BREAD AND PASTA MAKING INTERVIEW
Prepare yourselves for a mouth-watering interview … we cannot accept any responsibility for dribbling on your keyboard. This week, our brand new experience is bread and pasta making in London. As always, here at Experience Days we just love to find out more about what we’re offering you guys, and when it came to these classes we just couldn’t wait to talk to the head chef of Harrington’s Kitchen,Stephen. We made sure we didn’t have an empty stomach for this one…
Hi Stephen, please explain your journey as ‘Harrington’s Kitchen’ so far.
Hi, sure thing! Well, Harrington’s Kitchen was born in the late ‘90s at a time when I actually lived in Paris and decided to start my own catering company. Years later, at the start of 2012, I gave the name to our cookery school enterprise and it all went on from there really. Initially we started off just teaching an introduction to bread making, as I felt that this was a class that would have a broad appeal. Plus, most importantly, I know the technique that I use to ‘work the dough’ produces a much better, lighter result than traditional kneading. That class proved to be very popular, so I proceeded to add an advanced class… mainly for those who had previously attended the introduction class and wanted to take their bread making skills to a higher level. It has come on in leaps and bounds since then; in fact just six months ago we added a pasta making class that my partner Roberta teaches twice a month, and we’re so pleased to see how well it’s going already!
What has been the biggest or most memorable event you’ve provided?
For me personally, I would have to say demonstrating my technique at the Real Bread Festival on the South Bank last October – I was one of about twelve people to do a demonstration and the feedback I received was tremendous.
That sounds incredible! We want to hear more about you, is there any inside information you can give us about your journey or classes?
Me? Well, seven years ago I went on a mission to learn how to make really good bread, which is what got my culinary school started. Along the way I picked up a method of working the dough that really produces impressive results, and the whole process of making bread at home is so much easier than most people think! This is essentially what I teach in my Introduction class, and I would definitely recommend this class to anyone.
Do you have any exciting plans for the future that you’d like to tell us about?
Yes! We have many exciting plans. We’re currently based in Beckenham, but we’re planning on joining forces with establishments around other parts of London and the home counties that have kitchen space suitable for us to teach our classes in.
Ideally it would have to be cafes or restaurants that are not open all day, every day for their primary business, because this way we would be able to reach a wider audience. Once that is achieved we plan to introduce other aspects of cookery classes.
Thank you for talking to us today Stephen, you definitely have us drooling for some fresh, doughy bread! If you think this sounds perfect for you or a loved one, why not check out the selection of classes we offer:
