Knife Skills

Yesterday was a wonderful day. I went up to London to meet Alison and go to a knife skills class. She had organized this for me as my Christmas present. She and Sian came up from Brighton with Harry and we all met at Starbucks down the street from Divertimenti. This is a "to-die-for" kitchen shop where they have a teaching area on the bottom level. Sian was the star of the day because she looked after Harry between 11 and 3 while we were in the class. He had to come to London because of the breast feeding which happened immediately before the class and immediately after. In the interim Sian wheeled him around and shopped on Marylebone High Street which is a shoppers paradise. So much so that I bought a trendy cardy on my way to the class. That was because when I looked closely at the one I was wearing, it had dirt from the allotment on the sleeve and baby sick down the front. My wardrobe management these days seems to go from the sublime to the ridiculous. The class itself was excellent. She showed us how to keep an edge on the knife, then how to joint a chicken then we turned our attention to vegetables and finally fruit. One of the really super aspects was the lady who came around constantly to clear our work areas and wash our cutting boards. In between these activities, she assembled and cooked the food we were chopping into a wonderful meal which we ate at the end. Obviously these knife skills will require practice so I'm going out today to buy a lot of onions and carrots and I am going to recreate the meal on Tuesday when I have friends coming for dinner.