early enough to allow you to spend more time with your guests, and less with the oven.” For me it was a great way to meet nice people, learn a few things, cook and eat very good food (plenty of drink was on offer as well) and leave with me a cache of recipes to share with others in my own home (not to mention a few tasty leftovers from what we made during the course).
Food at 52 Cookery School is located at 96 Central Street, EC1V 8AJ. Find out more at foodat52.co.uk.
