Marcus Wareing, an English chef, currently Chef Patron of Marcus Wareing at The Berkeley (formerly Pétrus) in Knightsbridge, and previously the Grill Room at the Savoy Hotel on the Strand. In September 2008, Pétrus was  voted London’s Best Restaurant.

A protégé of Gordon Ramsay, Wareing joined Ramsay’s Aubergine in 1993, where he became Sous Chef behind Head Chef Ramsay. After running the Grill Room at the Savoy Hotel on the Strand, Wareing opened and operated Pétrus on behalf of Gordon Ramsay Holdings (GRH) at the Berkeley Hotel. The restaurant was awarded two Michelin stars and five AA Rosettes, while the Savoy Grill achieved its first Michelin star in its 100-plus year history, since he took over.

In May 2008 the Berkeley Hotel began working directly with Wareing to launch its own restaurant, named Marcus Wareing at The Berkeley which went on to earn two Michelin stars in its own right which it currently retains.

In 2006, Marcus Wareing featured in the BBC television series Great British Menu, cooking his dessert of egg custard tart with Garibaldi biscuits for the Queen’s 80th birthday banquet.

In his book One Perfect Ingredient, Three Ways to Cook It, Marcus takes a new approach to cookbooks, by grouping chapters around ingredients, rather than the conventional starters, main courses and desserts.  Marcus Wareing guides the reader through 150 recipes to make tasty, enticing, imaginative food from the kind of basic ingredients to be found in any kitchen. All the ingredients are easy to get hold of, and the recipes are  chosen with the home cook in mind. Apart from the recipes, this book contains a lot of useful cooking tips, that will help you to become a better cook, and get better results.

Click here for recipes from Marcus Wareing.

Interested in buying this book? For the next 2 weeks Red Pepper Books is offering a special discounted price for One Perfect Ingredient . Visit - Red Pepper Books – The South African online bookshop, they are able to offer you great prices on any book you are looking for, and they deliver to your door.

Wickedfood Cooking School runs cooking classes throughout the year at its purpose-built Johannesburg cooking studio. Cookery classes are run in the mornings and evenings 7 days a week (subject to a minimum of 12 people). The venue is also popular for corporate events and private functions – teambuilding cooking classes, birthdays, kitchen teas, and dinner parties with a difference.

Our cooking lessons are hands-on, where every person gets to participate in the preparation of the dishes. They are also a lot of fun where you not only learn new skills, but get to meet people with similar interests. For corporate groups and team building cooking classes these events are a novel way of creating staff interaction or entertaining clients.

Every day during the Football World Cup Delia Smith will add a recipe that reflects the cuisine of one of the teams playing. This is her take on the braai. The sauce is suitable for all meats – lamb cutlets, pork ribs or chicken drumsticks. The quantity is enough to glaze six of each, which makes a nice mixture of meats to serve to six people. One important point is that drumsticks need pre-baking in a pre-heated oven at gas mark 180°C, for 15 minutes just before braaiing. This recipe is taken from Delia Smith’s Summer Collection.

6 chicken drumsticks

6  lamb cutlets

6 pork ribs

For the apricot barbecue glaze:

6 dried apricots

2 T dark brown sugar

Few drops Tabasco sauce

¼ cup Worcestershire sauce

¼ cup light soy sauce

1T grated fresh ginger

1T ground ginger

2T tomato purée

1 clove garlic, minced

For the apricot barbecue glaze:

1. Begin by placing the apricots in a small saucepan with just enough water to cover them, then bring them up to simmering point and simmer for 5 minutes. Place them, with the leftover liquid,  in a blender or food processor together with all the other glaze ingredients. Whiz everything to a purée and the sauce is ready.
2. All you need to do now is arrange the meat in a shallow dish, pour the glaze over them – turning the pieces of meat so that each one gets a good coating – then cover and leave in a cool place until you’re ready to cook, preferably overnight. When you light the fire, pre-cook the chicken drumsticks as above, then cook with the other meat.
3. Scrape any sauce that’s left in the dish into a small saucepan, add a glass of white wine to it and bring it all up to simmering point to give some extra sauce.
4. Serve with oven-roasted potatoes, a crisp salad and some very robust red wine!

Serves 6

For more Fifa World Cup recipes from Delia Smith, … click here

Sunninghill – (011) 234-3252 sunninghill@wickedfood.co.za

Runs cooking classes throughout the year at its purpose-built cooking studios. Classes are run in the mornings and evenings 7 days a week (subject to a minimum of 12 people). The venue is also popular for corporate events and private functions – team building cooking classes, birthdays, kitchen teas, and dinner parties with a difference.

Our classes are hands-on, where every person gets to participate in the preparation of the dishes. They are also a lot of fun where you not only learn new skills, but get to meet people with similar interests. For corporate groups and teambuilding cooking classes these events are a novel way of creating staff interaction or entertaining clients.

Wickedfood Cooking School, SUNNINGHILL

Information & bookings (011) 234-3252 sunninghill@wickedfood.co.za

Hi all,

Well  the World Cup Tournament is here.  For those who want to get into the spirit, but not necessarily go to the games, Wickedfood Cooking School has some exciting alternatives:

• Cooking classes for individuals- based around menus from those countries participating in the World Cup, that we feel have the most interesting culinary traditions – on Monday night, we kicked off with a delicious South African cooking class which was fully subscribed … click here for more information on other cooking classes available during the Soccer World Cup.
• Cooking classes for a group of friends – Wickedfood Cooking School has identified the 10 participating soccer teams with the most interesting cuisine and drawn up a representative 6-dish menu cooking class for each national team. Bring a group of 12 or 24 friends for fun night out @ R390pp and we will give you one place per twelve people free ie book for 12 and pay for 11.   Contact the school for more details.
• 2010 Culinary World Cup Challenge – a great way for your company to entertain staff or clients, or do a teambuilding cooking class with a difference, during the Soccer World Cup period.  Click here or Contact the school for more details.

Find us on Facebook and Twitter – just search for Wickedfood and you will find us. We update the blog on a daily basis and publish it through Facebook and Twitter.

Wickedfood Cooking School news

Cooking class programmes are up on the internet, we have some great cooking classes to coincide with the Soccer World Cup – see above, or click the relevant month for the June and July programme .

Wickedfood Cooking School runs classes with a minimum of 8 participants and a maximum of 12 as this gives everyone hands-on experience and keeps the class small enough for maximum learning.

• Monday 21 June at 6pm – Flavours of Brazil (R380 pp). Brazilian cooking class, showcasing the country’s unique flavours including savoury pumpkin soup, Feijoada, fried Brazilian-style greens, rice cooked with onion, toasted manioc flour and an orange flan.
• Sunday 27June at 4pm – Classic Japanese dishes (R380pp). Classic Japanese cooking class with dishes from the Japanese kitchen including yakitori grilled chicken, tofu and vegetable soup, poached fish with miso, chicken cakes, spinach rolls with bonito flakes and caramelised sweet potatoes.
• Monday 28 June at 6pm – Classic French cooking (R370pp). French cooking class, an introduction to French cuisine including cheese soufflé, potato and leek soup, coq au vin, potato gratin, and tarte tatin.
• Monday 05 July at 6pm – Cooked in Africa (R380pp). Justin Bonello has become a cult hero in the South African culinary world. Through his quirky television series, and accompanying book, Cooked In Africa, he has taken a bunch of friends on a culinary road trip through southern Africa.  We’ve taken a few of the recipes from the series and re-interpreted them to create a delicious South African cooking class.

Please contact the school should you wish to make a booking:

Looking for info on food?

If you have any food-related questions, or a dish that you just can’t get right or even a certain recipe that you are looking for, but just can’t seem to find, then contact us and we will do our best to answer it as soon as possible. Click Here for more information. Hope to hear from you soon.

Cookbook of the week

Delia Smith – Complete How To Cook

In 2009 Delia’s How to Cook was released as a single book of over 700 pages, with 350 recipes and step-by-step photography, covering every technique you will ever need from how to boil an egg to Risotto Carbonara. Truly a great book for both a beginner and someone who wants to brush up on both basics and more involved cooking. … Click Here for more.

Click Here to see Wickedfood Cooking School’s top 10 food-related books for 2009.

Food quote of the week :

“My doctor told me to stop having intimate dinners for four, … unless there are three other people.” – Orson Welles

Recipe of the week:

Mixed Grill with Apricot Barbecue Glaze

Every day during the |Football World Cup Delia Smith will add a recipe that reflects the cuisine of one of the teams playing. This is her take on the braai. The sauce is suitable for all meats – lamb cutlets, pork ribs or chicken.

The Wickedfood Team

Wickedfood Cooking School runs cooking classes throughout the year at its purpose-built cooking studio. Classes are run in the mornings and evenings 7 days a week (subject to a minimum of 12 people). The venue is also popular for corporate events and private functions – team building cooking classes, birthdays, kitchen teas, and dinner parties with a difference.

Our classes are hands-on, where every person gets to participate in the preparation of the dishes. They are also a lot of fun where you not only learn new skills, but get to meet people with similar interests. For corporate groups and team building cooking classes these events are a novel way of creating staff interaction or entertaining clients.

This delicious pasta sauce is quick and easy to make.  It is a firm favourite in Wickedfood Cooking School’s pasta cooking classes.   Do not overcook the pasta and serve immediately once cooked.  If the sauce seems to thick, add a few tablespoons of the pasta cooking water, to thin the sauce down.

1/4 cup olive oil

1 medium onion, finely sliced

4 sausages,  Italian, beef or pork, skinned

250g mushrooms, sliced

1/4 cup port or sweet sherry

250g thick cream

100g pecorino cheese, freshly grated

500g tagliatelle or Farfalle

salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

1. In a frying pan, heat the olive oil. Fry the onion and sausage until golden, breaking up the sausage as you cook it.
2. Add the mushrooms, season with salt and pepper and cook for approximately three minutes.
3. Add the port and cook until most of the liquid has evaporated.  Add the cream and heat through.
4. Cook the pasta in salted boiling water until al dente.
5. Drain the pasta, add to the sauce and mix well.
6. Serve immediately with some freshly grated pecorino on top.

Serves 4-6

Wickedfood Cooking School

Sunninghill – (011) 234-3252 sunninghill@wickedfood.co.za

Runs cooking classes throughout the year at its purpose-built cooking studios. Classes are run in the mornings and evenings 7 days a week (subject to a minimum of 12 people). The venue is also popular for corporate events and private functions – team building cooking classes, birthdays, kitchen teas, and dinner parties with a difference.

Our classes are hands-on, where every person gets to participate in the preparation of the dishes. They are also a lot of fun where you not only learn new skills, but get to meet people with similar interests. For corporate groups and teambuilding cooking classes these events are a novel way of creating staff interaction or entertaining clients.

Every once in awhile a really remarkable cookbook crosses the Wickedfood Cooking School review desk.  Fruit and Nuts by Susanna Lyle is such a book.  Although  not a cookbook, it is an extremely informative and comprehensive guide to growing and using more than 300 species of fruits and nuts. Each entry includes a brief history, detailed description, and authoritative information on propagation, as well as helpful advice about harvesting times and methods, cultivation, pruning, pests and diseases.

In addition there is a very informative sidebar  detailing nutrition, health benefits, and medicinal uses. The book is suitable for home gardeners, horticulture professionals, orchardists, and nutritionists.

Interested in buying this book? visit - Red Pepper Books – The South African online bookshop, they will be able to offer you great prices on any book you are looking for.

Wickedfood Cooking School

Sunninghill – (011) 234-3252 sunninghill@wickedfood.co.za

Runs cooking classes throughout the year at its purpose-built cooking studios. Classes are run in the mornings and evenings 7 days a week (subject to a minimum of 12 people). The venue is also popular for corporate events and private functions – team building cooking classes, birthdays, kitchen teas, and dinner parties with a difference.

Our classes are hands-on, where every person gets to participate in the preparation of the dishes. They are also a lot of fun where you not only learn new skills, but get to meet people with similar interests. For corporate groups and teambuilding cooking classes these events are a novel way of creating staff interaction or entertaining clients.