So many things have been incredible along the “first 12 months of my cooking school” journey. Thanks must be shared, acknowledgement made and recognition given.

I regularly stop and reflect on how grateful I am for all the small and grand gestures of kindness and friendship that come my way – often…..OUR way, (as in Deb, Tez & Maximillian!)

Along with the chefs and presenters (as mentioned in my previous post), here are some salutations for our first year of running Plough Creek Cooking School and Plough Creek Homestead. 

Tony Matera for our photos and videos on the website and Phoebe who looks after the website for me, all the time!!!!! Michael who keeps me digitally alive. Other photos along the way by Sophie, Tezza, Alfie and Pete (Webster).

Advertising, promoting and encouragement by some local retail outlets including:

House at Mid Valley (thanks Carol), Norm Oliver Quality Meat at Mid Valley (thanks Shane), Hair Workshop in Morwell (thanks Karen), Endota Spa in Traralgon (thanks Jodi & team), Party Cupcake in Traralgon (thanks Sophie), Equus in Sale (thanks Annie & Donna), Town & Country Gallery in Yarragon (thanks Jo), Treehouse Living in Traralgon (thanks Judith).

Latrobe Valley Express, Gippsland; a celebration of Country Life and Gippsland: the lifestyle, our pride, our place, have done wonderful features about us.

Scullerymade in High Street Armadale, is the most fabulous catering and cooking equipment supply outlet for all the extra cooking gear needed.

All produce is purchased locally, as much as possible and the bulk of it is purchased at good old Manny’s Market in Morwell. George at the Deli in Manny’s Market is always so helpful. If he hasn’t stocked it on his shelf, he sure tries hard to find it for us.

Remembering that our philosophy is based on; “if you want to cook and you have a kitchen – then you can – we will show you how!” We insist that whatever the chefs produce in the class, must be able to be reproduced by participants at home.

I especially want to thank some foodie friends for their sound advice &/or encouragement along the way:

Annie from EQUUS and Raeshaws at Fulham in Sale.

Jodi from Endota Spa in Traralgon and previously of Century Inn.

Meggsi from Yabba Gabba kitchen in Deniliquin.

The other thanks may seem a bit strange, because they are people I had never met, (luckily enough I have met two of them now), however, you do fill my days with engaging conversation via twitter, Facebook and blogs..…..You may never know how much you inspire or assist – but here is a little thanks to some of my regular and favourite reads:

Mel at the cooks notebook.

Liz at Bizzy Lizzy’s Good Things.  

Carly at Radio Carly (not just food, but life inspiration also).

Jo at Quirky Cooking.

Alexx at Real Food. Low Tox Living.

My gang of Bestie’s – “the Simples on tour” – you know who you are!!!

Jules, my wonderful friend from afar, who encourages and inspires me in so many ways.


And of course, Tez and Max – hugest love ever for you two. xxx

Happy tastings – happy faces, places and spaces.

DC

A year ago Plough Creek Cooking School held our first cooking class. I have been thinking a lot about the year, so thought I would share some reflections. I hope you have a few minutes to read and share the journey with me.

Remembering that our philosophy is based on; “if you want to cook and you have a kitchen – then you can – we will show you how!”  and our tag-line with our logo of Nonna is:

Una goccia di Toscana…Une touché de Provence…a taste of Gippsland 

 simply translated, says it all:

A dash of Tuscany, a touch of Provence and a taste of Gippsland,

November 2012 – Plum Pudding. I had a guest chef lined up and after some friendly (maybe a bit too timid?) promotion, we only had 2 participants booked in. So I bit the bullet and decided to run the class myself. 

Class went well and we actually had a lot of fun and made some really good puddings! Of course, the story of Maximillian eating the puddings is now quite well known by many.

December 2012 – Jane Webster (At my French Table & French Ties). The first official guest presenter was the delightful and charming Jane Webster. The first time I met Jane in person I was a tad nervous about meeting someone who is seriously living their dream…..half the year in a chateau in France and half the year in Melbourne WOW!...So following the polite “coffee” I asked if she would like a drink…“That would be nice,” she said and so began a free flowing and fantastic conversation. There is so much that can be said – but hey, read her books – check out her website – re-visit my post on the PCH blog or check out the photos. One thing that Jane said to me was “Deb, you will commence presenting your own classes – it won’t take long!” Well Jane, it is beginning to look like they were sage words indeed.

My happy face, space, place moment with Jane – was simply how calm she is in the kitchen. AND oh so, “Oh la la” – still loving all things French.

January 2013 – Lloyd Morse – from London. The energy burst called Lloyd, which brought PCH kitchen alive was a force to reckon with. Oh Lloyd, how we all laughed heaps with your enthusiasm and stories…….so many stories! We even managed a visit from your mum for a few classes – what a treat that was. Your passion and love for food and travel (especially Sicily) was so awesome.  

Take a moment to read post “through the hands of a chef pours passion”.

Lloyd went back to London and commenced working at the River Café for a while. We were fortunate to have dinner there twice in

Lloyds company. What a treat to share a dining experience with him and then have dinner while he was working. Since then he has returned to Magdalen Restaurant London. 

If you are ever in London you should make a reservation, ask to say hello to him and say that Deb & Tez from PCCS sent you.

We also made the front page of the local paper……

February 2013 – Jane Webster returns.  How delighted I was when Jane agreed to do a return weekend before she departed back to Chateau de Bosqouet in Normandy. Jane’s own cooking school in Bosqouet is an item on my bucket list. One of our participants from PCCS, Cindy, visited there in 2013, Cindy has also inspired us with her own story of deciding to follow her dream of becoming a pastry chef – we wish her well with her new chosen career. Maybe one day she will be a guest presenter at PCCS??

Visit Jane’s website here.

March 2013 – Eitan Doran. Eitan saw the article in the local paper and called me. “I am an Israeli chef who has worked in Europe, NZ and Australia. I like what you are doing. Can I meet you and discuss the possibility of delivering some classes?” was how the conversation began. I like to affectionately think of Eitan as our very own answer to Ottolenghi. His style, food philosophy and recipes do have some similarities. But of course his very own gentle personality and very own passion for all cuisines, comes through. His first classes at PCCS focussed on Moroccan flavours. 

To this day, his Baba Ganush recipe is the best I have ever tasted.  You can find the recipe in this post.

In March, I declared I would like to try something new at least once a week for the next year…I am still attempting to achieve that goal. Some things have become new favourites (like Vanilla salt) and some registered high on the Yuck-o-meter…….But I am still tasting and trying.

April 2013 – Katey Rodgers from Melbourne. Talk about a pocket rocket!! Thanks to an introduction from Lloyd, I met Katey and realised here was another dynamic chef to entice the PCCS kitchen. Katey is considered by some critics as “Melbourne’s Soufflé Queen” and she certainly treated us to delights, delights and more delights. I kept finding myself thinking as I watched her dart around the kitchen, “How can so much personality be packed into such a petite sized woman?” As with all the classes, photos of Katey are on the website gallery.

April 2013 - Jasper Avent from Melbourne. Thanks to Katey we were delighted to be introduced to Jasper. A quiet young man, with such a huge food knowledge and obvious intimacy with ingredients. He spent some time living and cooking in Asia (particularly China). His classes were a different style to others. I would describe them as reserved, but quite intense. The taste of the food from his Meat and Asian classes were super fantastic. Again, check out the photos and gain a new perspective of meats served with purees!

We had some travel in April.

WE DINED at one of HESTON’S places!! 

What can I say, except revisit the post!

Terry discovered a little place in SoHo that he was quite smitten with called POLPO – and purchased a cookbook for me while he lunched there. “A venetian cookbook (of sorts)”. It has become a bit of a favourite this year and many a recipe has been followed or adapted!

May 2013 – No official classes at PCCS,  but boy there was plenty of food. One of the highlights for me in May, was to spend time with two of my favourite gal-pals (and two women I admire enormously from a professional perspective). Diana Mason and Barbara Glickstein from New York. How proud was I to be able to introduce them to some aspects of food, shopping and living in Melbourne. I live my New York fantasies vicariously through these two, via their Facebook, blogs & twitter. Just another example of some of the awesome people that I am so blessed to meet, during the various chapters of my life. We celebrated Buddha’s birthday together, at Dandelion restaurant in Elwood.

June 2013 –  Alfie Spina & Kate Spina from Sydney

Thank you for another introduction Lloyd Morse. Two chefs that Lloyd had worked with and who he held in very high regard were Alfie Spina and Kate Spina (nee Connor). With their son Enzo, they visited PCCS in June and what a lot of happy tastings we shared over three days.

What a beautiful and lovely family. Another two chefs so obviously passionate about their craft and careers.

Alfie taught us so much about pasta, gnocchi and risotto. Not to be overlooked were the amazing recipes and skills we learnt about seafood.

This photo sums it up best of all. The son of two chefs eating seafood……

Kate has focussed on sweet and pastry work in recent years. And again, just like Katey did, (who happens to be a friend of Kate’s also – what a small world!?), she shared so many secrets and skills that made the impossible seem so very possible for us home cooks. Kate’s patience and ability to just share information was so relaxed. Just made it all so easy.

Kate also kicked off our first kid’s class for us. Four year olds making gnocchi, salad and cookies. Again, she just made it so easy.

July 2013 –  BIG month with several guest presenters.

Party Cupcake – Cake & Cupcake decorating.

Sophie from Party Cupcake started our series of cake decorating with “Kids cake decorating” in the mid-year school holidays. Plenty of kids were interested and we were able to run several classes to capacity. The biggest blast of all was how creative the kids were. Sophie also delivered a number of adult cake decorating classes throughout the year. So many creations and clever people!

Eitan Doran with more Moroccan

As described previously, Eitan has a wealth of experience across many cuisines, but given that one of my favourites is Moroccan, I convinced him to do another class with different recipes. One thing that is very obvious in Moroccan food is the colours of the food….So tempting and enticing.

Brad Warton with Spanish cuisine and TAPAS

Brad has quite a reputation in his home city of Canberra and had also seen our article in the press. When he contacted me I was interested to hear that he had recently spent time working in the Mornington Peninsula. Like the others before him his repertoire is extensive, but I was quick to book him for Spanish and Tapas classes when he suggested he really liked cooking that particular genre.

Brad’s energetic style and fun nature, means there are lots of jibes and teasing happening when he cooks.

August 2013 – More TAPAS with Brad

Brad Warton returned in August and we were very tantalised with another set of Tapas recipes. The list for Tapas seems to be never ending and the “deliciousness” factor keeps increasing!

September 2013 – Return of Alfie & Kate

Kate & Alfie agree to return and we were delighted. 

This time around Kate took us through the paces of bread-making and pastry making. Not only did she make it so easy – she completely debunked all the myths. So much fun and more guys in attendance, than usual.

Alfie treated us to more perfect pasts and also pates & terrines – as previously, the flavours were amazing. The skill of creating perfect pasta was not lost on any of us and we all keep practicing – one day we will be as good as Alfie (well nearly as good!!)

Some more travel; got to have a meeting with one of my SoMe gurus – Euan Semple – great guy. So we had lunch at Tezza’s discovery mentioned previously, Polpo…..not bad!

October 2013 –  Plum Pudding class – My class!

Private function -  High Tea

Prior to completion of the first 12 months, with another Plum Pudding class delivered by yours truly, we hosted a private function for High Tea. It was fantastic. The guests had heard about PCH and wanted to have a relaxed afternoon together and enjoy the garden and some yummy food. Well PCH garden was spectacular, the weather perfect and a very fine menu for high tea featuring numerous delicious savoury and sweet treats. Of course there were also scones, PCH homemade jams and cream.

Remember my post that I asked if you recognised where I was …….Well time to revel – I took myself off to eat at one of my favourite Chefs restaurant; Ottolenghi’s NOPI in SoHo London

And here we are back in November……what a year……so many highlights and a few challenges along the way.

I feel so fortunate to have met some of the most wonderful people throughout the year. The guest presenters have each been a delight to host at PCH and I feel like I have a whole new group of friends to add to the address book. I adore the passion, energy and expertise each of them shared with us. I have such incredible respect for each of these “foodies”. The calibre of their knowledge and experience has been simply awesome. I thank each of them for being so willing to share so much of themselves in the PCCS classes.

However, most importantly, here is my chance to THANK the participants of our classes – if you did not attend – we would not deliver the classes!

Thank you; Pauline, Sue, Terry, Cindy, Tim, Jan, Wendy, Julie, Sophie, Linda, Linda, Terry, Bridget, Maureen, Donna, Michael, Gabrielle, Samantha, Karen, Betty, Gerry, Kirsty, Deidre, Kerrie, Ross, Jan, Julia, Liz, Helen, Paula, Jodi, Anne, Katie, Monty, Marianne, Lynne, Mark, Hilary,  Kirsti, Karen, Susan, Helen, Kylie,

Maria, Christine, Sandra, Colin, Lacey, Maria, Kaylene, Robyn, Phil, Andrew, Steve, Andrew, Jasmine & Alan.

Little cooks:

Becky, Max, Hayley, Lachie, Abbie, Toby, Youki, Lilly, Sebastian, Zali, Hannah, Liesel, Tash, Kaitlyn, Grace, Hayley, Emma. Charlotte, Monique, Taylah, Sophia, Jemma, Blair, Zoe, Hayley, Emily, Madison, Ainslie, Amy, Carolyn, Rose, Cammie, Kaitlyn, Shina, Victor, & Maryanne.

My sincere apologies if I missed anyone’s name, however, I am so pleased to have met each and everyone one who has attended classes in the first 12 months. We have 12 people who have reached Frequent Cook Status by attending more than 4 classes. Thank you for coming back – again and again.

And we have had newcomers in November and December – Fabulous!

Happy Tastings!
DC xx

A couple of nights ago, a very dear and wonderful friend (Deidre) and I had the opportunity to have a girl’s dinner – just the two of us. We decided we would lash out and treat ourselves to somewhere “nice”. We felt that we work hard, we try to be good people and once in a while…let’s splurge! We were quite happy to “over spend” on dinner. I am not a food critic, but I do think I have a right to a good experience when I am spending a “reasonable amount of money” on dinner.

We chose ARIA in Sydney. Both thinking that Matt Moran seems to be a good guy and be a very respected Chef, by all his public profiles and appearances. We felt comfortable that his restaurant would reflect that standard.

Unfortunately, we were underwhelmed and on the “PCH Nonna” scale, I would only offer two Nonnas. (This is how I rate things – you might remember the previous post).

We arrived approximately 10 minutes prior to our booking time, as we thought a cocktail in the bar would be a good idea. It took 20 minutes before our order was taken, (it did seem others after us were able to order, seven were served before us??) When the cocktails arrived we were pleased with our choices but had only had a couple of sips when we were quickly ushered to our table.

Not the best table in the house, but it was comfortable. When we were attended by our waiter, he was attentive to our requests however; we did feel we had to make requests after seeking his attention, rather than being waited upon. We decided that we were OK to not look at the cost, but rather just chose a wine that appealed to us. At $250 a bottle, we did not expect a bottle of chardonnay to be icy cold chilled - saw the same bottle on a wine list at another establishment a few nights later in Melbourne - $80 cheaper! That is not how “Charddie” is at its best – or have I got that wrong?

We eventually received glasses of water on our table – after we asked for them. This is the most obvious example of the little things that make a difference (they make or break an experience, don’t they?). 

We did finally order our meals, after we indicated we were ready to order.

We were both satisfied with our entrée choices. After all when you choose your own order – you have to assume responsibility for what you decided upon. We both enjoyed our mains. Both our desserts definitely pleased us. In this day and age, restaurants are a total experience – it is no longer just about the deliciousness of the food…….or is it?

We thoroughly enjoyed having some rare and precious time to have girl chat and it had been many years since we had had an opportunity to natter away like that. Yes we had a wonderful time being out together, but did leave feeling underwhelmed and a tad like….“we would not bother to go there again”!

DC xx

As we are coming up to the season when we do a lot of eating and sharing food around the table, here is a recipe that I think is a knock out.  

A great one to share. It comes to us from one of our regular presenters at PCCS – Eitan Doran.

Eitan and Deb

Stuffed Prunes

Ingredients

300 - 350 mince beef or lamb (I prefer Lamb)

1 kg of pitted prunes

4 medium brown onions

100 gr of walnuts - toasted

¼ cup of veg oil

1 cup of stock beef or chicken

½  a lemon

1 table spoon of honey

1/8 tea spoon of ground ginger

1 tea spoon of cinnamon

Salt & pepper

Directions:

1.    Poach the prunes for 1 hour in hot water or until they’re soft

2.    Strain the prunes, cut the top and take the core out (& any stones if you find them)  

3.    Season the meat with salt and pepper

4.    Stuff the prunes with the mixture and place a side 

5.    In a wide shallow pan cook the onion on a medium low heat

6.    Place the prunes in the pan add the stock, ginger and cook  for 50 min to 1 hour on a low heat

7.   After 30 min add the chop toasted walnuts

8.   Dilute the honey with a little cooking water and add cinnamon and lemon juice to the cooking prunes.

Those who know me well have always been encouraged to participate in my birthday. I love birthdays and celebrations and pomp and ceremony.

Some years ago Bella commented that “no one seemed to be able to turn their birthday into week-long festivals”,  like I do. I have always tried to maintain and improve on the tradition every year. 

This year was a little quieter than other years – due to a number of circumstances, but never the less I managed to stretch it out and enjoy……..But I was overwhelmed with the warm wishes via cards, messages and Facebook messages I received.

A theme did develop – Remember a while ago I talked about herb scissors?

Well,  some newer versions were received..…..

I received a wonderful book and jar of exotic spices - Mayan Chilli Chocolate (bless R & R). The most beautiful smelling soap and candle (always exquisite selection P & T) and the most wonderful tea cosy (thanks Bella).

AND – can you believe it – the Slut’s Cookbook has returned to my bookshelves.  After reading my post: A & A tracked down a copy.

And I am so happy to say I am enthralled by the philosophy of this cookbook again. It is so ‘80’s and so much giggle factor! 

Happy tastings …..and I hope your birthday in 2013 was fun or will be!!

DC xx