Went to the Institute of Culinary  Education today to do our cooking class and while it was a great experience, perhaps a little more order to things was needed.

Our head chef went through the recipes we were to cook: bibb lettuce salad with warm cider vinaigrette and Asian pears, cedar plank salmon with blood orange glaze accompanied by asparagus, peas and fresh basil in a butter sauce, served with herbed quinoa. The whole lot was finished off with a Greek yoghurt panna cotta with strawberries soaked in a balsamic reduction.

We then set about doing our mis-en-place (our prep work) before starting the dessert  as it needed to set.  It all sounded good in practice but once everyone began, it was sheer pandemonium.  Trying to find the fresh herbs, the olive oil, the red wine vinegar, even some of the cooking implements was just the start – everyone just took all the ingredients and grabbed cooking utensils keeping them on their work benches (or hiding them so we couldn’t find them – even chef had a struggle locating some of the vital elements for cooking).  So it was the survival of the fittest and even though we were in fighting mode, the young New York women who have the ability to quadruple task – prepare, cook, talk and check their iPhones throughout, certainly came out best. They were sitting down and sms’ing while we more measured folk were still getting our menu finalised to eat (and cleaning up).

At the end of the day it tasted great even though I (Ingrid) could teach them a thing or two about tidiness and a sense of order.

The concept is a good one – perhaps we had a less than organised chef who really needed to raise her voice a few times to get people back on track.

After three hours of prepping, cooking, watching the ovens, cleaning our bench tops and then eating, we were well and truly ready to go home!

Check out our  culinary skills.