Jenny Levack has been attending cookery classes at Terra d’Escudella for the last couple of months, and she loves it. Learning new recipes with professional chefs, making new friends as they work, laugh and learn together, and of course sharing delicious meals at the end of the sessions. Her fridge at home has been rather empty recently, she confesses, and it’s easy to understand why.
Week 10: we are deciding on dishes to present our aubergine paté and sesame breadsticks. Raúl and I are talking about how big the metro system is in a city I’ve just visited and he tells me it’s nothing compared to Seúl. All concentration moves away from the half a dozen dishes in front onto him to figure out just where my partner for today is talking about. Korea! Ah, ok! And he tells me about when he went to visit his girlfriend there. She is Korean, sí; they met on the Camino de Santiago earlier this year, he says, to which I almost leap up and down with excitement. “I walked the camino too!” I say, and then scrabble around under my white chef ‘s hat to show him my cheesy but incredibly meaningful little shell earrings. He then picks out one of his many bracelets to show me his silver shell.
Before we know it it’s tasting time and our starter goes down well, followed by two groups’ cannelloni that differ a lot from each other in colour and taste but are both good. Then we shuffle round the kitchen to find the dessert, which appears to be a bit of a disaster. Manuel and his partner try and rescue the chocolate roll from collapsing and spilling all over the place. Two arms flop around my shoulders and I feel Mari from behind me suddenly erupt with laughter as she sees what’s going on with the Christmas monster. We take pictures of the not so photogenic postre to add to our collection and gobble down a good few spoonfuls of it anyway.
According to the clock the class finished 15 minutes ago but people are still standing and tasting, washing up, and chatting. I get changed before heading home and I am reminded of all the tasty recipes we’ve made over these two months and which I’ve managed to dribble all over my once immaculately white uniform. Jordi’s uniform, I noticed, is always sparklingly stain-free, ironed to perfection and even bears his name on the front pocket above the Terra d’Escudella logo. I make a mental note: bleach.
Friday morning sessions (my favourite) are full on with the energetic chef, Jordi, whose uniform doesn’t have his name sewn on. Instead it’s on a dark blue seam and matching neckerchief, which I sense must mean the equivalent to a black belt in judo. He is so enthusiastic teaching us variations of recipes, techniques and all sorts of useful tricks, for example, to save a pan of burning onion, add a splash of port or another liquor – perhaps a simple thing known to many, but for me it was a revelation. He also lets us rebel against his biscuit blob spacing rule on the oven tray so that when they all merge together to form one joined up cookie in the oven, he can then refer back to the example in the corner, untouched and tidy, and definitely the most appetising of the batch.
Whenever a teacher is off or when a class is very big, head chef Sergi steps in. Sergi’s classes give an insight into what it must be like to do the real deal professional course at the school, which sometimes shares the kitchen at the same time. Every class begins with us all sat around an oval shaped table in our uniforms, ready to go through the procedures for our three recipes. Sergi’s briefings during that first half hour are incredibly in-depth with information. He fires warning shots of what happens when deviating from the word of command: ¡mierda! is generally the end result, and thinking back to the giant cookie, I trust him. He runs a tight ship and keeps us all in perfect timing. “Flan in the oven in five minutes!” he announces, pacing up and down. “Last batch of stock into risotto and mushroom into the oven now!” That one was for us. Now and again someone calls out for help and off he goes to the rescue “voy para allá!”(I’m on my way!), swiftly diverting all his attention and managing to pick up whatever may be needed on the way. Sergi, like all the other chefs have their aprons tied round their waist, protecting only their legs as if to display their impressive ability in dodging the spit of the sauce and precision in handling food that requires no need to wipe any of it off onto their front like us newbies.
“Chicos, when you go on holiday do you take a picture of just yourself or yourself with a monument?” our chief chef asks one day as we gather round a counter laden with five groups’ worth of dishes. Everyone mumbles and I think of all the tourists holding selfie-sticks by my flat at Arc de Triomf… “Okay”, he tries again. “When you have a passport photo taken, is it a close up of only your face or can you normally see shoulders and a bit of background?” Aha! There is unanimous nodding, “background, background”, we say to each other. He reaches for a long thin dish stuffed to the brim with prawn parcels that reminds me of those yards of Dairy Milk you get at Christmas time. “What in the world has happened here?” Hmm. “50% product, 50% plate. Always”.
Hobby classes at Terra d’Escudella, which opened in 1994, are 2 hours and run from Monday to Saturday. Each month has a particular theme, for example, October had mushrooms as the star ingredient, November was game (two words: duck cannelloni!) and December features festive dishes and chocolate monsters logs. Weekly classes cost €30 per month after matriculation and an offer which includes the uniform and an unlimited pass to all classes (which I thoroughly recommend!) is a whopper of a bargain at only €90. You can also do one-off classes or pick and choose the months that interest you. Courses are run in Spanish, and high level is required. For more information, see Terra d’Escudella cookery school’s excellent web page, where you can also download all their recipes and book a table for their weekend tasting menu of 22 dishes (€35 per head, wine not included).
http://terradescudella.com
www.facebook.com/EscuelaTerraEscudella
**Paella workshops in English beside Parque Güell**
For those keen to learn how do make the most typical food in a local’s home, check out La Salsa Menta. Paella and tapas workshops (€45 per person) are run in English by the lovely Sara and Jordi in their gorgeous home beside Parque Güell. Book your workshop online.
Reservations can also be made via Eat With: http://www.eatwith.com/offering/5538-Famous-Paella-Cooking-Class/
