Themed classes are held at the wine farm in Franschhoek on either a Thursday morning or a Friday night and are a way to improve your culinary skills, learn from a professional team, and have fun at the same time.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
My partner and I recently attended a Friday night class for an Aussie cooking experience. Being that we follow a couple of different Australian cooking shows, this sounded like a tasty, produce-driven concept that we would love, and we were not disappointed. Ebullient head chef Pieter de Jager, conducts the classes, with the help of a few members of his kitchen team and experience manager Wouter. My partner got right into the zone creating his dish; I on the other hand, prone to chatting to my neighbouring cook, did have to re-slice my turnips 3 times and cook them twice. I blame the setting on the mandolin for this, and not my lack of attention. After slicing, dicing, pickling and assembling we sat down to enjoy our tartare \u2013 delicious!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Fortunately for us, recreating that sea urchin dish was not our task for the evening; instead we made a Singaporean seafood curry and grilled lamb ribs. We basted the pre-cooked lamb ribs with a marinade made using the kitchen\u2019s rotisserie drippings \u2013\u00a0the result was\u00a0rich, meltingly tender lamb that was positively\u00a0lip smacking.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n For the curry, Chef Pieter started off by demonstrating knife skills and then created the curry base. We then headed off to our stations to put together both dishes. Things got competitive when it came to plating and plenty of creativity came to light. Fortunately there is no judging in this scenario, and no \u201cplease pack your knives and go\u201d<\/em> so you are free to be as artistic as you like. Upcoming Classes<\/strong><\/p>\n 4th<\/sup> & 5th<\/sup> August: North African Cuisine<\/p>\n 1st<\/sup> & 2nd<\/sup> September: Finding the Flavour of Pinot Noir<\/p>\n 6th<\/sup> & 7th<\/sup> October: Versatile Vegan<\/p>\n leopardsleap.co.za <\/a>| Facebook<\/a> | Twitter<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For most of us, cooking in a commercial kitchen is something we only experience from our couch. Usually accompanied by the shaking of fists at contestants on cooking shows and running commentary. If this is you, then you\u2019ll love the chance to actually get in the kitchen and cook for yourself at the Leopard\u2019s Leap cooking class series. Themed classes are held at the wine farm in Franschhoek on either a Thursday morning or a Friday night and are a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":923,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4098],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"acf":[],"brand_slug":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test10.co.za\/C\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test10.co.za\/C\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test10.co.za\/C\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test10.co.za\/C\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/923"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test10.co.za\/C\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test10.co.za\/C\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28739\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test10.co.za\/C\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test10.co.za\/C\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test10.co.za\/C\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n![\"Leopards](\"https:\/\/test10.co.za\/C\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/web-leopards-leaps-1000x12.jpg\")
\n<\/a>![\"Leopards](\"https:\/\/test10.co.za\/C\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/web-leopards-leaps-1000x13.jpg\")
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\n<\/a>The Leopard\u2019s Leap kitchen is set up with individual stations and each member of the class dons an apron and is given the recipes for the evening’s cooking. Somebody smart designed the clipboards used \u2013\u00a0they include\u00a0a built in glass holder, so you can continue taking notes without putting down your drink (for as long as your note taking lasts that is). Like us, you may find that watching, listening (and drinking) is a far more effective way of bringing character to your dishes.
\n![\"Leopards](\"https:\/\/test10.co.za\/C\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/web-Leopards-Leap-1000x7.jpg\")
\n<\/a>Our class started off with a steak tartare demo, with tips on cutting and handling of ingredients. The demo also included making mayo, using oysters to emulsify rather than eggs. This lent a delicate but amazing depth of flavour to the sauce. After the demo we were sent off to our respective stations to create our masterpieces.<\/p>\n
\n<\/a>Next was a salt-baked beetroot dish, served with a macadamia cream, beet reduction and sesame emulsion. It definitely helps, and is of course great fun, to have fancy kitchen tools to produce emulsions et al, however Chef Pieter does give alternatives so that you can recreate similar dishes at home.
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\n<\/a>The theme was inspired by Chef Pieter\u2019s recent travels to Australia \u2013 what he ate while there, as well as various techniques he picked up while working in some of the country’s top kitchens. He peppered his demos with anecdotes from his travels, including his opportunity to plate that infamous \u201cJewel of the Sea\u201d sea urchin dish, which was set as a pressure test by French chef Guillaume Brahimi on Masterchef Australia.<\/p>\n
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\n<\/a>Last on the menu were two desserts, a light-as-a-feather lime parfait and a vanilla bean ice cream topped with frozen coconut cream and crushed meringue. Both dishes were fresh, palate cleansing and just delightful.
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\n<\/a>Our group on the night was a fun bunch of people who all shared a love for cooking. If you fancy yourself as an up-and-coming amateur cook and want to learn more, Chef Pieter and his team are a wealth of knowledge. If you enjoy watching cooking shows, you\u2019ll love the experience of\u00a0prepping and working in a proper commercial kitchen environment. If you really just like to eat and drink, be\u00a0sure to\u00a0take a skilled partner along who can do the work on both of your stations \u2013 you can be a token stirrer or just quality control. However you choose to experience it, your evening is bound to be a blast.<\/p>\n
![\n<\/a>Last on the menu were two desserts, a light-as-a-feather lime parfait and a vanilla bean ice cream topped with frozen coconut cream and crushed meringue. Both dishes were fresh, palate cleansing and just delightful.\n](\"https:\/\/test10.co.za\/C\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Web-1-Leopards-Leap-1000x1.jpg\"){kind=link}