I recently had the pleasure of attending a fantastic event in Cooks Academy called Pixels and Palates. It was a brilliant fusion of food and technology. They are celebrating 10 years of turning the nation into confidant cooks. I spent a week with them myself so can certainly vouch for their expertise. I’m now a master of filleting a fish. You can read about my experience here.
They have very kindly given me a discount code which you can use to book any of their short courses. A whopping 20% off!!!!!!! The offer is valid for all courses booked up to 31st of March 2015. The course itself can take place after this date provided its booked in advance. The code to use is eatdri365and you can use it for online bookings or quote it over the phone if making a booking that way.
A full list of the short courses can be found here and there is something for everyone.
The evening itself was really great fun and I had the chance to meet many fellow bloggers from the worlds of food and social media. We were fed and watered to within an inch of our life and they also had a great competition on the night to win a one month cookery course (valued at €2,950). The task was to turn some turkey and ham based dishes into a credible portion of street food. There were some great creations I have to say. Here is mine.
I called it Christmas Summer
Christmas Summer Street Food
Alas I didn’t win the prize but it was great fun taking part. The winner created a festive nativity scene out of food.
Nativity Scene
The owners of Nobo Rachel and Brian who produce dairy and gluten free ice cream gave us a fascinating insight into their business and of course samples to taste. Delicious. You can find them in your local SuperValu.
Salted Caramel
There was also a Molecular Gastronomy Taste Test which I failed miserably at. It was a great night from Cooks Academy and I look forward to many more, and of course trying some more of their courses.
Molecular Gastronomy Taste Test
My horrendous guesses but I got two right (I think)
Back in May last year I took it upon myself to improve my cooking skills. I wouldn’t exactly starve in the kitchen but I wouldn’t blow your mind either. I had some holidays to use up from work so I decided to take a week off and embark on Cooks Academy Essential Cookery Course.
The course runs for five days from 10.00 a.m. to 4.00 p.m. each day and is described as follows:
‘Spend a wonderful week cooking and learning here at Cooks Academy. Because we stream participants of different abilities, this course will suit you either as a total beginner or as a cook with experience. You will learn the basics of classical cooking along with a concise discovery of cooking methods and techniques giving you the background to enable your skills to mushroom in the future. A great course if you’re taking a break from your hectic work for a week’ (from Cooks Academy website)
The first day we got to meet the team from Cooks Academy. All very professional and personable. There were about 15 of us taking part for the week so over a batch of freshly baked scones and mugs of tea we started chatting and began to get to know each other.
Demo Kitchen Area
We were given a book of recipies and a plan for the week broken down by day of what dishes we would cook. It averaged about 8 differant meals a day including everything from soups to mains to desserts. The first morning also included some of the basics like knife skills, a tour of the kitchen and actually showing us various kitchen untensils and how to correctly use them. It was surprisingly helpful that bit.
After the introduction we were asked to get ourselves into pairs as we would be working together for many of the recipies. It was all a bit like being picked for teams in PE. A little bit of shuffling about. A bit of looking at the ground and then a few ‘will you work with me’ in hushed tones. Everyone managed to find a friend and I was paired up with an excitable young lad who was rearing to go.
The format was the same for each day. One of the chefs would demonstrate the dish right in front of us and talk us through the process while giving us tips on how to improve our cooking and answering our never ending stream of questions which I’m sure they had heard a million times. Once that was done we were let loose in the kitchen to recreate it ourselves.
Kitchen Area
For all of the dishes the staff had already set out all the ingredients at our work stations. This was really just so we could fit all the dishes in and didn’t have to waste time measuring out ingredients. I’m going to go out on a limb and assume they figured we would be able to do that ourselves at home. Maybe they gave us too much credit!
Throughout the week we made a great mix of dishes and usually after we made a dish we went back to the seating area and sat down and ate. It was cook eat, cook eat, cook eat, roll home. Not a bad way to spend a day. Some of the dishes we made are coming up below. Yes they were all made from scratch and all made by me. I was kinda impressed with myself.
Freshly Baked Brown Bread
Rib Eye Steak with Peppercorn Sauce and Fondant Potato
Spicey Chicken, Cucumber and Cashew Salad
Lamb with Rosemary Jus
Chocolate Souffle
Eclairs
On the final day of the course we spent the afternoon preparing just one dish which was a very tasty apple tart. After that the staff had organised an end of course graduation for us which was a really great touch. Everyone was called up by name to receive their certificate and shake hands with the chef, while enjoying canapes accompanied by prosecco. It was a really nice way to finish off the week.
Apple Tart
It’s not a great picture, bit fuzzy but was great to take a picture with the entire class, and of course our apple tarts.
The Class
Certificate
The course is currently priced at €450 which equates to €90 a day. Given that every single ingredient is supplied for you, all of which are of excellent quality I personally think it’s great value.
Contact Details:
19 South William Street
Dublin 2
Ph: 01 6111 666
I recently had the pleasure of attending a fantastic event in Cooks Academy called Pixels and Palates. It was a brilliant fusion of food and technology. They are celebrating 10 years of turning the nation into confidant cooks. I spent a week with them myself so can certainly vouch for their expertise. I’m now a master of filleting a fish. You can read about my experience here.
