Visit to Jamie Oliver’s Cookery School, London.
On a bleak rainy September afternoon, I took myself to a Vietnamese Street Food cooking class at the Jamie Oliver cookery school on Holloway road in North London. As the door opens up, you step away from the busy A1 road into a parallel world, Jamie Olivier’s world.
The room has a large central island where your Friendly Chef Instructor (FCI) will demonstrate the food to be cooked. All the around the room are several cooking stations where you’ll be sent to play chef.
It’s all about Jamie Oliver’s signature theme: the modern and trendy Studio Green Farrow and Ball colour scheme, the shelves adorned with his books, his favourite utensils (enamel dish of course, his pans etc), his trusted chunky thick bladed knife. It feels like stepping into Jamie’s kitchen tv set.
I had picked the Vietnamese Street Food class simply because I had visited the fabulous and fantastically primary green painted Tay Do Cafe (Kingsland road, E5) a few weeks earlier. The meal had been fragrant, delicious and light. I was keen to learn a little more about this wonderful East Asian cuisine, in particularly I wanted to find out how to make a summer roll.
Following arrival greetings by our FCI, we washed our hands, put on a Jamie Oliver branded piny and were offered a drink. Glass of prosecco anyone?
For this session, there were eight participants, including a few couple still in a kitchen honeymoon stage. We were all addressed as chef– it reminded being call mum by my son’s nursery carer. Did I feel unique and quite chef-y!
After some obligatory chit chat and the health safety details, our class started.
On the menu, Pho, emblematic Vietnamese soup, spicy meatballs and summer rolls. Our FCI was very professional, amiable, his routine impeccable, and explanation clear. He demonstrated, we listened and we tried to recreate it all. The utensils were already laid out, the ingredients already washed out, portioned out, so we only had to concentrate on chopping, cooking and assembling.
So, time to cook: I managed to burn the meat, my summer rolls turned out limp and my dipping sauce ended up like a watery swamp. But not to worry, I would receive the recipes by email and could recreate this mess at my own leisure at home. We finished the class with a bowl of pho the chef has demonstrated and prepared. We were offered the opportunity to buy any of Jamie’s book on display, maybe consider booking another class etc.
Did I enjoy it as an experience?
Yes, I enjoyed the space, the atmosphere of a well- run course. I was impressed with the FCI who was benevolent without being condescend, firm and clear without turning into a chef brigadier.
Did I learn about Vietnamese market food?
Sadly I think not – Jamie Oliver is not known for his respect of any culinary authenticity. We are more in the “homage” or a “version of” territory. There was very little said about Vietnamese cuisine in general or specific. What’s special about these market food items?
Pho was made in the space of those 2 hours with chicken and served lukewarm– in reality Pho takes a day, it’s made with beef and has to be serves piping hot to warm up very thin slices of raw beef in the broth. The instruction on how to make the summer roll were basic. And I ended up questioning the authenticity of those meatballs. The flavours were very samey for the 3 dishes as we used the same base: chilli, coriander, palm sugar.
However, it spurned me on to research a bit more Vietnamese food, watch a few you tube video and I will definitely try again to make summer rolls and a dipping sauce.
Would I do it again?
I might not recommend this course in particular but I would certainly consider a more run of the mill course like pasta making. After all, it’s really where Jamie Oliver’s true original passion lies. You can’t thank enough the man for popularizing half decent Italian food in the UK.
In conclusion:
It might not be the best cooking class in London in terms of authenticity, but it delivers a good and well run experience that resembles Jamie Oliver’s persona and universe. You’ll come out a little more curious and inspired for sure.
How to make pho from Andy Cooks
