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Posts Tagged ‘demonstration’

Patisserie Demonstration

Posted in Cookery School, Events, Food, l'ortolan, Recipe, tagged , , , , on March 13, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

L'ortolan Macaroons

Yesterday our demo studio came to life with an afternoon tea inspired Patisserie Demonstration from L’ortolan Pastry Chef Samantha Rain. Our demonstration guests arrived to a beautifully sunny L’ortolan and introductions were made over tea and coffee in the bar. Afterwards the guests took their seats in the studio to learn how to produce a stunning selection of pastries both appealing to the eye and delicious – the perfect accompaniment for afternoon tea!

Macaroonier Sam demonstrated her perfect Liquorice Macaroons; a small light biscuit, crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside, made with ground almonds, sugar and egg whites. Macaroons are one of our favourite current sweet crazes so we asked our very own L’ortolan Pastry Chef for a lesson in baking the popular French confection.

Liquorice Macaroons

Ingredients:

300g Icing Sugar
300g Ground Almonds
10g Liquorice Powder
115g Egg Whites
80g Water
300g Sugar

Method:

1. Blitz together 300g icing sugar, 300g ground almonds and 10g liquorice powder and pass
2. Whisk 115 egg whites to stiff peaks
3. Boil 300g sugar and 80g water to 118°c and pour onto egg whites
4. Whisk egg whites until fluffy and add to dry mix
5. Once the Italian Meringue is cold, combine all the elements into a smooth paste
6. Pipe the mixture and leave to form a skin
7. Bake at 150°c for 6-8 minutes

Liquorice Pastry Cream Filling

Ingredients:

250g Milk
1 Vanilla Pod
60g Sugar
4 Egg Yolks
22g Cornflour

Method:

1. Boil 250g milk, 30g sugar and vanilla
2. Pour milk onto egg yolks and whisk, then place mixture back into the pan and cook out
3. Combine 30g sugar and 22g cornflour
4. Add Liquorice compound to taste

Liquorice Macaroons_______________________________________________________________

L’ortolan Cookery Demonstration Programme

9th April – 3 Course Dinner Party – Bring a little Michelin star flair to your dinner party at home with some ideas and inspiration from the L’ortolan kitchen.

23rd April – Chocolate Heaven – The perfect indulgent treat for serious chocoholics. During this masterclass you will be introduced to a variety of different chocolates including some of the world’s finest single estate chocolate.

14th May – Shellfish Masterclass – Delicious ways to prepare and cook shellfish – include a selection from lobster, oysters, clams, mussels, crab and razor clams depending on availability.

11th June – 3 Course Fish Supper – How to select and prepare the ‘catch of the day’ and cook your fish to perfection.

18th June – Summer Barbecue with the Big Green Egg – The Big Green Egg can be used to smoke, bake and slow cook as well as a barbecue. Join chef on the terrace and discover some new techniques and recipes.

To book your L’ortolan demonstration please call 01189 888 500 or email info@lortolan.com

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A Shellfish Masterclass

Posted in Cookery School, Food, Recipe, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 30, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

L'ortolan Shellfish MasterclassWednesday saw the demo studio come to life once again with an entertaining Shellfish Masterclass from L’ortolan Chef Ian Swainson. Due to the bank holiday weekend the demo was rescheduled for the following day, so we breathed a sigh of relief in the morning when the freshly caught shellfish arrived.

Our demonstration guests arrived early and introductions were made over tea and coffee in the bar. Afterwards the guests took their seats in the studio to learn how to prepare dressed crab, cooked lobster, clams mariniere and oysters with pickled shallot & chilli.

Here is one of the recipes that Ian demonstrated:

How to make Clams Mariniere

Ingredients

1kg – Clams (washed)
200ml – White Wine
1 – Banana Shallot (diced)
1 – Clove Garlic (pureed)
100ml – Double Cream
Parsley (chopped)
25ml – Riesling

Method

  1. Take a large saucepan and heat until very hot.
  2. Add the clams and pour in the white wine, cover with a lid. The clams will steam in the wine very quickly.
  3. Add the shallots and garlic and cook for about 2 minutes.
  4. Finish with the cream, followed by parsley and Riesling.

Following the demonstration Ian showed the guests around the L’ortolan kitchen and introduced them to the rest of the culinary team. Once the party were seated in the main restaurant for their lunch, Ian took a couple of minutes to demonstrate how to remove the tail meat from the lobster that was cooked earlier. Take a look at the video.

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L’ortolan Cookery Demonstration Programme

11th September – Shellfish Masterclass – If you love shellfish but like many find preparing and cooking it a daunting task, then our Shellfish Masterclass will teach you how to transform it into some wonderful and tasty dishes.

9th October – Game Cookery – As we embrace the game season the L’ortolan Chef’s will be revealing secrets behind some of our favourite signature dishes

30th October – Food and Wine Matching - Basics

27th November – Food and Wine Matching - Advanced

18th December - Turkey Masterclass - taking the strain out of Christmas

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Summer BBQ with Alan and the Big Green Egg

Posted in Alan Murchison, Cookery School, Events, Food, l'ortolan, Suppliers, tagged , , , , , , , , on June 28, 2012 | 1 Comment »

Big Green Egg Lortolan Demo
On Tuesday seven enthusiastic guests joined us for the Summer BBQ demonstration with Alan Murchison and Head Chef Nick Chappell. With the welcome arrival of the British summer sun, the terrace made a very pleasant setting for the event, creating a true BBQ atmosphere.

After the initial welcome, Alan introduced the guests to the Big Green Egg, a barbecue that has quickly shot to fame on our screens in recent cooking shows and has become very desirable in the finest restaurants in the UK and Europe.

The Big Green Egg is a charcoal based ceramic cooker that offers a wide range of precise cooking modes never seen before on a barbecue. It can grill, roast, smoke or bake pizzas in temperatures ranging from 80 – 400C.

Alan Murchison and his team began using a combination of large and small Eggs in the kitchen about a year ago, and were quickly won over by its diversity of cooking techniques; smoking, baking, slow cooking for a range of different dishes.

“This is the Formula 1 of barbecues. Every now and again a product comes along which redefines everything. The Big Green Egg is it.” Alan Murchison

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L’ortolan Day of Excellence

Posted in Alan Murchison, Events, l'ortolan, Suppliers, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 25, 2012 | 1 Comment »

L'ortolan Reading Audi
Our ‘Day of Excellence’ last Friday was a huge success and attracted over 200 guests, old and new. A big thank you to everyone that attended and raised £800 for Hospitality Action in the raffle. We extend our  gratitude to our partners and suppliers who provided the afternoon with fabulous food and wine tasting and stunning displays.

Sommelier Craig welcomed guests with a glass of Pommery champagne and goodie bag before whisking them off on a tour around the restaurant to sample the many delights on offer. Our ‘behind the scenes’ team from marketing and reservations were on hand and enjoyed meeting  guests that they’d had the pleasure of previously arranging bookings for.

Upstairs in the bulthaup demonstration kitchen, Thermomix kept guests entertained with a rolling demonstration using their unique food processor – a favourite with L’ortolan chefs and great for anyone with food allergies and intolerances.  Cacao Barry brought their popular chocolate samples from around the world whilst Peter from James Gourmet Coffee gave visitors the chance to experience the change in coffee flavour as it progressed through the brewing process.

James Gourmet Coffee L'ortolan

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Alan’s Kitchen Blog – Dan the master baker riding high

Posted in Alan Murchison, Alan's Kitchen Blog, Food, tagged , , , , , on June 1, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

For those of you that follow me on twitter you will have noticed the updates on the process involved in perfecting our stunning sour dough.  Young Dan in the pastry had been looking after his ferment (affectionately called FelicSourdoughity !) and the results were stunning.

We have had lots of interest about our bread and myself and Dan will be running a masterclass on 23rd June and allowing our guests to get a few of the secrets and techniques in producing our favourite bread.

The beauty about sourdough is you require nothing other than apple juice, salt and good quality flour, a good bit of technique and a little love and you can get a product that is truly amazing.  This technique dates back 1,000s of years.  Brought bang up to date through the medium of twitter !

Until next time …

Alan

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Can they cook as well as they report? The l’ortolan Charity Cookery Challenge

Posted in l'ortolan, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 17, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

Jacky Hayler of Henley Life and Nick Williams of Reading 107fm make pasta with l'ortolan's Elliott Lidstone

Every week around Berkshire people read or listen to their work.  They help form public opinion, they inform, advise and entertain… but can they cook?

l’ortolan set the local press a challenge, inviting them to show off their culinary flair in the l’ortolan demonstration studio offering £1000 for charity for the winning team.

Six local reporters accepted the challenge and, on the 9th June,  donned their aprons.

The Teams

The Purple Team:

The White Team:

Teams were picked at random – some competitor papers had to work together, others had the chance to face their competitors in a direct cook-off.

Together the teams worked their way through the preparation of a three-course meal.  Guided by l’ortolan Head Chef Elliott Lidstone the reporters, editors and broadcasters rolled fresh pasta, prepared a fish, and sweated over whether their desserts would rise.

L'ortolan owner Peter Newman and Head Chef Elliott Lidstone present the cheques to the selected charities and are snapped for the local papers.

After much clattering of pans, and careful tutoring from Elliott, the teams were able to tuck in to their stuffed tortellini starter, pan-fried sea-bream main, and lemon curd (white team) or raspberry jam (purple team) souffles for dessert.

With a £1000 for charity up for grabs, competition was fierce, and Elliott had a hard time selecting a winning team, but finally declared the White Team victorious with their superior souffles.

Rebecca Johnson, Hillary Scott and Tessa Harris decided to split their winnings between three separate charities: Sebastian’s Action Trust, The Robbie the Robot Appeal and Thames Hospice Care.

A week later representatives from the three charities delightedly came to l’ortolan to be presented their cheques by restaurant owner Peter Newman.

“It’s important for us at l’ortolan to be able to give back something back to the local community. Our Charity Cooking Challenge in our demonstration studio was the perfect vehicle for us to do that,” explains Peter. “We’re delighted to be able to support these three worthy local charities.”

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To read Tessa Harris’s blog about the Charity Cookery Challenge please click here

Why not think about booking the l’ortolan demonstration studio for your own event?  Great for team building, or just having a fun time with friends.

Or if you’d like to learn more about how to prepare your own Michelin starred food, why not consider attending one of our Demonstration events, held twice a month on a Wednesday.

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The Great British Midweek Menu

Posted in Alan Murchison, Food, l'ortolan, tagged , , , , on June 15, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

Alan MurchisonOur Executive Chef Alan Murchison is back in the restaurant kitchens after entertaining viewers of the BBC2 programme The Great British Menu.

Alan, although failing to make it through to the final banquet and cook for HRH Prince Charles, was delighted to get through to the final respresenting his home country of Scotland, and is now really pleased to offer l’ortolan guests the chance to taste the dishes he cooked on the television programme for themselves

Everyone at l’ortolan is really excited to be able to offer the Great British Midweek Menu to our guests – and we can’t wait to hear about what you think of Alan’s special dishes.

The Great British Midweek Menu is available at l’ortolan Tuesday – Thursday evenings at a cost of £49 per head, until 1st July – must be booked in advance.

If you’d like to recieve l’ortolan news and offers before others, make sure you sign up for the l’ortolan newsletter.

We look forward to hearing your comments on the TV programme and Alan’s dishes.

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Not only are we able to offer guests a chance to try Alan’s Great British Menu dishes, but Alan has also taken some time out of his busy schedule to host some events in our demonstration studio – so if you’d like to learn so tricks of the trade from Michelin starred Alan Murchison why not take a visit to the l’ortolan demonstration studio

This is Alan’s second time on the Great British Menu – please click here to read an interview with Alan about his time on the 2009 series.

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