Rachel Demuth isn’t your average celebrity
chef. True, after 25 years her eponymous
restaurant is an institution. Now
her cooking school has expanded to purpose-built kitchens and recently welcomed
my all-time culinary hero, Yotam Ottolenghi. If he likes it, it must be good.
Along with her head chef Richard, she is
thoughtful, unshowy and lets her food do the talking. Their latest project is to write about how cooking has evolved over the last
quarter century.
Cynically, I asked if this just meant half
the portion size for double the price.
Gently ignoring my provocation, they noted that availability of
ingredients has grown exponentially, technology for transporting, storing,
preparing and cooking has transformed, information and education are
revolutionised by television shows and the web, and disposable income for
buying food and eating out has rocketed.
But how will this affect how, say, a cheese
soufflé would be made now as opposed to the late 80s? This is the angle they intend to take – again, they’ll let
the food do the talking.
And it was actually the fancy soufflé-type
stuff we were learning to do – partly to celebrate Katja's birthday
weekend, and also as we hoped the one-day ‘cook to impress’ course would prepare us for a
deluge of hungry guests when we move to our new house next week.
The concept makes a lot of sense: when you have friends to dinner you
want to spend time with them, not hours in the kitchen – and this is essentially the same
challenge as restaurants have with customers arriving and expecting sophisticated
food in just 20 minutes.
The answer: do it in advance.
Not just preparation, but also most of the cooking; and then heat,
assemble and spend time with your friends – simple!
We also learned loads of top tips. Blanche everything green, urged
Richard, to fix the chlorophyll and retain the vibrant colours. Smoke vegetables (in a smoking dish not
a pipe!), which we did with potatoes to delicious effect. If you don't have honey, make caramel simply by heating sugar in
a pan – no need for water, just keep stirring and it magically melts. And serve everything in threes.
The best tips were for milk products. Butter featured highly, hopefully
allowed in the context of occasional treats for friends. Used to grease tins (not oil as I use,
as it runs down the side), to coat pasta or gnocchi (the fat keeps it hot much
longer than water), and to fry (rather than olive oil, which boils at too low a
temperature).
Cream also arose, being added to a
reduction of wine and stock to produce an intensely powerful sauce. Mascarpone, I discovered, is also just
cream with lemon juice added. And
I am seriously considering replacing all parmesan with the rich, crumbly Old
Winchester.
And one last dairy tip – boiling mustard
seeds with vinegar, sugar and water made a wonderful pickle – and even more so
if the seeds are first soaked in (you guessed it), milk.
After fun in the kitchen we threw ourselves
into Bath – mansions of delicious honey-coloured stone, quirky independent shops
(especially B’s Booksellers), the impressive and relaxing Thermae spa, even a literature festival and half marathon to
keep us amused.
Our most surprising find was Moles. Buried minutes away from the Georgian splendour of the Royal
Crescent, this is a proper, no-nonsense music venue. Saturday’s band, The Milk, were a highlight of our trip - a
funky mix of sca and pop, performed with confidence and an infectious sense of
fun.
And again, the guys from the band are not
your average wannabe popstars – chatting afterwards they were friendly, modest
and normal – they let their music do the talking.
It’s the definition of a successful
weekend: we came to Bath expecting
waters, and left having discovered milk and honey.
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