Slow Food are holding Slow Fish Week in Genova from 4th to 7th May and to celebrate this and draw attention to it we are having our own Slow Fish Week. It will be a great fish menu at Caffe Caldesi and special fish cookery lessons at La Cucina Caldesi.
As a member of Slow Food I was sent details about the show in Genova, I would love to have gone but don’t have the time right now. Instead Jo Hynes, Manager of the cookery school, Gregorio Piazza, Head Chef and I have researched ‘good’ fish to create the menu.
It is not as straight forward as I originally thought, you can’t just say I won’t eat cod anymore, but instead you have to be aware where it is from and how it was caught. Some cod is fine to eat.
The other hugely important factor is that we should all be eating different types of fish and like choosing wine, instead of always going for Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Grigio we should be trying lesser known wines and fish. This would stop us overfishing one type such as cod. We have now been experimenting with pollack (delicious and a perfect substitute for cod) and guernard (ugly but tastes great and who ever said fish had to be pretty).
In Italy so many recipes I find use cuttlefish. They are similar to squid and baby cuttlefish make a wonderful stew. If people think its squid they will order it in their droves but as soon as you write cuttlefish on the menu they think of grannie’s budgie!
It’ll be an interesting week as I wait for the customer reaction. To be ethically sound, its going to cost us and then in turn the customer so we will see who puts their money where they mouth is! Some of the first catch arrive today so I am keen to see if I can taste a difference in the wild fish rather than the farmed varieties.
For further information look at www.slowfood.com and next time you are buying fish ask the fishmonger for something other than the usual culprits.
Two nights ago we taught 75 people how to make pasta and dessert on board a Mississippi paddle steamer whilst going down the Thames. It was a challenge and our third attempt at a cooking lesson on board ship. It took a lot of organisation to get everything ready to cook a whole meal in a kitchen without so much as a wooden spoon. Six of us went from La Cucina Caldesi to Butler’s Wharf where we unpacked our car and carried everything on board. This wouldn’t have been so bad had it not been for the driving rain and wind and the fact that the car was a five minute walk to the boat.
Once on board we settled in and awaited our guests. It was pretty choppy on board and the swell made the bubbling pots of ragu and stock slide about on the gas rings. Our chef Gregorio swore (luckily in Italian) on several occasions and vowed never to cook on a boat again! Two of the staff felt sea-sick and the fumes from the engine blew into the kitchen area. All in all it was tough and I began to think I had done the wrong thing accepting the challenge. We then had one hour rather than the previously arranged two hours to teach the guests who were in a hurry to disembark and get back to their hotels.
The large party divided into six teams and we made fresh pasta, pesto, lasagna, chocolate torte, roasted fruits and Sicilian almond biscuits. It was great, such fun and great bonding for the company that had organised it. The guests then retreated to the upper deck to watch the view.
We then laid up for dinner and everyone ate well. Gregorio managed to keep all the pots on the gas, work the ovens and find the plates. Calls for more lasagna and tagliatelle meant the guests had cooked themselves a good supper. They got off at Embankment and we got to stand on deck for the journey back to Butlers Wharf enjoying a well deserved glass of wine.
London by night is beautiful and we had all forgotten that. To see the illuminated Houses of Parliament, the wheel, the South Bank from the river side was magical. We finally relaxed before the unloading began from boat to car. On the way home everyone opted to do the next boat trip, it was really good fun despite the hard work and we are looking forward to our fourth cooking lesson on the Thames on 2nd February.
