Cooking at L’atelier des Chefs

Imported from France, L’atelier Des Chefs is a central London cookery school that aims to re-inspire busy urbanites to get back into the kitchen with an eclectic choice of one-off classes. You can choose from a quick 30-minute Cook, Eat and Run class to a 4-hour masterclass that focuses on a specific cuisine and cookery style. All the classes are open to people of all culinary levels, so choosing your class is more a matter of deciding which dishes you would like to cook, almost like an interactive recipe book. Butternut squash soup with spiced butter, lamb and olive tagine and orange and almond sponge with spiced syrup was what got my mouth watering, and so I headed down to Wigmore Street for the 2-hour Moroccan cooking class. I arrived slightly early and all the staff were sitting around the large dining table, tucking into lunch. Nevertheless I was greeted warmly and offered tea and coffee whilst I waited for the other participants to arrive.

As I was waiting, I tried to ignore the cookery boutique downstairs which was filled with tempting utensils, gadgets and ingredients, as I knew I wouldn’t be able to control my urge to spend. It turned out that only one other person, Deborah, was joining me for the class, which was led by the school’s head chef, Andre Dupin, a very lofty chef who has previously worked for the likes of Gordon Ramsay at Claridges. Straight away Deborah turned to Andre and said “You’re not going to tell us off are you, like on that programme Master Chef?”. Andre laughed and said “no this isn’t like that, just enjoy yourselves, ask as many questions as you want and don’t worry about remembering the recipes as we will email them to you after the class”. Andre wasn’t a scary chef at all, he was more of a big friendly giant who put me at ease immediately with his laid-back attitude and friendly approach. Our first task was to prepare all the ingredients for all three dishes. Andre demonstrated to us how to slice and chop like a pro, “the trick is to never lift the tip of the knife off the board, instead just slide the knife back and forth”, he advised us. I attempted to do this, but it certainly didn’t come naturally - it was a bit like rubbing my stomach and patting my head at the same time – hopeless!

Andre also showed us how to prevent tears streaming from our eyes when cutting an onion, whilst simaltaneously creating tons of perfect, tiny cubes. It’s difficult to put into words, but it was roughly a matter of slicing the onion several times lengthways and horizontally before slicing down the width. This method minimises the amount of juice that would normally come out when chopping an onion across a board, and so less juice means less tears. When it came to preparing the chillis for the spiced butter, we were shown how to de-seed them quickly by chopping off the top (the stalk end) and then turning the chilli upside down and rolling it between the palm of our hands so all the seeds fall out - very impressive. To think all these years I have been scraping out the insides with a knife!

Once all the ingredients were chopped up and ready, we prepared the spiced butter by mixing chilli, garlic, cardamon and coriander into some softened butter. Then we started on the sponge batter, using ground almonds and breadcrumbs instead of flour (apparently breadcrumbs help to keep the sponge moist). We grated and zested lemons and oranges for the syrup, which went onto the stove with a stick of cinnamon and some sugar. Then it was time to prepare the soup and tagine. As there were just two of us, I was put in charge of the tagine and Deborah in charge of the soup. Andre was very adamant about his method of preparing the soup, stating that the best flavour is achieved by slowly sautéing the vegetables with care until completely soft before blitzing, rather than dumping everything into boiling water. And when it came to sautéing he demonstrated how to prevent the ingredients from browning too quickly by adding tablespoons of water regularly rather than oil. So I gently sautéd my shallots and then unsuccessfully browned my lamb. The eager beaver that I am, meant I was moving the meat around too quickly, rather than letting it caramelize, but I didn’t get told off. I just got informed of how to do it next time. Then we added the cinnamon, thyme, ground coriander, ras el hanout, a handful of raisins and a splash of white wine before placing the lid on to let the ingredients do their magic. Once the finely diced butternut squash and carrots went soft from sautéing, Andre added a splash of milk and blitzed it up into a silky puree and poured it into bowls. With a dollop of the spiced butter, the soup was ready for us to enjoy in the dining area. The butter melted into the soup giving it a mellow hint of spice - it was absolutely delicious and having prepared it myself I was surprised at how simple it was to cook.

We then went back into the kitchen to pierce our sponges and pour the syrup on top before preparing some quick cous cous with toasted almonds and coriander, which we plated up with the tagine and green olives. Back in the dining area we tucked into the sumptuous tagine with a lovely glass of wine and started discussing all the other classes we wanted to go to - sushi, macaroons, a French masterclass and so on. The orange and almond sponge was brought out to us and finished off our Moroccan feast beautifully. It almost felt like we were in a laid-back bistro, except we were both the customer and the chef at the same time! So in just two hours, I had learnt to create three tasty dishes using simple ingredients and techniques that I would have no problem re-creating at home, as well as picking up a whole host of cooking tips. Plus I actually got to sit down and enjoy the fruits of my labour with a glass of wine and some good chatter with like-minded people. I think this may actually be better than going to a restaurant!

L’atelier des Chefs, 19 Wigmore Street, London W1U 1PH. Tel: 020 7499 6580.

For a list of classes and prices visit www.atelierdeschefs.co.uk

Written by: Leila Sarraf