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Culinary Capers with Scotland’s Celebrity ChefBy Louise Farquhar
After driving only 40 minutes from Glasgow I came upon the long driveway which winds past Nick’s stone mansion house and on to the purpose built school. The contemporary exterior of wood and glass is home to a state of the art kitchen with 20 C P Hart cooking stations, a red Poggen Pohl demonstration area, an elegant dining room and a small shop. Outside an organic garden and smoke house complete the picture. This is an informal and relaxed place with friendly reception staff that put everyone at ease. A welcoming cup of coffee provided an opportunity to meet my fellow pupils and then John Webber, who is one of the permanent chefs at the school, handed out aprons and led us through to the spectacular kitchen. We took partners and watched a quick demonstration of the Falcon cookers, which are commercial stoves that are still easy to for amateurs to use, before taking our seats in the demonstration area where Nick was waiting for us. Nick is not a classically trained chef. He started his career as a Navigating Officer in the merchant Navy where global travelling inspired a love of food. In 1986 he opened his first restaurant, Braeval, for which he was awarded a Michelin star and over the years has worked his way to the top ranks of his profession including becoming one of the most well known television chefs in the UK. He is an immensely likeable man whose friendly persona and sense of humour is immediately appealing. Nick went over our menu of twice baked goats cheese soufflé, pigeon breast on a bed of cabbage and pancetta with game gravy and crème brulee to finish, which sounded particularly challenging to all of us who were hovering around the average mark in terms of culinary skill. With whisks at the ready we made a start on dessert as it would take a good six hours to set. Nick likes to adapt and modernise recipes making them more attainable to the home cook. In this vein he was making the brulee on the stove top as opposed to the more traditional Bain-in-the-oven method. He had recently cooked at a corporate dinner in New York and made the same dessert there to great acclaim. Nick is a real chef and they tend to work at a furious pace but he has great skill in explaining his techniques and knows from experience where you are likely to go wrong and focuses on avoiding these common mistakes. As I watched him cook with the burners turned up high my nerves started to get the better of me. If anyone in the room was going to have a curdled brulee mix it was me, but Nick’s enthusiasm conquered my doubts and my partner and I soon set to work on our masterpiece. The two chefs walked around the workstations as we cooked offering help and advice as well as resuscitation to any disasters. Surprisingly there were no calamities and soon the pudding was safely chilling in the fridge - there was even an extra one to take home. The success of the first stage put the whole class at ease and we were feeling ready and raring to get going on the main course.
I quickly made friends in the relaxed environment and Nick joined us all for a chat too. Then it was time for the dreaded soufflé which is every amateur cooks nightmare. Again Nick had found a way round the problem which was to make a twice baked one that he assured us would still be well risen, light and fluffy. There are lots of skills you learn on a professional cookery course such as separating eggs properly, whisking, stirring and cooking on high heat. Today we were doing them all, including making a proper roux which struck fear into everyone’s heart. Roux’s go lumpy and lumps are upsetting. However there was no escape today, and while Nick’s stories about driving his Porsche too fast and even an impromptu visit from his adorable little girl kept us jolly we were all pretty sure that cooking catastrophe was looming. Nevertheless we set to work again and with our trusted helpers nearby we excelled ourselves and excellent wispy soufflés were created all round. It was fun watching them collapse knowing that they would rise again in all their glory later. We then put together our game gravy with the bones, some port and redcurrant jelly which reduced nicely as the vegetables and pancetta were put on. Next the soufflés were covered in cream and parmesan and put in the oven again. At 2.30pm we were finally ready for lunch. The soufflés were magnificent and we carried them through to the dining room like trophies to enjoy as we sat looking onto the marvellous countryside views afforded by the schools enviable location. We congratulated each other and returned to the workstations to put the finishing touches to our main course. You learn to be a confident cook when you are around professional chefs and not to over do the pigeon breast was an important factor in the success of the meal. The game gravy was rich and set off the meat wonderfully. Nick teaches exquisite presentation and as we took our meals through to the dining room each did look like a work of art. By this point in the day the wine was flowing freely and I felt as though I was out for lunch with old friends. We needed John to come in eventually and remind us to return to the kitchen to caramelise our brulees. The blow torches were great fun but required confidence of which Nick has plenty and shares it well. I have to admit to a real fondness for crème brulee and was sceptical about the unconventional way this one was made. To my surprise it was the most delightful brulee I had ever had. The richness of the raspberries which lined the base of the dish was offset by the delicate vanilla and the smooth texture – with no lumps! It was five o’clock when we finished lunch and the official end of the day had arrived. Nick, however had planned to demonstrate a Saltimbocca and a pheasant dish and asked if we could stay to watch. There were no arguments and we all sat down and watched him create two stunning meals in about fifteen minutes. When the day was finally over I could hardly believe that I had been there for eight hours – it had gone so quickly. I couldn’t resist a few purchases in the cook shop before bidding farewell to my new friends and heading for home. I was certainly full of delicious food but also pride and admiration for myself. It had been a challenging day and I returned to the family a more confident and happy kitchen dweller. For further information visit www.nicknairncookschool.com |
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TM
It
was with some trepidation that I approached the Nick Nairn Cook School in
Scotland’s wonderful Trossachs for my day course with the celebrity chef. I was
there as the result of a Christmas gift from my husband and I wasn’t sure
whether it was flattering that he had responded to my interest in cookery or
worrying that he thought I needed lots of help with my culinary endeavours.
Nick
is a great believer in quality produce, particularly local food, and explained
his ethos of planning a meal around what good ingredients are available rather
than picking a recipe out of a book because it has a nice picture. With this in
mind we were to cook seasonally available pigeon and the first stage was to
de-bone the bird. This was something I had read about but always avoided. Not
today! Nick expertly demonstrated before we set about on our own bird. There was
to be no hacking or sawing in his kitchen so we were given the sharpest knife
and strict instructions not to cut a finger off. There was one casualty who
needed a plaster but everyone else coped admirable well. In fact, I relished the
job. My knife made short work of the pigeon and before long I had two succulent
breast portions in front of me and a roasting tray filled with bones to make my
game gravy. By this point I was getting quite carried away with my new found
skills and when we broke for coffee and homemade scones we were all on an
adrenalin high.