Wickedfood Cooking School, SUNNINGHILL

Information & bookings (011) 234-3252 sunninghill@wickedfood.co.za

Hi all,

Over the weekend we had a very successful joint function with Slow Food, tasting five very different venison recipes and pairing them with some of the country’s top wines.  Due to its great success, we will repeat these type of functions on a quarterly basis.

Over the next two weeks, we once again have some fantastic individual classes.  Our French cooking class is always popular, so book soon.  In addition we have a class on quick and easy meals for two, as well as a cooking class on making pasta and an Indian cooking class.  Hope to see you at one of these cooking classes, see details below.

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Wickedfood Cooking School news

Cooking class programmes are up on the internet, click the relevant month for the August and September programme .

Wickedfood Cooking School runs cooking classes with a minimum of 8 participants and a maximum of 12 as this gives everyone hands-on experience and keeps the cooking class small enough for maximum learning. These cooking classes are conducted by our senior instructors who have extensive experience in the food industry and share a variety of additional cooking tips throughout the cooking class.

• Sunday 29 August at 4pm – Classic French cooking (R390pp). French cooking class, an introduction to French cuisine with some classic seafood dishes including quiche Lorraine, bouillabaisse, sole meunière, salad niçoise and flourless chocolate cake.
• Monday 30 August at 6pm – 30 minute meals (R370pp). In this class we will show participants how to produce quick and easy 30 minute meals that are delicious, and at the same time low in fat and well balanced.  Includes Tandoori chicken salad, penne with a tomato salsa and tuna, chilli seafood rice and apple and pear strudel.
• Monday 06 September at 6pm – Making filled pasta and accompanying sauces (R390pp). Dishes covered in this pasta making cooking class include cheese and ham ravioli with a tomato sauce, meat filled agnolotti, spinach and ricotta tortellini, cappelletti filled with sweet potatoes and ravioli with apple and pecan nut stuffing.
• Sunday 12 September at 4pm – Easy Entertaining Indian style (R380pp). Authentic Indian cooking class including bhel puri, lamb korma, potato and cauliflower curry, chicken pulao and cheese balls in syrup.

Please contact the school should you wish to make a booking:

Looking for info on food?

If you have any food-related questions, or a dish that you just can’t get right or even a certain recipe that you are looking for, but just can’t seem to find, then contact us and we will do our best to answer it as soon as possible. Click Here for more information. Hope to hear from you soon.

Juliet Cullinan Wine Festival

The Juliet Cullinan Standard Bank Wine Festival 2010 takes place this year on 8 and 9 September from 17h30 to 21h00 at the Wanderer’s Club, 21 North Road, Illovo, Johannesburg. Cost per ticket is R100.

With only 60 exhibitors, this small, focused festival appeals to tasters looking for old and tested, or new and innovative wines, which are not available to the general trade and not easily available in retail outlets.  Each year the management at Wickedfood Cooking School visits this show to keep abreast of new trends and cultivars available on the market, a really worthwhile outing.

On food

Is your extra virgin olive oil top grade?

A University of California study on olive oil says many of the olive oils lining supermarket shelves in the United States are not the top-grade extra virgin oils that their labels declare (and for which we’re paying good money). I’m pretty sure that the situation in South Africa is very similar, especially  with regards to the imported oils.  The  study  found that more than two-thirds of samples failed to meet international and U.S. standards.

First, remember that all olive oils, regardless of the variety, are 100 percent fat and contain the same amount of calories!

So what should be we be looking for when buying olive oil?

• Extra virgin olive oil: The finest and fruitiest of olive oil grades. It is also the most expensive, with a colour ranging from deep gold or greenish gold to bright, grassy green. It should never be cooked with, only used as a garnish.
• Virgin olive oil: Is the second pressing.  Its acidity level can be up to 2 percent. It should also taste smooth and have a good aroma, flavour and colour.
• Olive oil: oil with flavour or an aroma that is less than perfect is refined to produce an odourless, colourless and tasteless oil. Virgin olive oil is then added to give it some flavour and colour. The flavour and, ultimately, price of olive oil varies depending on the amount of virgin olive oil added.

Don’t fry away your money. The flavour of higher priced extra virgin olive oil tends to break down at frying temperatures. Standard olive oil forms a crust on the surface of food when fried that impedes the penetration of oil and improves its flavour. As a result, less of the oil is actually absorbed in the food, resulting in a lower fat content than food fried in other oils. … Click Here to read more.

Cookbook of the week

Mastering the Art of French Cooking

Remember the movie Julie & Julia, starring Meryl Streep as Julia Child. In the movie Julie set herself the task of  cooking every dish from Julia Child’s book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking originally published more than 40 years ago. Fortunately the book has recently been re-printed, with all 524 recipes. … Click Here for more.

Click Here to see Wickedfood Cooking School’s top 10 food-related books for 2009.

Food quote of the week

“Laughter is brightest where food is best.” – Irish Proverb.

Recipe of the week:

Boeuf bourguignon

As is the case with most famous dishes, there are more ways than one to arrive at a good boeuf bourguignon. Carefully done, and perfectly flavoured, it is certainly one of the most delicious beef dishes concocted by man. Fortunately you can prepare it completely ahead, even a day in advance, and it only gains in flavour when re-heated. …Click Here for the recipe.

The Wickedfood Team

Wickedfood Cooking School runs cooking classes throughout the year at its purpose-built Johannesburg cooking studio. Cookery classes are run in the mornings and evenings 7 days a week (subject to a minimum of 12 people). The venue is also popular for corporate events and private functions – teambuilding cooking classes, birthdays, kitchen teas, and dinner parties with a difference.

Our cooking lessons are hands-on, where every person gets to participate in the preparation of the dishes. They are also a lot of fun where you not only learn new skills, but get to meet people with similar interests. For corporate groups and team building cooking classes these events are a novel way of creating staff interaction or entertaining clients.