I’d been scouring the internet looking for a cooking course as a birthday present back in November and finally settled on a pasta making course.
The main reason for choosing the course was that it was possible to attend in the evenings. It seems that cooking courses in London are extremely popular, including those hosted during the working day. This leads me to presume there are a lot of wealthy people with very little to do in the daytime.
If I had known about the relatively new “School of Wok” on Chandos Place (near Covent Garden/Leicester Square) at the time I would have potentially booked a course. The school offers courses in Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese and Thai cooking with many of them in the evenings and at the weekend, making it much more accessible for us nine til fivers.
Quickfire Wok
I was invited to a “Quickfire Wok” session at the School of Wok by Cathay Pacific who are celebrating the Chinese New Year with a flight sale. The airline takes their in-flight catering seriously and apparently were the first airline to have a rice cooker on board. Cathay Pacific want to inspire people to fly out to Asia, China and Hong Kong by tempting them with the destinations cuisine, a clever ploy indeed.
Personally, I don’t really need convincing, I love all things spicy and for me one best things about traveling Asia is definitely the food. My Wok skills on the other hand and knowledge of how to make the food is somewhat limited, so this was the perfect course to start with. It’s great fun and provides a good balance of not being too complicated but also providing useful tips and advice that I could actually take away and use myself in the kitchen.
Our host for the evening was top chef and founder of the school, Jeremy Pang, he’s a down to earth type of guy, humorous and full of energy. He’s exactly the type of chef you’re looking for when you’re on a cooking course and you’re not a particularly great cook (like me).
Wontons
The Quickfire Wok course started with a demonstration on how to make Wontons, which apart from making the pastry yourself is pretty straight forward. We had hands-on fun mixing and seemingly beating the Wonton mix into the bowl, with stray pieces flying around on occasion. Then we moved onto learning how to create a parcel with the pastry, looks easier than it is. After practicing this making four separate Wontons each, we placed them to one side before tackling what we’d come for, the Wok.
Sichuan Chicken
Jeremy took us through the basics of handling the Wok, including how to cool down the sir fry by flipping its contents and also how to clean it properly after cooking. Apparently you should leave the Wok on the hob with water whilst stirring, as the water boils it cleans it, after rinsing again place back on the hob to dry out and prevent rusting.
The cooking itself was pretty hands on and Jeremy dashed around the kitchen appearing over your shoulder to give quick fire advice on your cooking progress. After sizzling the sir fry for about 10-15 minutes we headed out of the kitchen to sample a sparkling glass of “Kiki” a sparkling Sauvignon Blanc.
A Grape Night In
As we waited for our hard work to be served on the table we were introduced to half of A Grape Night In, Kiki. She took us through some wine tasting with wines picked especially to compliment the spice of the Chinese stir fry. I’d never thought too much about wine with Chinese food, I don’t remember drinking much wine whilst traveling in China so it was interesting to sample different wines to see how different they tasted with spice.
Overall the experience was fun yet useful. I learnt many little tips and tricks that I could apply myself in the kitchen. The environment was relaxed and welcoming, it’s definitely somewhere I’d recommend friends to check out.
Cathay Pacific’s flight sale includes Economy Class to Hong Kong from GBP 579, to China from GBP 619, to Asia from GBP 639 and Australia/NZ from GBP 759. Premium Economy Class to Hong Kong is now from GBP 999. For more information visit www.cathaypacific.co.uk.
