Here is a map of all the countries I received visits on my blog. It might not be 100% accurate but pretty close. The darker it is, the more visits I received on my blog.

Home cooking. Well almost. (2)

After the presentation of the dishes by Paul, everyone put on an apron to feel like a real chef and went for one of the station to start cooking. One of the participants, a tall blond tattooed guy, brought his own apron and more surprisingly his own cutting knife. When I checked what it was, I saw the price he paid by ordering it from the Internet (230€/300$) I was a bit shocked. What I didn’t know at that moment was he’s working as a chef on a boat. That explains certain things.

As I was already shooting pictures when everybody arrived, Paul put me in charge of the serving the wine and make sure everybody always had something to drink. I essentially helped with finding the necessary utensils for the preparation. As we had trouble to find enough glasses and cutlery, I knew where to find things in this big kitchen. When everything was slowing cooking in the oven on the gas cooker, we sit down for a while and talk about nothing and everything at the same time. Of course, food and good cuisine was our main topic of conversation. When the dished were ready to be served, everyone went for the dining table and the tall long tattooed guy help in cutting the meat and made a wonderful work with the chicken. 

 Dishes we made during our cooking evening

When everyone was sitting down and had a bit of everything, we could only hear flies flying. It was impressive and the best compliment a chef can have for his food. Why would you talk when you are having such nice food. We only started to talk after tasting all the dishes.

After the chef served the dessert, only one small portion was left but not for long as Katerina, the other volunteer, took it back home. After cleaning the table, nobody was doing anything with the left-overs. I was very strongly recommended to bring everything back home with some doggy bag. It would have been a crime to leave it there or worse, throw it away. With all that boxes, I have enough food for several days!!

Home cooking. Well almost. (1)

When my tutor asked me to join a cooking class, I didn’t take too much time thinking about it. I knew they would make one chef coming from Tallin just for the evening. I wouldn’t have missed such an opportunity. When I saw all the preparation, I was very impressed by what I saw. Paul, the South-African chef, got all the food and ingredients needed for the cooking.

I didn’t know where we were going exactly. I thought we might be in a bigger than usual kitchen but not something as big as we got. When I saw the place, it was bigger than expected. It was in a room used by some local school to organise cooking activities. They got all we needed and more. Enough space for everybody to cook without walking on each other every time we move around.

Central station with the wine station in the left hand top.

When Paul arrived, I knew I would have a long and delicious dinner. He brought with him, three kinds of meats (lamb, pork, chicken), butternut, rice, some apple to go with the pork and of course enough for a dessert. The big advantage of the room was we could all cook at the same time without waiting for dished to be ready to be cooked to do the following ones. On the first table, at the entrance, we had the aperitif which was a nice dry south-african wine. Then in the middle, the main station for the meats and butternut. The dessert and the rice were prepared on the table next to it to avoid too much travelling in the room. Finally in the back of the room, our dining was dressed for 10 people decorated with some items from his country brought by the chef.

When he was explaining what we will have for dinner, he made the promotion of the local producers where he went for shopping. All products, vegetables and meats, came from local providers. He was very surprised most people preferred low price over quality. By just paying a little extra, you could have delicious and high quality ingredients. He tries to use them as much as possible. The only item that weren’t from Estonia was some kind of special spice mix he lives on when cooking chicken.