If your Dads only culinary claim to fame is the annual barbecue, give him a treat this year and book him a place on our sausage making class.
Taking place on 31July at Northampton College. We will show him how to prepare and tasty sausages. Dad just has to turn up at 10am wearing his favorite BBQ pinny!
This two hour course costs on £35 – book now
Would you like to join our growing teaching crew?
Due our exciting expansion and development plans, we are looking to add demonstration/teaching chefs to our team. We have a large number of events coming up over the summer in and around Northamptonshire, and new classes being added to our calendar each week. The majority of the assignments will take place over the weekend.
So if you have experience of cookery teaching or demonstrations drop us an email outlining your experience and what knowledge you could bring to our crew. info@shirescookeryschool.com
You can organise any kind of event you want, from bake sales and coffee mornings to dinner parties. For some inspiration take a look at some of the events that took place in 2009.
If you can’t organise an event during this week, please organise your event whenever is convenient for you.
Do you have a budding chef in your family?
If they are aged between 8-11 year then they could be the winner of Northamptonshires Budding Chef 2010.
In association with our collegues at the Northants Herald & Post we have launched a fantastic local competition to find Northamptonshire’s Budding Chef 2010.
The competition is aimed at children aged 8-11 years. Entrants can enter independently or team up with a friend and represent their school.
All entrants must design a two course menu that demonstrates the Taste of Summer, where possible using local ingredients, and demonstrate an understanding of the nutritional value of their dishes. They will be judged by a panel of Northamptonshire’s food experts, professional chefs and associated sponsors.
Our top three winners will then have the opportunity to cook their dishes, with the help of a professional chef, at Northamptonshires Foodshow @Holdenby sponsored by Bell, on Sunday 29 August. The overall winner(s) will receive £200 cookery equipment voucher for their school, plus individual prizes.
The deadline for entries is 23 July – So the countdown is on, to enter simply download the Entry form or pick up a copy a of the Northants Herald & Post, the entry form will be published weekly, along with updates on the competition as it progresses.
We look forward to receiving your entries – GOOD LUCK from the team at Shires
On the warmest weekend so far this year our students arrived to take on the challenge of preparing and cooking chicken tikka masala, onion bhajis and pilau rice. Under Richards tuition everyone quickly entered into the spirit of the course, with the fabulous aromas and flavours rising across the kitchen.
A huge thanks to the students who rose to the challenge and left the course with a ready made meal and the recipes to recreate the dishes at home. All we need to round it up is a few goals – come on England!
Lots more pictures and a fantastic video of the class will be on our site shortly.
Adam Gray, Head Chef at Gary Rhodes’ eponymous one Michelin starred restaurant “Rhodes Twenty Four” in the City of London returned to Northampton last week. Adam has had a high profile career starting as pot washer at the Red Lion in East Haddon , and soon after, moving to London to work at the Four Seasons Hotel under the tutelage of Bruno Loubet. Australia then beckoned, where Adam and a friend established a renowned restaurant in Melbourne which won “Australia’s Best New Restaurant Award” in it’s first year of operation. Adam then returned to Blighty where he worked as Chef de Partie at Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons with the acclaimed Raymond Blanc. Gary Rhodes then appointed Adam as Head Chef of his City Rhodes restaurant, where he maintained the existing Michelin star. Adam then went on to open Gary’s new restaurant “Rhodes Twenty Four” where he won a Michelin star in 2005, which he has maintained to this day. Adam is responsible for developing all menus and uses predominantly British produce, allowing quality to shine through by not combining too many ingredients in any one dish. This means that every single component has to be cooked to perfection making the task even more daunting!
In 2003 Adam set up the “Chef’s Academy” at Northampton College where he was a student. The Academy offers work experience to gifted catering and hospitality students. Over 30 students have completed work experience placements at Rhodes Twenty Four with some securing full time employment. Every year Adam returns to the College and transforms the college’s kitchen and restaurant to Michelin standards as part of a two day intensive training course for selected students. At the end of the two days the students cook and serve a six course meal, accompanied by selected wines, to 80 specially invited guests. The menu last week showcased wonderful Northamptonshire produce:
White Tomato Soup – Amuse Bouche
Free range Pork & Sage Haslet Terrine, crisp Apple & Radish salad
Pitsford Trout Fishcake, crisp Fennel & Farrington’s oil lime dressing
Slow cooked Northamptonshire Lamb with Buttered Broad Beans & Apple Mint Jelly
Iced Sticky Date Mousse with Toffee Sauce
At some point Adam has his sights fixed on returning to Northamptonshire and setting up his own restaurant/s. Until then, we must wait with bellies rumbling in anticipation; watch this space…..
Copy and pictures supplied by www.grazeandguzzle.co.uk
Wall to Wall, a leading independent television production company, who make a range of programmes for all the major broadcasters, including hit family history show, Who Do You Think You Are? (BBC ONE), Edwardian Country House (Channel 4) and New Tricks (BBC ONE) have contacted us at Shires about a landmark BBC ONE series they are working on.
They are looking for a baker/breadmaker and their family to feature in a new, prime-time BBC ONE series. The programmes will chart the history of the British High Street from 1870 – 1970 by taking a group of skilled modern shopkeepers back in time. They are hoping to find a lively, outgoing family with children aged between 8 – 21 years who can rise to the challenge of living and trading their way through 100 years of British history. They want families who can help bring this ambitious series to life and who will relish the opportunity to give modern customers a unique insight into the history of their trade.
The families will start by running their shop in the 1870s for one week. Then they will be fast-forwarded through time and spend a week running their shop in different key eras of British History – the Edwardian era, the 20s and 30s, the Second World War, the early 1960s and finally the 1970s. In each era, the shopkeepers and their families will have to live and run their shop as authentically as possible.
The series will be filmed during the summer of 2010. The shopkeepers and their families will relocate for the duration of the filming to a modern-day market town in the South West. It’s an ambitious and exciting way to stage this fascinating living history project and gives the shopkeepers an unprecedented chance to demonstrate to an entire town the challenges which their forebears would have faced on a daily basis.
This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for a family to explore the history of their trade. It’s a chance to celebrate Britain’s rich history of independent trading and to showcase a ‘baker’ who is an expert in their craft. The ‘baker’, along with their family, will have the chance to learn old time skills in their shop, which will be meticulously decorated and fitted out. They will get to grips with baking bread in a traditional Victorian bread oven. They’ll need to tempt modern customers with once-fashionable recipes and use traditional methods to create them. And they’ll grapple with the challenges of rationing and other rules and regulations laid down by history during the war years. It’s a chance to experience the evolution of the British High Street first hand.
So if your family fits the bill please get in touch with Zoe Acourt on 0207 482 6137 or you can email at zoe.a’court@walltowall.co.uk
Probably the best culinary competition in the world!
The team behind the Northamptonshire Food and Drink Awards is delighted to announce that Carlsberg UK, the Northampton-based brewery company, is to sponsor the competition for the next two years.
The Awards, devised by Northamptonshire Enterprise Limited (NEL), are aimed at celebrating all that is great about the county’s produce and drink, to recognise excellence within its dining venues and to reward those who work so hard within the culinary sector.
Said Carlsberg UK’s CEO, Isaac Sheps, “Carlsberg UK is delighted to be the headline sponsor of the Carlsberg UK Northamptonshire Food & Drink Awards 2010/11. The local community is very important to Carlsberg UK and we are very proud to help celebrate all that is great about food and drink in Northamptonshire.”
The news of the deal comes as other local major businesses have pledged their support for the Awards with the exciting result that the competition has expanded from last year’s four categories to seven. Last year’s hotly-contested categories were:
‘Best Local Product’
‘Best Local Drink’
‘Restaurant of the Year’
‘Pub or Bar Restaurant of the Year’ – sponsored by South Lincs Foodservice
And this year’s additional categories are:
‘Community Pub of the Year’ – sponsored by Carlsberg UK
‘Curry Chef of the Year’ – sponsored by British Pepper and Spice in conjunction with Northampton College‘
Local Food Hero of the Year’ – sponsored by CPRE Northants (Council for the Protection of Rural England)
The competition’s co-ordinator, Rachel Mallows, of ‘Rachel Mallows Services to Business’ added, “We are indebted to Carlsberg UK and to those other firms that have come forward in this way. Their support will enable us to build on the success of last year’s competition and it demonstrates a recognition of the importance of these Awards, which can only serve to strengthen Northamptonshire’s position on the culinary map!”
The Carlsberg UK Northamptonshire Food and Drink Awards 2010 were launched at Holdenby House on Thursday 29th April. Guests including last year’s winners and runners-up, judges and sponsors were treated to a cookery demonstration of a Northamptonshire brunch whipped up by chefs Jeremy Medley from Oundle Mill and Adam Tindall from The Saracen’s Head at Little Brington, runners-up in the ‘Restaurant of the Year’ and ‘Pub or Bar Restaurant of the Year’ competitions respectively in 2009.
The brunch was created entirely from county produce including sausages, bacon and black pudding from ‘Sauls of Spratton’, whose ‘Potted Beef’ won last year’s ‘Best Local Product’ award. They were fried in rapeseed oil from ‘Farrington Oils’, runners-up in that category, and were accompanied by eggs laid on a farm in Blisworth and mushrooms grown in Moreton Pinkney. Finally, all were served up with a dollop of Bulwick chutney or Earls Barton ketchup and washed down with a mug of Corby coffee and Hannington milk (with local honey for those who needed a sweetener!) or a glass of refreshing Sulgrave Manor apple juice.
Kate Dent, Head of Tourism at NEL, said “These awards continue a vital role in our quality approach to tourism in Northamptonshire. The Northamptonshire Food and Drink Awards are a perfect way of raising the profile of Northamptonshire whilst gaining much-needed publicity and ongoing support for all those who get involved. We’re delighted that in only its second year, the awards have attracted such support, attention and notable sponsors.”
The idea is to bake using free-range or organic eggs (remember to use other high welfare ingredients as well, such as organic butter, milk and chocolate) and to sell your baking creations or ask for donations to raise funds to support our work.
This event is also a great opportunity to talk to people about their consumer choices and the welfare of laying hens.
You can organise any event you like around this week, from cake sales and coffee mornings to dinner parties. Whatever you organise, it will be helping to fund our campaigns to end factory farming and raising awareness in your local community.
Visit the website to give you some key tips and ideas to help you organise your very own Bake with Compassion event. So get your aprons on and oven mitts out to join in.
Call 01483 521953, email supporters@ciwf.org or visit bakewithcompassion.org
Curry, lager and footie – what more could you want?
On Saturday 22 May we will be staging our World Cup Curry challenge
Taking place at Northampton College, this three hour course is for all you football fans who thought curries magically arrived fully formed in tin foil containers from your local takeaway.
We’ll show you how to source ingredients yourself, use authentic spices to create the ultimate chicken tikka masala. Make tasty onion bhaji’s and cook perfect pilau rice. All through easy, step-by-step, hands-on demonstration lessons with our expert chef.
And to complement the exotic flavours we’ll even select some specialist lagers and ciders for you to try, included in the price of the course – all part of your introduction to the true taste of India in your own living room.
Cost is only £38 per person – book your place now
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