Immerse yourself in some cooking lessons in London Sauce by the Langham.
A classy, interactive, fun, cooking workshop where you’ll hone your culinary skills regardless of the level you’re currently at.
Building Blocks of Good Cooking
The cooking school is called Sauce and the lessons are all about the building blocks of good cooking. I tried their Stocks and Sauces course one Saturday in July.
The workshop includes lunch with wine, a tour of the Roux at the Landau kitchen, all your instruction, ingredients to replicate everything you’ve watched being made and you get to take home your creations too.
Coffee and gorgeous snacks are also included to help you get through the day.
What do you learn in your cooking lessons in London Sauce by the Langham
We learnt how to make chicken stock, chicken jus, a sauce Antiboise, Hollandaise sauce and variations on that as well as a superb Crème Anglaise sweet sauce.
How do they teach you
We watched a very informative, practical demonstration by the Kitchen Manager Millie Simpson for each dish and then returned to our fully equipped cooking stations to replicate what we had seen but under some expert guidance. We didn’t have to clear anything away or wash up. You do need to keep your station tidy though.
Do you need to know how to cook
No, you don’t need to know how you cook, but you must have a keen interest in cooking and you probably do cook a bit yourself at home. Millie showed us classical, but accessible French methods to make our stocks and sauces. There aren’t really any short cuts. You do have to be quite energetic, not be afraid of sharp knives and quite quick at your workstation. There is a fair amount of cooking involved in the workshop so you get great value for money.
I learned how to:
expertly cut onions (banana shallots, always hold at the root)
concasse tomatoes (blanche with a slit, peel, petal and dice)
make a good crème anglaise from scratch (and I know how to rescue if needed)
make a chicken jus
make a sauce Antiboise
we were shown MUCH MORE than the above, but I am confident at trying all I have listed having done the lessons with Millie!
What was the most impressive dish
The brown chicken jus:
I would never have believed such a tasty, classy chicken jus could be made by simply starting to roast chicken wings in their own fat in the oven, lot’s more to do after that of course, but that’s how you start.
The crème anglaise:
Even the one I made (that needed rescuing in a water bath) was a good French restaurant quality custard. Creamy, not too sweet, milky and infused with vanilla pods, I served mine cold the next day with warm rhubarb crumble dessert.
I have also learnt that there is a logical order involved in sauce making:
REMEMBER
Course details
The class started at 9.15am with a light breakfast. It finished with lunch and wine at about 2.15pm.
Cost £150.00 per person.
It’s a great, group activity. Go with some mates and combine with a cocktail at the award winning Artesian bar on the ground floor before you leave.
Sauce is located on the first floor of the Langham hotel in London.
