For many parents, the prospect of their children leaving home is a situation they can not always prepare themselves with given how many variables are involved.
Young people left alone in a kitchen can be a bwilderig experience when one considers the volume of instant fix meals available on the market along with the well engineered targeted marketing we are familiar today. Whilst convenience meals have their place, they are not a well balanced substitute for cooking at home when you consider for instance baked beans being one of many young people’s favourite meal fixes contains as much as 6 teaspoons of sugar in a typical 400g can. Healthy does no need to be boring and this workshop is testament to that. We explain and break ingredients into food groups from carbohydrates to vegetables and discuss the absolute basics of cooking; sautéing verses boiling or grilling, which pans to use and when , what to buy as essential ingredients and how to store them and what basic utensils and cookware are required too. Once both recipes and essentials are reviewed, the class is organised into groups of 2 creating all the recipes themselves under the supervision of the studio chef. During the workshop, the essentials are explained in greater detail; use of oils, reductions, oven temperatures and cutting techniques etc as an effective teaching aid. Within the course content, we include some ingredients that are not so commonly used like bulgar, buckwheat and gram flours. We also address the absolute basics of sauces making including tomato and roux base, soup basics, easy breads, vegetable stews, salads and dressings, and nutritious quick snacks. The focus is to provide both balanced and healthy concepts along with explaining low/high GI cuisine without labouring or labelling foods at “healthy”.
