Cooking

Cooking is described as being the process of preparing food by applying heat, selecting, measuring and combining of ingredients in an ordered procedure for producing safe and edible food. It is difficult to determine when cooking first began. Most anthropologists agree that cooking fires began in earnest scarcely 250,000 years ago, as ancient hearths and earth ovens have been discovered dating back to those dates. Some experts contend that it began as long as 2 million years ago. Suffice it to say that the art has come a long way from where it was all those years ago.

The Prue Leith Chef’s Studio in Centurion has recently become a new venue for people wanting to learn some of the fine points of cooking. There is a cooking course that has been set up especially for members of the public who employ staff with cooking responsibilities. The course is entitled ‘Basic Cooking Skills and Family Meals’ and takes place over eight Thursdays between 9 in the morning and 5 in the afternoon. You can find full details of this course in our website here.

The course covers in detail food hygiene and safety, and a detailed class on how to handle, sharpen and use different kitchen knives. Another module in the course covers ten different methods of cooking – what they are, what utensils you need for them and what types of food can be used with each. There are further modules that cover different breakfasts, lunches and dinners, a collection of sandwiches and a number of different baking recipes.

Cooking prevents many foodborne illnesses that would otherwise occur if the raw food was eaten. Also, cooking increases the digestibility of some foods such as grains. But in most cases if not cooked properly food can lose its flavor as well as its nutrients.

The opportunity has just opened up for members of the public to attend first class cooking classes in Gauteng. These are being organised by the Prue Leith Chef’s Studio in Centurion, and take place in a modern professional kitchen. The kitchen is supplied for up to 12 students at a time and is perfectly set up for corporate lunches, dinners or for birthday parties and dinner clubs. The idea behind the kitchen was to train professional chefs to further their skills and for giving new ideas to the hobby hubby to create new and exciting fare for their families and friends. Since the original concept, the cooking classes have increased in their cover and now include a course on Basic Cooking Skills and Family Meals that is designed for those people who employ staff who have some cooking responsibilities.

The cooking classes covered by this courseinclude a module on food safety, hygiene and knife skills, a comprehensive module that covers all different cooking methods and modules that cover lunches, dinners, sandwiches and baking. This course is run over eight weeks on Thursdays from 0900 till 1700. These are not the only cooking classes run at the Chef’s Studio, but they are certainly the most interesting. There are also a number of short courses for the cooking enthusiast and for professionals and culinary students. You can find all the details of these courses on our web pages at https://www.prueleith.co.za/courses.php . If you’d like any other details about these courses you could call Nicky Jordaan on 012 654 5203.