Talk About Anything BUT Work: Chef Academies, Pasta Making, Deansgate Square and What to Make this Weekend.

Welcome back to our wonderful foodie world…

One of the critical issues affecting the hospitality industry at the moment is lack of chefs, we have worked alongside Mitchell's and Butlers for the past few years with their Chef & Culinary Tutor, Jim, who we know so well, it’s almost like he’s part of our team.

More recently, it’s been fantastic to see the launch of the Greene King chef academy at Food Sorcery in Didsbury, with the fabulous Olivier at the helm. It’s great to see so many chefs learn and graduate through our kitchens, like all our work, we have the added benefit of enjoying some of the food produced by their students and tutors – yum!

You’ll know by now that our second venue at Deansgate Square is on the cusp of launch…. we’ve been busy getting the building ready as well recruiting a larger team to deliver cooking classes, our ever-popular cooking together evenings, team building & Christmas events. You can read about Salvatore below, he made a fantastic debut last month in Didsbury, making pasta with our guests.

Chef Academies

Both Mitchell’s & Butlers and Greene King run Chef Academies to bring on the next generation of chefs. We are delighted to be the venue for their Northern bases and our kitchen in Didsbury suits them perfectly with on site parking, the hotel next door and plenty of work space. With our recent renovations to the workshop and the coffee lab, we have additional capacity for them to offer coffee training and also classroom based learning.

Greene King produced the following video to assist their recruitment drive, we think the school looks pretty epic! This is their first apprentices got on with chef Joe Hurd.

Deansgate Square – Nearly Open!

Born out of a passion for foodie fun, Food Sorcery has evolved and developed over the past 6 years in Didsbury and we love working there, known now as a hang out for foodie waifs and strays, we have built a fabulous team and our proximity and great relationship with the Waterside Hotel is an added bonus. The opportunity to open in the City Centre alongside the Didsbury kitchen, opens a new market for us to target with our site in the incredible development by Renaker at Deansgate Square.  We will help them grow the community feel in these towers bringing our unique twist to a night out socialising, learning and eating! The location opens the door for team events for many City Centre businesses and our launch will be in-time to host Christmas events and parties.  The kitchen is spacious, very light, modern, and designed to the highest finish. There’s space for events and meetings, as well as cookery classes. If you’ve been watching us on social media, you’ll see things are progressing rapidly for our opening in November.

Everything is looking shiny and bright; this is Lisa our kitchen manager and chef Jan Cron looking like they know how to read the drawings…thankfully we have an expert team of contractors from @RetailOutletDesign led by @MarkBoylin. They have been fantastic to work with and have a long-term relationship with our design team at NCstudio and we would happily recommend them!

Pasta Making

What to cook this weekend

Pasta can be as simple as bringing water and flour together to form a dough and rolling sheets of lasagne, but some occasions call for something a bit more special. Salvatore was kind enough to share with us his indulgent pasta dough recipe and a very innovative filled pappardelle dish that guests recreated with stunning results.

The dough can be used to make any form of pasta and really takes ten to fifteen minutes to make, including kneading time.

Salvatore’s Indulgent Pasta Dough

 Ingredients

• 135g 00 flour
• 135g semolina
• 120g egg yolks
• 20g egg whites
• pinch of salt

1. Method
2. Put the flour, salt and semolina into a bowl and make a well in the middle.
3. Tip the eggs into the well and beat with a fork, then use your fingers to bring the flour into the eggs and mix together.
4. Once everything is combined, tip the dough onto a floured surface, and knead with your hands until you have a smooth ball of dough.
5. Wrap in cling film and place in the fridge for at least thirty minutes. 
6. Once the dough is out of the fridge and up to room temperature, it’s time to roll. Dust the work surface with some flour and set the widest setting on the machine.
7. Cut the dough into four pieces and start by rolling one out to a rough square using a rolling pin.
8. Feed the dough through the machine with one hand whilst turning with the other, until it emerges from beneath the rollers. Take it out, and fold both ends into the centre, then roll through again. This step is only done on the first setting.
9. Drop down one notch on the machine and roll the pasta through again. Repeat this all the way to the second-to-last setting. You should now have a thin sheet of pasta that you can lay on a baking sheet or work surface and cover with a damp towel whilst you roll the rest.

Pancetta filling:

• 100g of pancetta or butternut squash
• 50g of leeks
• 50g of asparagus
• 1 glove of garlic
• 1 small shallot
• 30g of fennel
• 35g parmesan cheese
• 20g sage
• 1 egg yolk
• 1tsp of olive oil
• 1pinch of salt
• 1pinch of pepper

 Tomato and herbs sauce:

• 200g of chopped tomato
• 50g cherry tomato
• 1 glove of garlic
• 20g of sage
• 20g of thyme
• 1tsp of olive oil
• 1pinch salt
• 1pinch of pepper

Method:

1. Begin by making the dough for the pappardelle. Mix together the flours, eggs and a pinch of salt in a large bowl. Mix until the mixture comes together to form a smooth dough. Shape into a ball, wrap in cling film, then leave to rest in the fridge for 1 hour.
2. Meanwhile, prepare the filling. Heat a medium pan with a little oil and gently sauté the chopped shallot, garlic, leek, fennel until softened and almost cooked. Add the pancetta or butternut squash and finally the chopped sage and bring to a gentle simmer. Cook for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally, and cooked through. Once cooked put it in a food processor and add the egg yolk and parmesan.
3. Meanwhile, make the tomato and herbs sauce. Start by making a browned shallot, garlic with olive oil. Add the chopped tomato, and cherry tomato and place over a low heat. Allow to cook for 15 minutes then remove from the heat.
4. Remove the dough from the fridge and thinly roll out using a pasta machine. Cut out a square sheet, brush with water and place with a pipping bag the filling in the middle, folding over the pasta and pinch along each edge to seal the pasta. Join the two ends together to create the shape of a teardrop.
5. Salt a large pan of water and bring up to a rolling boil. Add the pappardelle to the pan and cook for 6 minutes, then drain thoroughly. Serve with the tomato herbs sauce, cooked asparagus, parmesan, and drizzle of olive oil.

See in two weeks time!