Cookery school L’atelier des Chefs – which has branches in London, Paris and Dubai – hopes to go one better than Jamie Oliver with their new 30-minute ‘Cook, Eat and Run’ class. Like Jamie’s best-selling cookbook, the cookery class won’t turn us into a nation of consummate cooks overnight. But it’s a start.

As Martin Caraher, professor in the department of food policy at City University London recently told the AFP, ‘There’s never been so much interest in cooking and we’ve never talked so much about food. But we call it “gastroporn”. People look at the cooks but don’t necessarily put them into practice.’

Which is why this class, priced at just £15 (roughly the same as Jamie’s cookbook) works. It’s quick, easy and approachable – perfect for those who avoid their kitchen because they don’t have the confidence, not to mention the time.

During a 12:30 – 1pm lunchtime slot, my class learned how to make duck breast with stir-fried Chinese cabbage and spiced plum sauce. Along with the inevitable race against the clock, we also learned useful kitchen skills like how to properly prepare duck and how to tell when meat is perfectly cooked.

Our meal was ready in 30 minutes as promised (‘and not a minute longer!’). You have the option to box it up and bring it home with you, but most stay to enjoy the meal with the class. You can also get a glass of wine for £3.50, pudding for £3.

The recipe is then emailed out, in the hopes you’ll recreate it on your own. Which does beg the question: will I actually cook the meal again at home? Yes. And was it a more enjoyable way to spend my lunch break, compared the the usual working (or Facebooking) at my desk? Definitely.

L’atelier des Chefs is located at 19 Wigmore Street, London W1U 1PH. 30-Minute ‘Cook, Eat and Run’ cooking classes priced from £15 per person. Book online at www.atelierdeschefs.co.uk or ring 0207 499 6580.

This time, they’ve been chatting about the influence social media has on their travels around the world.

Twitter travel guide

The couple have thrown out the guidebooks, and instead rely on the advice and recommendations of locals who use social media, in particular Twitter.

And it’s not just the locals who have been helpful. Twitter users who have visited the destinations are keen to share restaurant,  and accommodation suggestions with the couple (who can be found @gran_tourismo). In fact, Dunstan and Carter told travel blog Gadling “When we were in Cape Town, loads of tweeps said we had to do the Township Tour offered by Cape Capers and we did and they were right, it was life-changing.”

The power of food bloggers

Food bloggers are a large part of their journey: many make suggestions for dishes Terence (the cook of the couple) to create in each location. The pair have also gone on to meet many of the people they’ve chatted to on Twitter.

The biggest benefit of using Twitter for their Slow Travel trip is in spreading the message of their travels, therefore increasing their followers and the number of people who can offer their own advice. This has led to a number of big companies, like Trourist and Our Explorer, offering prizes to followers.

Have you ever used social media for travel advice?

Image [Jonesemyr]

However, until recently I was unaware of the effort that goes into making a Slow Christmas pudding. The process takes at least a couple of months, during when you spend time ‘feeding’ it with alcohol.

Historically, Christmas puddings were made four to five weeks before Christmas, ideally on the Sunday before Advent. This was known as Stir-Up Sunday, due to the tradition of asking every member of the family to give the mixture a stir while making a wish. Another tradition involved adding several sixpence or threepence to the mixture, for the lucky consumers to find.

Seeing as it’s already December, it’s probably a little too late to make one for this year. However, there’s nothing stopping you making one now for next year.

For a simple step-by-step guide, follow the Once a Week Kitchen video below.

Once cooked, you can keep the pudding in the fridge for up to three months, or freeze it for next year. Once defrosted, you just need to steam it for a couple more hours on the day of consumption.

What’s your favourite Christmas Pudding recipe? Tell us your secret!

Image: [humbert15]

But baking seems to be a different kettle of icing sugar. Despite the glorification of the ever-present cupcake shop, home baking has never been more popular.

Cake Clubs in the workplace seem to be thriving, with one friend of mine recently updating her Facebook with the following:

‘I’m going home to bake a Chocolate Guinness Cake. Will be the most popular little worker bee in the News International empire tomorrow, oh yes.’

Baking isn’t going to get you a promotion, but it is fun. Cooking, while hugely enjoyable, has an implicit stress. When you cook for someone, you are giving that person one of their basic needs. There is a certain amount of pressure.

Baking, however, is therapeutic. Baking is Slow. I’m with the humourous American essayist Sloane Crosley, who wrote, ‘Since baking has been my one consistent hobby since pre-school, I often turn to it times of stress.’

Baking is something you do for pleasure. And for me, it’s a better way to use up leftover food. There’s only so many soups and casseroles you can make. Carrot cake, courgette cake and banana bread are other ways you can use up a glut of produce.

Or, you can go one further by making the compost cookie. This little cookie (with the admittedly off-putting name) began in hip New York eatery Momofuku, when its Milk Bar chef, Christina Tosi, needed to use up various bits that would soon go stale in the kitchen.

Tosi added crushed pretzels, potato chips, coffee, oats, butterscotch and chocolate chips to her basic dough – creating what is now a Stateside phenomenon.

Intrigued, I made some with what was lurking in my own cupboard: dried cranberries, tortilla chips,  marshmallows, a bar of dark chocolate.

And you know what? They were delicious. Baking might be a Slow art, but those cookies were gone. Fast.

Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

But no more. The most exciting food in New York, San Francisco and London isn’t happening in restaurants with Michelin stars, but on the streets. Independent producers fueled by both the economic recession and rise of local, artisan foods  have started producing exciting morsels to sell on the streets and at festivals.

Whether inspired by the food of their childhood – like Urvesh Parvais, who, with his mother Lalita Patel, developed Gujarati Rasoi to sell ‘traditional wholesome Indian food’ at three London street markets – or a love of a particular cuisine, you now can find everything from Vietnamese bánh mì to Mexican burritos during a stroll through your neighbourhood.

The young, educated and out-of-work seem to be the majority of vendors at Greenpoint Food Market, which is held on monthly Saturday mornings in Brooklyn’s Church of the Messiah. Each vendor pays $25 to $50 for a table, which goes to the church and the organiser. Any profit made on Korean dumplings or cupcakes is the vendor’s to keep.

Some products have already been snapped up by large retailers like Whole Foods. For dedicated food producers on a limited budget, this means they can develop a viable business without having to partner with a commercial food company which may not share their food values.

Petra Barran of Choc Star, which sells chocolate treats from a converted Scottish ice cream van, set up the website Eat.St as an online hub for those who already run, or want to start up their own mobile food business.

And while the movement is still in it’s early days, London is already about to host its second annual street food awards (10 – 12 September) judged by prominent British chefs like Mark Hix, Thomasina Miers and Marco Pierre White. New York’s ‘Vendy Awards’ have been going strong since 2005.

With street food enabling young entrepreneurs to start a profitable, ethical venture and provide consumers diverse, delicious and affordable food, the movement is one where everyone wins. Except the greasy hot dog vendors.

Useful websites:

Gujarati Rasoi – www.gujarotirasoi.com

Choc Star – www.chocstar.co.uk

Eat.St – www.eat.st

Gourmet magazine’s street food guide – www.gourmet.com/food/street-food-guide

Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Underground suppler club, The Secret Ingredient, which is located in London’s Newington Green illustrates this perfectly. Musician and food lover Horton Jupiter serves up home-made Japanese delights every Wednesday and Thursday evening.

Total strangers – Londoners as well as visitors from around the world – share this unique dining experience and sit together in Horton’s living room as he serves a menu of vegetarian treats such as braised shiitake mushrooms, seared broccoli and fruit with white miso dressing. Diners can bring along their own drinks if they like.

From £20 per person plus tip.

To book a table and find out more join the Secret Ingredient Facebook Group.

As Shakespeare said in Twelfth Night, “If music be the food of love, play on” but music also aids the love of food. Struggle to slow down and savour your meal? Let music be your guide.

On Sunday ‘mafternoons’ (the time equivalent of brunch) I listen to the American Routes programme on NPR. The pleasure of sipping coffee and eating eggs is made all the more idyllic with a soundtrack of blues, jazz, country, gospel and folk.

But it’s a contentious issue, especially when played out in public. One person’s favourite genre is another’s ear bleed. Yet pandering to mass tastes equals bland music, which can be almost as offensive.

One place that gets it right is my local family-run Italian. Their piano man is perfect – relaxed, convivial and even a little cheesy – just like the restaurant.

Live opera at another local joint? Too loud and distracting, which was made more than obvious when my friend accidentally shouted, “I SAID I NEED A MAN REALLY BAD” just as the opera singer decided to end the song. She wasn’t the only one on show after that…

So contentious is the issue, that many bars, restaurants and hotels employ prefessionals to remedy the situation by using companies big (Muzak) and small (New York DJ Nemo Librizzi).

Then there is the sound of silence. As reported in the New York Times, Grant Achatz of the famed Alinea in Chicago feels he can’t get the acoustics of food and music to gel, and couldn’t abide by say, a ‘crunch’ sound during a creamy course.

For me, the sound of silence during a meal is the sound of no buzz, of no soul. It’s the sound of polite couples trying not to scrape their cutlery against the china in a cold, countryside hotel. Music and food? As Shakespeare said, play on…

Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Blame it on Mad Men, the 1960s American TV drama which is famously awash with stiff bullet-bra corsets and even stiffer drinks – so much so that they’ve made their own Mad Men cocktail guide – or the recession-fueled trend for all things nostalgic. But from London to LA, from high-end hotspots to at-home shindigs – classic cocktails are back.

Trendiness may be the antithesis of the Slow Movement, but the craze for classic cocktails is one I hope remains. These are drinks that demand respect and attention, from both the creator and the consumer.

The quality of ingredients is key, as is the method used (cocktail manuals such as the pioneering 1862 classic How To Mix Drinks by Jerry Thomas and 1948′s The Fine Art Of Mixing Drinks by David Embury have both made a comeback).

Drinking a classic cocktail can be a literal eye-opener for one accustomed to sugary sweet concoctions where the taste of alcohol is barely present. With the cocktail’s spiritual home being in America, the rest of the world has adopted their tastes, including the 75-year Prohibition hangover where the habit of masking the taste of alcohol has only finally been broken.

For someone used to knocking back beer, wine and contemporary cocktails with a certain ease, my first Classic Martini (straight up, with a twist) was a revelation. Cosily ensconced in the stylish surroundings of a hotel bar, the drink took me over an hour to finish. And I loved every minute of it. I’ve now branched out and discovered the joys of a bitter and sweet Old Fashioned and the tasty lime sharpness of a Vodka Gimlet.

As The Atlantic has reported, bars such as Drink in Boston, Apothecary in Philadelphia and Apotheke in New York have been initiating the masses into the joys of classic cocktails even further by having the bartender/mixologist taking a pharmacist approach and prescribing a cocktail.

In London, 69 Colebrook Row has made a name for itself as the connoisseur’s cocktail bar and a very innovative one at that, but will be going back to basics by offering masterclasses for those keen to learn their classic Martinis from Manhattans.

But perhaps my real conviction on the Slow benefits to classic cocktails is the advice a bartender gave me when trying that first Classic Martini. “Just remember, two is never enough but three is too much.”

Image courtesy of AMC

Aside from avoiding a nightmarish table-booking rush, the forced ‘romantic’ atmosphere of many restaurants and additional sneaky additional charges, cooking as a couple is one of those ‘bonding’ activities that can help develop your relationship. What better day to do it than Valentine’s?

Of course there’s always the chance that you’ll squabble over spilt milk or one partner will discover his or her inner Gordon Ramsay, but creating something together can bring couples closer.

To make this a pleasant bonding experience rather than a fraught one, make sure you’ve decided on a menu in good time, set aside enough time (preferably the whole day!) to purchase, prepare and cook the food and have agreed on who’s doing what.

If the more confident partner wants to declare him or herself ‘head chef’ for the event, make sure that’s sorted out long before you start peeling potatoes!

Your choice of menu will of course be a very personal one, but some food options work better than others when love is in the air. For obvious reasons, overly spicy food is usually considered a no-go, but light, bite-sized foods or sharing plates make excellent romantic options. Think about what dishes you most enjoy when you’re out together and find out how you can interpret them at home.

The main challenge for those attempting a home-cooked Valentine’s meal is creating a suitably special and romantic mood. Candles and music are tried and tested ways to achieve this, but there are plenty more personal touches you can give your home to make it cosier and more inviting.

The obvious - but often overlooked first step – is to give the house a thorough clean so you’ll feel comfortable relaxing there, but you can also bring in fresh flowers, light a fire (it will certainly be cold enough this weekend) or maybe make some DIY table decorations: wine glass charms or your own fabric place mats to transform your dining experience.

The food itself can also help here: If you’re planning to bake, why not make some heart-shaped biscuits to help set the mood? You could also have a think about creating your own special cocktail, named after something that’s unique or important to your partner and you. Don’t worry about being too soppy – the situation demands it!

Image: Or Hiltch

Fast forward to 2010 and The Ghetto Gourmet Dinnerparty Network has become a portal into the world of underground restaurants, speakeasies, supperclubs and other community-based alternatives for dining and entertainment. As a ‘wandering supperclub’, it has produced over 350 community dining events from coast to coast and has now set up regular dinners in LA.

“Any night of the week you can go out to dinner, but this is unique,” explains Jeremy Townsend, founder of Ghetto Gourmet in a recent New York Times interview. “People want to get out of that cookie-cutter experience and have a shared experience that has some meaning and authenticity, and some story behind it.”

The pop-up dining experience brings together local foodies, both amateur and professional chefs and a cast of  poets, performers, eccentrics and perfect strangers — all in the name of experiential eating in unpredictable places. If meeting new people, experiencing new types of food and showing two fingers to the regular restaurant scene, then The Ghet is definitely for you.

Until the next LA dinner meeting go and check out the extensive website which offers a great networking function and allows you to join local underground dining groups, post pictures of your own supperclub events and share recipe ideas.

image: Vera Devera