LoveBites in Lisbon

Almost six months ago (I know a really delayed post - apologies!) Adam and I embarked on a trip to Lisbon in Portugal for a long weekend.  After a days worth of research (we booked this only a week in advance) I had found that Portugal was obviously very famous for its seafood, sweet pastry treats and red wine, all culinary delights I like to dabble in. I had found a couple of great reviews on dining in Lisbon and noted these particular restaurants in my travel notebook. We soon arrived in search of sun and beach and found ourselves in a hotel a little on the outskirts of the city centre, rather a long walk or a cheap €5 taxi ride which we tended to do most times.

We arrived mid afternoon and the first thing I devoured was an ice cold Sagres beer straight from the tap. Its light, smooth and refreshingly cold flavour made it an ideal beer for me and needless to say I had a good few more of these on this trip. We then went for a bit of a wander (this time we actually walked to the city centre) and settled in to a tourist trap restaurant close to the Ministry of Justice where we dined on Sangria and a Portuguese antipasti as the skies clouded over and bucketed down for a short while. After a good few euros later we decided to head back to the hotel and regroup for our evening outing.  We chose to dine in one of the restaurants I had looked up on our first night as I had read quite a few good reviews on this one and even the hotel staff were enthusiastic about our chosen venue for the evening - Sacremento in the Chiado district.

We arrived a little too early for our meal at 9pm and were seated in the smoking bar lounge area (the Portuguese follow the same tradition for most of the Mediterranean by eating rather late). On entering the restaurant I had the feeling that we were entering into an exclusive. Our coats were taken by the welcoming waiter, the lightening was suitably dimmed, the diners were dressed in all sorts from casual jeans to some very short mini dresses and the cocktail list looked dreamy. We made good friends with the bar tender and downed another Sagres whilst we waited perusing the surroundings of our venue.    The ceilings were low in the lounge bar and separated by ancient archways that looked like they had been restored. After further research in the menu I read that Sacramento is actually housed in the restored ruins of the Valadares Palace which was built in the eighteenth century. This combined with the fuchsia pink, deep red and brown colour scheme and candles creating some mood lightening made for an enticing and romantic evening.

The restaurant offers a modern approach to Portuguese cuisine and there was plenty on the menu we wanted to try. After ordering we saw our neighbours getting what seemed like special treatment - they had a waiter deboning a suckling pig shank immaculately with a spoon and fork and placing the meat perfectly on the bed of spinach. After oogling at this culinary show we were immensely disappointed we did not get this for our choices! However we were not so disappointed once our own food arrived. We shared garlic prawns to start which were rich in garlic and heavily oiled. I then had a delicious plump cod kebab with grilled zucchini and cherry tomatoes served on a bed of luscious fluffy potato mash. The cod was thick and melted in my mouth, combined with the juicy tomatoes and mash it made for a perfect dish. Adam chose a roasted duck leg with a rice and vegetable rosti. He was a bit disappointed in his chosen dish (especially after seeing our neighbours!) as his rosti and duck were a bit dry. Needless to say after this and a lovely bottle of Portuguese red we were rather full from our days eating activities and decided to call it a night prior to dessert.  Our experience of Sacramento was exactly what we were after. Great attentive service, great decor and mostly delicious food and a great start to our holiday.

Our second day in Lisbon we departed on a day trip to Sintra to visit the magical Pena Palace. Here in Sintra we wandered the tiny pavement streets and here we were introduced to travesseiros, a special pastry of Sintra. These little sweet treats involved a long rectangular shaped pastry injected with an egg and almond custard, and covered in sugar. Despite struggling to get into the bag of our travesseiro we were rather taken with these tasty treats and almost succumbed to getting another one!

Our next culinary experience involved a local restaurant in the countryside en route back to the coast. Here we were surrounded by Iberico Pork legs hanging from the ceiling. We were dining with some Brazilian travellers who advised us we should pay extra to try the shaved pork (much like what we know of parma ham or prosciutto) and melon. This was one of the highlights of the trip - having never tried shaved ham and melon before both Adam and I were completely blown away. This black pig had the most amazing smoked flavour and melted in your mouth. Combined with the juiciness of the melon, the sweet and savoury flavours complimented each other and swelled with succulence in your mouth. We seriously could not get enough of this and vowed to try this again in other Mediterranean countries!! Adam went on to try a and I had a locally caught and cooked piece of cod. This was the biggest cod fillet I had seen, grilled in garlic butter and garnished with fresh parsley and lemons. I stupidly started with the smaller end of the fish and by the time I got to the best part I couldn't even finish it! Must to my immense disappointment. Unfortunately I did not take photos of this meal due to dining with strangers (I did not want to embarrass Adam!) however I did manage to get a few snaps of the pig legs dropping from the ceiling.

One of the other specialities of Lisbon is the Patris de Belem. These tasty morsels are a traditional sweet treat derived from the early nineteenth century during the Liberal Revolution when someone from the monasteries that were being shut down offered to sell these sweet pastries to make some money. These pastries became so popular they are now sold in a resident shop that started in 1837 and is still running to this day as an attraction for both locals and tourists.  The pastries are round custard tarts grilled so the top of the custard has a ever so slight crunchy film on the top and then sprinkled with icing sugar. These pastries are so good that we certainly went back up for more! And definitely worth the 20 minute train journey from Lisbon city centre.

The next restaurant chosen for dinner Largo (also in the Chaido district) did not live up to the reviews I had read. This place sounded amazing, with creative fine dining, good reviews and to top it off it had a fish tank in the wall filled with jellyfish! Unfortunately when we arrived we were seated in the mezzanine (disappointingly not near the jellyfish). We were placed in the middle table of two other couples, one old and one young, the scene felt a bit awkward to say the least. There wasn't many places to look other than the people to your left and right as you were seated so close to both of them. We found the service to be inattentive, we were left waiting for our bottle of wine and sparkling water for almost ten minutes, and we could clearly see other tables getting better service than us. The food was uneventful as well, the highlight of the meal being probably being Adam's main dish which I am even struggling to remember now whilst looking at my pictures.

We settled on two savoury courses and a dessert to share. I went for a very thin unexciting pumpkin soup garnished with crostini, chives and the tiniest amount of pancetta, followed by a bland yellowy saffron risotto with two scallops garnished with caviar. I am a fan of risotto and this one was cooked well however the whole dish together felt like Goldilocks porridge gone wrong. Adam's starter sounded plain but was a bit more interesting, a linguine watery pesto with three maybe four 'tiger' prawns which definitely had the roar taken out of them. He followed with what I believe is a pork dish with a barley, chickpea, mushroom and bacon broth. We both remember this being tasty, the flavours and the textures complementing each other nicely.  The dessert I think was a salted caramel cream with some type of chocolate cheesecake or pud? Clearly wasn't good enough for me to remember that well. For a restaurant that had good reviews I am sad to say the overall experience felt plain and expensive, and was absolutely nothing compared to Sacramento which was so good we ended up going again the following night!

Our second experience of Sacramento was still very good - the waiter remembered us from the night before last and invited us to try some of his gin cocktails much to our liking. To be honest the desserts of crème brulee and a lemony spongy type traditional Portuguese thing were nothing to go on about. The mussels to start with in white wine were soft and with a good kick of sauce. But the best part of the meal was the long awaited pork shank. We had advised the waiter we were intrigued to see the spoon and fork trick once again and we were not disappointed, the red wine flowed the pork was devoured and good times were had.

Our first experience of Portugal was a gooden. I am a sucker for their beer, red wine, sweet pastries, seafood and pork. We had some great meals and some not so great meals, the food varied in price but was mostly reasonable. Overall it was an experience we thoroughly enjoyed and I look forward to exploring more culinary specialities that Portugal has to offer in the near future.

Foodies Festival Battersea Park

During a weekend in London in mid August a group of us descended upon Battersea Park in search of the Foodies Festival. We were celebrating a good friend of mine Georgina's birthday and unfortunately the weather was not holding out, but this did not dampen our spirits as we perused the smorgasbord of food and beverage stalls. The bands were playing, the rain was pouring, the food was being devoured a-plenty and a good ole time was had. From Jamie Oliver's mouth watering pulled pork baguettes to fresh and healthy sushi wraps, and a of course a birthday cupcake for George; Here are a few snaps from the event which had us eating (and drinking) all day...

Restaurant Review : CHOW (Wellington, New Zealand)

On my recent trip back to New Zealand I was delighted to dine out at Chow, one of my family's favourite restaurants. Chow is a pan-asian fusion cuisine which was one of its kind when it opened in Wellington a few years ago. Its menu consists of healthy sharing plates, small and large and bowls of curries and noodle soups and salads. The food is designed to be shared amongst each other to ensure your group gets a taste of everything on offer.

Chow on a Monday entails an extra special treat : 2 4 1 dishes. This marvellous offer invites one to order a tremendous amount of food for great value for money, so it was a no brainer that on my only Monday in New Zealand, my family and I went and dined at Chow (Woodward Street).

Unfortunately you can't book on Monday's as the restaurant is so busy, that they only take those who have full parties in line. Once our party of 8 arrived we were offered a private back room much to the delight of my parents who had dined in that room once before.  We were comfortably seated in our private booth around a large square table - the ideal sharing spot! Being the Chow regulars my family consider themselves to be it did not take us too long to work out what we wanted to dine on. We settled on 16 dishes, consisting of two of each so ensure we each got a sample: steamed salmon parcels (my favourite), mussel fritters, chicken satay, blue cheese and peanut wontons (a speciality), steamed prawn and pork dumplings, and one of each chicken jungle curry, slow cooked lamb mussaman curry, and two chili beef salads.

My favourite Salmon Parcels

The food always lives up to its reputation at Chow, and this time was no exception. The service can be a bit hit and miss but considering Monday is there busiest night we will forgive them for having to ask a few times for some drinks.  Everything was brought out around the same time and placed in the middle of the table... this is the treats we had on offer:

The food was literally gobbled up within moments. Everyone ravenous and eager to try the next morsel, and me trying to savour every flavour so I could remember this moment for when I head back to the UK. Chow has a unique place in the Wellington and the New Zealand food market. Although I miss the Chow experience immensely and wish it was in London, I do feel it might get gobbled up in the voluptuousness of London's food scene which would take away from its magic.  But that doesn't matter, it makes it all the more special for when us Kiwi's return back home. For now I will dream of the curries full of colour, each dipping sauce intricately flavoured to compliment the item to dip, the salads spiced up with chilli and equally balanced with herby goodness, and the perfect mix of healthy dishes. You really can't fault Chow, it is definitely a resident Wellington haunt that has to be done, for regulars and especially out-of-towners. Go get Chowed!



To check out Chow's menu of Fresh Asian Cuisine click here.

Review: The Bluebird Cafe Chelsea... Yeah the one on Made in Chelsea

A good couple of months ago on a weekend when the sun was first starting to come out in Spring-time London, Adam and I walked from our house in Fulham to Chelsea. It was a rather decent walk and in what was then a 'hot' spring day (nothing compared to the heat-wave we are hit with now) we decided to try the large establishment on the main street - The Bluebird Café. This café has featured in many a Made in Chelsea episode so one may come to the conclusion that it must be good. However this assumption was very far off what was to be experienced.

We were lucky to get one of the last remaining tables in the sun, so the fact that there were plenty of people there reinforced the idea that this place must be really, really good. We were proved wrong.
For starters the service was absolutely terrible. We waiting about ten minutes to be asked what drinks we would like. I settled for a glass of Pinot Grigio and Adam a beer. This then took a further ten minutes to arrive. My wine was luke-warm so I asked for some ice for the wine. The first waitress asked me twice what I meant (she was foreign) - I then gestured putting ice into the glass and I was led to believe she knew what I meant. After waiting about another 5 minutes I asked another waitress (also foreign) for the same thing. After another couple of times explaining what I wanted she then exclaimed a big 'Ohh!' as if she understood what I meant. So once again I waited, deciding what to order from the good selection of all day offerings on the menu. I decided to settle on a Bluebird Club Sandwich and Adam had the Eggs Benedict. Having ordered our food and still having received no ice for the wine I decided to relent and drink the warm wine. Great.

Our food arrived a casual 20 minutes later and I was horrified with what I was served with. The presentation looked like something a toddler would eat; stodgy budget white toasted bread cut into triangle quarters, sprouting tooth picks with green olives and cherry tomatoes, and then sprinkled with shoestring fries. It was an eye-sore. The first bite did nothing to surpass my prejudice. The chicken schnitzel was dry, the bacon had no flavour and the tomatoes inside the sandwich were scarce and did nothing to soften the dry bread. This sandwich needed homemade bread, some mayonnaise to counter the chicken and bacon and a lot more creativeness with it's presentation. I don't know if it's just me but this is not what I expected from a club sandwich. To me this was all wrong and for about £8.50 you expect a lot more.

Adam's eggs bene was not much more visually appealing. It was so smothered in paprika you couldn't see the eggs.  It wasn't even worthy of a photo, but at least it tasted better than mine.

Nothing annoys me more than having to pay for a shit meal, rubbish service and an overall terrible experience. We could have made both of our meals 100% better at home.  I will not be recommending BlueBird Café to any one and will certainly not be going back to give them a chance to prove themselves. If the cafe is anything to go by I will be steering clear of their restaurant. I can only assume that they are paying big money to feature on Made In Chelsea so many times to try and get the place filled because it doesn't even deserve one star (hmmm maybe for the environment, but certainly not for service or food). Good riddance Bluebird! Yuck.

Jamie Oliver's Barbecoa

For Adam's birthday this year I perused my list of restaurant 'must-go-to's' in my phone and stumbled across Barbecoa, Jamie Oliver's Barbecue Steak House. This meat joint is located at One New Change overlooking the lovely St Paul's Cathedral. Luckily enough I was able to get a booking on the Friday night only at the time of 6.45pm and was kindly reminded when booking that we must vacate this after a couple of hours.

Having stated when booking that it was Adam's birthday in the hope that we would get a good table with a view we were disappointingly lead to a table in the middle of a few other couples and pretty much with no view at all. We were then asked if it was a special occasion and I repeated we had booked for Adam's birthday in which they then offered for us to have a drink at the bar whilst they tried to find us a table overlooking the Cathedral... sweet we didn't mind waiting at all! To our surprise a table was found within moments so we didn't have time for a drink but were placed at a table for two with a lovely view of St Paul's blissfully illuminated on the wet, grey London evening (well Adam did I was very kind and gave him the view for his birthday).

Once seated we were greeted by our happy smiley waiter for the evening who was very impressed with our large order for the two of us. I had done a bit of research and gorged over the menu prior to the evening. I had read good things about the baby back ribs so amongst those we ordered a smoked duck salad, and the calamari, followed by the rump steak with charred aubergine, and pulled pork with slaw, and then settled on a dessert to share of a chocolate sundae with pistachio ice cream.

Smoked Duck Salad

Baby Back Ribs

Adam settled on a bottle of French red, and then another, which ended up costing us the same price as the food totalled up! The starters came out in good time, and our waiter was full of good banter, not over the top but just friendly enough to have a laugh with. The baby back ribs definitely lived up to their expectations, and were probably the highlight of the meal. If I were to go back I would order a main of those puppies. The 'crispy' calamari with avocado wasn't so crispy and lacked some flavour however the smoked duck salad was a nice fresh accompaniment to the rather heavy-duty meal filled with pomegranates, mixed herby leaves and segments of blood orange.

Rump Steak with Aubergine

By the time our mains came out I was almost regretting my rump steak choice. I went with the rump option after recently completing my 'Cook the Perfect Steak' course at L'Atelier des Chefs where the chef there advised us that the muscle that does most of the work usually has the most flavour which is why most chefs would choose a rump over a fillet any day. So I took the chefs advice and went with the rump. Rather disappointing choice I have to say, it was dry and I wasn't advised to begin with that I would need a sauce to go with it. So after devouring a couple of fairly unflavoured dry mouthfuls I enquired about some Bearnaise. This was brought out swiftly but it still didn't give the beef the oomph it required. Adam kindly offered me some of his pulled pork and my goodness these were the most succulent and juicy mouthfuls I had tasted. The pork just oozed flavour that exploded in your mouth, combined with the slaw this really was ticking all the boxes. Accompanied by sides of duck fat chips - tick, ash-cooked sweet potatoes - bit disappointing in flavour and creamed spinach - the third runner up for the best item on the meal. This creamed spinach gratin was perfectly cooked, with just the right amount of  cream so it wasn't runny and finished off with grilled breadcrumbs and cheese = delish!!

Pulled Pork with Slaw and Waffles

Duck Fat Chips, Creamed Spinach and Sweet Potato sides

And I bet you are thinking 'I don't know how we could any more in'... well yes, yes we did!
We shared a pistachio nut chocolate ice-cream sundae that was brought out on a board with the words Happy Birthday scrawled across in chocolate sauce. A neat additive to the evening especially as Adam kindly let me swap seats with him over dessert so I could take in the view of the Cathedral.

 Barbecoa describes itself as 'a cathedral to fire and food'' which pretty much nails the theme of the place, with the meaty menu and situated right next to the beautiful St Paul's Cathedral.  Overall our night was fun, we weren't kicked off our table after two hours, we had great banter with our waiter and delicious wine with a delicious view. The food was a bit hit and miss but with a good few key items on the menu, the creamed spinach, pulled pork and baby back ribs. We ate to our hearts content and to be honest it was a little too much - I was literally in pain on the tube ride home and little did I know my stomach would no longer be able to cope with an overdose of red meat after this! But I would go again even if it is just for an extra large serving of the ribs and the view!

Cooking Class : A Couple of Handy Skills I Learnt

From my recent experiences at L'Atelier des Chefs I would like to share with you two techniques I thought were rather handy and would be useful for you too:

1. Finely dicing onions (which is supposed to not make you cry!)
2. The 'Finger-to-Thumb' steak test

I have also realised that these will be quite hard for you to visualise so I have included two hand drawn diagrams to help.... hopefully!!

1. When preparing the main course for my French cooking class I had to master the art of finely dicing a shallot (a more skinner type of onion for those of you who are not aware). This was a technique I had not mastered and I was advised if done properly it also assisted in preventing the awful bout of tears that follows when one usually cuts an onion.

I was very intrigued to learn the most efficient way to finely dice an onion as they are considered a constant tear-jerker vege for me. I was informed this technique (if done correctly) is not supposed to make you cry, however I did end up crying a teeny bit so clearly I still need to master this skill at home!!

To start with you needed to cut one end off the onion, peel the skin back and discard. Slice the onion horizontally starting from one end to the other, making sure not to cut straight through to the intact end of the onion. Then turn the knife sideways and slice the onion again in about three or four layers depending on its size. Final step is to slice the onion vertically using the point of the knife and press down to slice through the onion, then slide the knife through, repeat all the way through to the intact end of the onion. One important point to note is that you do need to invest in a good quality sharp knife!

NB: A note on the whole 'onion-cryinging-thing' is that it is often when you 'bruise' or bash the onion so its own juices come out that you start crying. The onion juices are attracted to the nearest liquid which is usually the liquid in your eye (believe it or not!). Another solution to help with this is to put a glass of water next to you when you chop onions. Also a pair of sunglasses may do the trick...

2. The 'Finger-to-Thumb' technique is used to check if a steak is cooked to your liking was a very exciting idea to me. For some reason this skill had never come across my radar and I was an avid pre-meal steak cutter to check if it was cooked through to my liking whilst it was still in the pan - therefore serving a steak with a cut in it - not ideal. So basically this technique is as easy as feeling different parts of your hand to reveal how you like your steak cooked : rare, medium-rare and well-done. Touch the middle of your steak with your finger when cooking it to feel the springy-ness. The below will tell you how to cook to your liking:

Rare : Feel the piece of skin between your thumb and forefinger on your hand palm side down
Medium-rare : Feel the piece of skin on the heel of your palm when your thumb and forefinger are touching (palm side up)
Well-done : Do exactly the same for the medium-rare test but using your thumb and middle finger

And there you have it! No more cutting steak mid cooking - you can now cook the perfect steak with this great little technique!

My First Cooking Class at L'Atelier des Chefs

I recently indulged in having a week off work in London, which I was advised by my work colleagues is a 'staycation': a vacation but in your home location.  Basically I had to take some time off work to use up some holiday days, and so deciding not to travel abroad I made some arrangements to do one main thing each day to keep me occupied. When living in such a fantastic cultural city there is an awful lot for one to do, so I had plenty to choose from but I had been meaning to tick a few things off so this provided the opportune moment.

I started the week off with an exhibition at Somerset House celebrating 60 years of Valentino's couture and ended with an exploration of Kensington Palace. The Valentino exhibition was a captivating, engaging showcase of the coutourist's masterpieces, and emphasised the attention to fine detail that made Valentino one of the most compelling designers of our time.  Seeing his work in person was very moving, I'm only saddened by the fact I had none of the ladies in my family to share the experience with.

I took what I learnt from Valentino's passion for fashion to my day two adventure: A three-course French cooking class at L'Atelier des Chefs.  L'Atelier is a cooking school just down the road from where I work at Selfridges which I had passed on numerous occasions. When my staycation arrived I thought what more than a better idea but to go try my skills at a class and boost my knowledge in some French cooking...

 

My class started off with an introduction on how the lesson would pan out; the Chef would guide me through making the three courses from the class I had chosen, assisting in each step of the way. I could then either eat the food I had cooked at the dining table with a glass of wine or I could take it away. No recipe was needed for the class and I was told this would be sent to me within 48 hours of the class (which it was). I was guided downstairs and introduced to my Chef for the class; Satti. Fortunately I was the only one who had booked on to my class so I had the Chef all to myself, so was told to make the most of his expertise!

The lesson consisted of:

• Goats cheese crostini with candied walnuts and salad
• Lyonaise potatoes and l'moutarde chicken
• Chocolate mousse and pistachio and almond toffee

Satti explained what we would be cooking together and briefly how each course would unfold. We started with making the dessert; a homemade chocolate mousse with pistachio and almond nougatine. The moose consisted of two eggs separated, melted dark chocolate, and caster sugar. The mousse was a bit fiddly, having to whisk the whites, then the yolks, add the sugar then fold into each other until smooth, which made for a very sore wrist! And then cool in the fridge. The toffee was then a matter of making it quickly as the sugar and water turns into a caramel and needs cooling time once poured onto a baking tray with the nuts, both items needing cooling so it was only right we completed these first.

We then went straight in to cooking candied walnuts for the goats cheese salad. Satti explained a deep fryer of any sort was the way to go and didn't need to be expensive. I didn't have the heart to tell him I'm not overly into deep frying and have no desire to purchase a machine! The making of the candied walnuts seemed very fussy to me; boil water with sugar and walnuts to precisely 113 degrees, remove the walnuts and drain, then fry in oil heated to 140 degrees until they rise to the surface, remove and drain, leave to cool. Now, for those of you that read LoveBites you know I am all about reasonably quick, efficient and effective food. Candied walnuts does not really fall into that category, however as I was here at the cooking class I embraced the experience.
We then made a costini, using a circular cookie cutter, cut into thick white toast bread and fried. Not really my type of crostini, I prefer the friend French bread type, but this was a interesting change. I then also had to make a dressing of whisked vinegar, mustard and walnut oil which did seem to hurt the hand after so much whisking! It was then a matter of creating a layered crostini, crumbled goats cheese, repeat, garnish with lambs lettuce, sprinkle around the candied walnuts and drizzle with the dressing. Voila! Starter completed and I was able to sit down and eat. This was rich and probably had a bit too much goats cheese but I did enjoy the candied walnuts as a nice accompaniment to the cheese despite the fact they took some TLC to cook!

The next step was to prepare the chicken, sauce potatoes and salad. The chicken was roasted, the potatoes were boiled then sliced, then fried with onions and thyme leaves. The sauce involved sauteing the shallots and garlic, adding white wine, chicken stock, mustards and cream. The salad involved whisking a dressing together in much the same fashion as the dressing for the candied walnuts. To serve we halved the chicken diagonally and placed atop the fried potatoes and doused in the sauce. The salad leaves were tossed with the dressing and served on top of the chicken as garnish.

Needless to say after all this preparation I had pretty much cooked a feast! The chicken and potatoes were bursting with flavour which was emphasised by the sauce and each mouthful was a succulent tender and juicy masterpiece. The dish was once again exceptionally rich and I could only manage half the meal - had to leave some room for dessert! As I tucked straight in to the chilled mousse which was also powerfully rich, I felt like my stomach was going to explode! I managed to finish most of the mousse but felt quite overwhelmed with the richness of every dish.
Each course was tasty in its own right, the main course being my favourite but I do think if I was going to repeat this at home I would need a lighter dessert, or starter as each dish felt very heavy. However this is the style of French cooking and as I had just completed my first French cooking class I could not complain. After this mammoth meal I did not need any dinner but was able to replicate the remainder of the main course for Adam when I got home which he thoroughly enjoyed!

This was a great class, I had a great teacher and a lot of fun, and would definitely recommend going to L'Atelier to anyone. I did in fact enjoy it so much that I went back later in the week for one of their fast lunchtime classes where a friend and I learnt how to cook the perfect steak! I was so impressed with this steak that I ended up buying the Le Creuset grill pan we used shortly after and have been using the finger to palm steak test ever since!

For the recipes I made check out the links below :
Caramelised goats' cheese salad with candied walnuts
Chicken a la moutarde with Lyonnaise potatoes and salad
Chocolate mousse with pistachio and almond nougatine
Rump steak sandwich with truffle mayonnaise and rocket salad