The Underground Cooking Class

Roberto Cortez from Los Angeles has cooked for the Victoria & Albert museum and Barack Obama amongst others…more on him here.

Recently many people have contacted me because they are interested in improving their cooking skills. Some would like to start their own home restaurants but lack confidence. The Underground Cooking Class is open to amateurs but professionals may also like to check out some of the more advanced techniques below such as ‘spherification’. He says he has brought his “own chemicals” over from Los Angeles. I’m all agog!

As a self-trained cook, this could be a culinary culture clash. Roberto’s modern cuisine in my rustic French-style kitchen, on my Aga. But as he said to me yesterday “the best cook I know is my Mexican grandmother”. 

I am very much looking forward to learning from Roberto…the lessons are reasonably priced so I hope to see you soon at The Underground Cooking Class. Bring a pinny and a pen!

Monday 23rd of March 2pm: CHOCOLATE
Understanding how chocolate works and different types, temperatures, perfect mousses every time, flavor development, Cocoa percentages.

We will show how to make …70% Dark chocolate mousse, 64% Dark chocolate lavender cream, 42% Milk chocolate cinnamon cream, White chocolate mousse with raspberries.

 £40

Monday 30th March 2pm:VEGETABLES AND KNIFE SKILLS
Proper cooking techniques and new variations to bring excitement to vegetables, Learn how to hold, cut, slice and use knives properly with an overview of knowing when to use which knife. Bring your own knives! 

£40

Monday 6th April 2pm: DOUGHS
Brioche, puff pastry, inverted puff pastry, citrus peel butter cake, basic understanding of all elements involved in making doughs and applying temperature knowledge to ensure amazing results 

£40

Monday 13th April 2pm: FISH
Cooking techniques to master fish cookery using slow roasting, cold poaching, oil confit, low heat steaming, and brining. Learn how to recognize fresh fish and how to store properly

 £45

Monday 20th April 2pm: UNDERSTANDING SPHERIFICATION
Techniques, regular, reverse, cold oil, fat variations with complete ingredient information (Adventurous cooks)

 £50

Monday 27th April 2pm: SAUCES AND PLATING PRESENTATION Part 1 Savoury
You know those fancy pants ways of making your dinner look good? Learn it here. Towers, plate graffitti, the lot!

 £40

Monday 4th May 2pm: DESSERT SAUCES AND PLATING PRESENTATION Part 2 Sweet

Same kind of stuff as the week before but with desserts.

 £40

Monday 11th May 2pm: SALADS
New flavor combinations, analysis, recipes. How to make a salad without lettuce could be the subtitle of this lesson. With the summer hopefully starting, this could be the most useful lesson yet. 

£40

Monday 18th May 2pm: SOUPS 
Techniques for perfect soups, velvety texture, purees, new variations

 £40

Monday 25th May 2pm: GRAINS
Proper risotto technique, using grains in inventive dishes

 £40

Monday 1st June 2pm: INTRODUCTION TO GELEES, ESPUMA MOUSSES, HYDROCOLLOIDS
How hard can molecular gastronomy be? Can the home cook do it? Time to find out…

£50

Monday 8th June 2pm: TARTS 

Pineapple star anise, perfect doughs, homemade glacage and variations, chocolate cocoa nib, coconut almond cream with raspberries

 £40

Monday 15th June 2pm: DESSERTS 101

Fruits, creams, basic doughs, tuilles, chocolate, basics for making nice desserts correctly

 £40

Roberto also provides mobile phone cookery support, a kind of Samaritans for chefs if you try any of the techniques at home and get stuck!

You can book through wegottickets.com. Just setting it up today.