Chef Adam Gray at the Great British Chefs Masterclass at the Cookery School, London

By : Vaishali Sengupta | 31 Comments | On : May 1, 2015 | Category : Uncategorized

Last week, I was privileged to attend a Masterclass organised by the Great British Chefs at the Cookery School, tucked away in Little Portland Street.

The Masterclass was conducted by the extremely talented Chef Adam Gray, the Michelin starred Head Chef at the Skylon Restaurant at London’s most vibrant Southbank.

The Chef is very passionate about British Food and talked extensively about what a difference the quality and freshness of the produce make to the dish.

He also talked at length about the benefits of Rapeseed oil, especially his favourite brand Mellow Yellow. He uses it to roast, fry, cook and even as a dressing.

I was shocked that it also tasted divine as a dip- just with bread. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t detected it, until the Chef walked upto me and told me what oil it was. Believe me, I wouldn’t have tried it, never ever have dipped my bread into Rapeseed oil-  if I knew. But I am glad I did.

I had to revise my opinion about Rapeseed oil, my previous experiences with it not being so good. I have always disliked the particularly strong odour that rapeseed oil (or even the Canola oil as it is called in the US) has. But Mellow Yellow made me revise my opinion. Pronto.

He then introduced us to Sea Kale – something none of us food bloggers had encountered before. I was blown away by its tender crispiness and I shall certainly pick them up if I come across them.

The Chef and his sous Chef Damon Stokes went on to demonstrate a very interesting recipe- Crisp Cornish Mackerel served with Rhubarb Relish.

At first, he  demonstrated how to fillet mackerel- of course, making everything seem so effortless.

The filleting technique was superb. What I liked best was how he only seasoned the centre of the fish with mustard, to bring out the full flavour.

The bread was then rid of its crust, rolled into a thickness that only paper can boast of and then stuffed with fish fillet, rolled, chilled and deep-fried to the perfect golden brown.

If you weren’t sure what was golden brown- this is it.

Then the Chef plated it up beautifully withe the Rhubarb Relish, Sea Kale and Peas Shoot Salad.

Now who would ever guess that these perfectly poised, crunchy little bits of heaven would have a fishy morsel tucked within?

After this demonstration, we were asked to form ourselves into 3 groups and go to our tables where the ingredients for the next recipe were already waiting for us.

We were first shown the what we were expected to achieve – so we had an end product in mind.

Ticklemore goat’s cheese fritters with heritage tomato salad

This is what we were supposed to replicate .. so after gushing over the tomatoes and the beautiful presentation, off we went to roll, chill, dip and roll again.

The Heirloom tomatoes were not only beautiful to look at with their vibrant colours, but tasted really delicious.

The goat’s cheese was mixed with cream, seasoned, rolled into small cylindrical shapes and then chilled in the Ultracool Blast freezer at the Cookery School.

I was most intrigued by the amount of Fennel seeds that the Chef had mentioned in the recipe. 50gms seemed like a bit much, but then I discovered his nifty trick of using it not in the cheese stuffing itself, but in the cover with the Panko breadcrumbs. The sweet freshness of the Fennel set off the sharp saltiness of the Goats cheese rather well. I think that was a very clever combination, and I did compliment the Chef. I am so going to try that out someday.

And after all that frenzied chopping, rolling, dipping and so on, here’s what we achieved.

Not bad eh?  (The small, compact, easy- to- manage fritters on the right are ours! )

The Second Assignment:

Thank you Great British Chefs for organising this exciting Masterclass and for inviting me. It is a great initiative by GB and such classes always help sharpen one’s skills.

Look forward to many more!

Note:

The detailed recipes  can be found here- in this lovely little guide made by GB Chefs

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