Cooking at Caldesi
‘La Cucina Caldesi may be familiar to those of you who watch afternoon telly, or Chav TV as the politically incorrect sometimes call it. The BBC have been showing Giancarlo Caldesi and his wife Katie’s trials and tribulations getting a cookery school up and running not just behind their Marylebone restaurant but in Tuscany too. Just to make things even trickier they elected to get married while in Tuscany.
Well that programme was made a while back now and the recipe book is in the shops and probably on your Xmas list. The cookery school in Marylebone is well established and is offering a mind-boggling range of courses to suit all styles. We went along to try a special morning course of Italian baking entitled ‘Baking from the Italian Deli,’ a course which will be repeated later in the year.
Wandering through the doors of the specially converted set of garages in the mews behind the restaurant, you’re immediately struck by the calm, friendly feel, A rare bit of sunshine is splashing through the windows and restaurant staff are busy preparing dough for the restaurants focaccia breads, The smell is welcoming, as is the fresh coffee a waitress brings over. Our tutor for the day, Ghalid Assyb is already busy despite having only got off a flight from Turkey about six hours previously. He is still adjusting. Having spent his short break there wearing summer clothes for the heat, his transition to a bitterly cold Heathrow has been a bit of a shock to the system but he is all smiles.
Ghalid is best known as the founder chef of the popular Ottolenghi in Notting Hill, which spawned two further branches in Kensington and Islington. Ghalid was also a specialist baker at the original Baker & Spice in Knightsbridge, where he learned and perfected the technique for making various types of delicious pastry and breads. It’s fair to say he loves baking best of all and his products are sought after, not least by the staff at Caldesi who frequently pop in during the course of the morning ostensibly to get something for the restaurant but also because they hope to grab some of what’s being cooked up.
It’s a bit of a ladies day today, a charming Japanese couple of mother and daughter and two ladies who have been bought the course as presents. One is here specifically for the Polenta and Orange Cake we are going to cook, having tried it recently. Me I’m here to try and get better at something I’m terrible at, pastry. If Ghalid can’t turn me into a proficient pastry slinger it’s hard to think who can. First though, it’s savoury muffins stuffed with ricotta cheese.
Divided into pairs I get the job of chopping the basil for the stuffing and I’m happy as can be with the thick aroma of fresh basil rising up. I’m watching the mixing of the muffin batter with close interest though. My muffins don\t rise at home, in fact they sort of implode. Ghalid is showing us that one of the secrets is the way you mix the ingredients, sieving flour from on high to add air and then being careful with technique to avoid knocking the air out again. It’s at these moments that being hands on with an expert is so useful. You can be told something again and again, even shown on TV, but to actually be present and have a chef guide your hands, showing you the exact technique is priceless. It sinks it and you remember viscerally so that you can repeat it with ease back at home. Mind you, back home we don’t get these eggs. The yolks are incredibly yellow, the freshest of free range and they impart a golden glow to all the mixes we are to make today. With the muffins stuffed and in the oven, we move on to a seasonal fruit compote.
This is deceptively easy, a load of fresh fruit pitted and trimmed, sprinkled with sugar and the beautiful essence from a fresh vanilla pod, some cinnamon and star anise and all lobbed into a medium oven. Towards the end we add some strawberries. The fruit comes out soft and still with bite, the syrup of the sugar glistening around. A perfect dessert or, as Ghalid points out, something to keep in the fridge for a few days worth of brilliant breakfasts.
Ah and now time for some savouries, little mini tarts with roasted aubergines, pumpkins. To make it harder we’re not using tins but rings lined with the pastry. These will sit on a baking sheet if we are lucky enough to get them there without the bottom falling out. I’m sceptical but am distracted by hearing Ghalid telling us all to seriously grease our rings, which, I am afraid to say, has me sniggering pitifully. My concentration comes back as I follow carefully his tuition on pastry making, I always knew the basics but now I actually see what to do. Ghalid is very patient and very good at preventing despair settling in. I can now see what has being going wrong all these years, I have been panicking and not persevering. What I thought was wrong was right, all I had to do was to have confidence. Having an expert like Ghalid assure me is just what was needed to correct my errors.
We go on to make a range of sweet and savouries, each relatively simple but needing that master class instruction that Ghalid gives so well. Then finally we sit and eat our efforts as they roll out of the ovens. I have to say they were all delicious. Since then I’ve driven the family mad with my baking to the point where I’ve been asked to hold for awhile, they can have too much of a good thing apparently. But I won’t forget the skills I’ve learned.
www.caldesi.com has details of all the many courses available.
