Sophie Grigson cookery demo

[Binky Profile]

This weekend is the Essex Autumn Food and Drink Festival. There is a marquee set aside for food demos. We arrived at the end of the one by Ondine Hartgrove, but in time for the Sophie Grigson set.

She began by telling us that she has moved to the Puglia region in Italy, and is getting into Italian village life (buying meat from the butcher on the corner and groceries from another local shop. There isn't a supermarket). She had three local recipes to show us - meatballs with pasta, deep fried cheese and bread balls, and pistachio almond biscuits. The recipes are all on her 'blog' which means nothing to me - maybe it's her website?

I have to say that we were both underwhelmed by her presentation and culinary techniques (separating an egg by hand to get the white only, and the endless mixing with hands. That's what spoons and spatulas are for.)

The three dishes were cut up for the audience to come forward and try, and the meatball pasta looked an unappetising red colour due to last minute slug of Primitivo red wine. The deep fried cheese and bread balls were nice, but her almond pistachio biscuits were overcooked and burnt at the edges. All in all not very impressive.

My husband had not heard of her so I explained that she was Jane Grigson's daughter and had written books and appeared on TV. He hadn't heard of Jane Grigson either

[Binky Profile]

These are the recipes. She demo'd them in Kent earlier in the month.


https://sophiescookeryschool.co.uk/2019 ... n-recipes/

[Pepper Pig Profile]

James Martin always separates eggs like that.

I think it’s a little unfair to judge her food on a mobile cookery demo where there are a lot of other contributory factors. She’s not her mother but she’s written a few very good books. I always felt very sorry for her because her ex was such a rat.I would pay good money to go and see Sophie.

[strictlysalsaclare Profile]

Mr Strictly and I did see a Sophie Grigson cookery demo at a food and craft fair in Windsor earlier this year. although what she made was lovely (it was a middle Eastern style chicken salad), I felt she was easily distracted whilst speaking, but not by other people! therefore it was quite difficult to follow what she was doing.

[Binky Profile]

clare, that's more or less how we felt - she was easily distracted and acted as though her mind wasn't fully on the demo. Two people next to us (we were on the front row with an excellent view) got up and left after 15 minutes.

[strictlysalsaclare Profile]

Although we stayed for the whole Sophie Grigson one, later on in the day we watched about half a demo from a Bake Off finalist who had won Star Baker several times during the series he was on. However, we got up and walked out because he was making so many rookie errors that I got really frustrated. Neither of us wanted to try anything he was making either. Such errors included the following:

1. when making Italian meringue, he added the syrup too early, whilst you could hear the egg whites sloshing about in the mixer. Therefore it either split or stated runny.

2. when making a salted caramel tart, he poured it into the case, and left it next to the hob which had one of the rings on. There was also a metal barrier around the edge of the hob which would stopped the caramel cooling down. IIRC, he was going to pour a chocolate ganache over the top of the caramel.

3. Speaking of ganache, he made that far too sweet by adding a shed-load of liquid glucose to it. Both Mr Strictly and I nearly

There weren't the only ones either, but I can't remember what the other ones were though as it was about 6 months ago.

[Joanbunting Profile]

I know and like Sophie Grigson and I met her mother a few times. They are/were both cooks and very good writers about food. Neither came remotely into the celebrity chef category and were not natural speakers or demonstrators.

I seperate eggs with my hands

I've seen some fairly dire dems in my life and possibly given a few. They are less likely to be sucessful if the entire audience can see and hear without effort and there aren't extraneous distractions. Not at all unlike teaching a class of restlass teenagers!

PS I wonder how many of you would be prepared to stand up there and demonstrate to a tent or a hall full of people ?

[Binky Profile]

My only appearance in front of an audience was when I played Sneezy in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. I was 42 at the time. My costume got caught in the scenery and the set fell over. The audience were laughing hysterically gave us a huge round of applause when the panto continued.

This method of egg separation is alien to me, as does Jamie squeezing limes with his bare hands.I am one of those people who don't like 'dirty' hands, so I don't like rubbing-in pastry, or kneading dough, or mixing salad with its dressing by hand. I always want to wash my hands immediately, and in fact always use a mixer or a processor to do these jobs. I couldn't separate an egg for that reason, and use a handy plastic egg separator instead. Each to his own

[scullion Profile]

I wonder how many of you would be prepared to stand up there and demonstrate to a tent or a hall full of people ?

i, for one, wouldn't even contemplate it!
doing presentations has always filled me with dread, i get really nervous and find myself just wishing that the ordeal would be over. i avoid them like the plague. maybe sophie has similar feelings!

[Sakkarin Profile]

I disagree, for people who enjoy sharing their knowledge that way, there need only be one person in the audience! Maybe she was having an off day, I get the impression from her Wiki page that much of her current business revolves around teaching - or maybe there was some organisational hiccup putting a spanner in the works.

I once attended a guitar workshop given by one of the finest country-style guitarists in the world, who has shared the stage with virtually every guitarist and musician of any consequence across the world. It was at the Borderline venue in London - I can't remember if it was free, but it was certainly pocket money entrance to attend.

There were maybe 70 people there, but he went out of his way to connect with every single person in the audience, and clearly loved the act of teaching his craft, even though when I saw him he'd had 30 years at the top (and still is).

In my music days, I have both played to empty pubs and watched friends play to empty pubs, at the other extreme I've played to adoring crowds and had fans queueing for my autograph!

[Sakkarin Profile]

P.S., when I said I disagree, I had read "hall full" as "half full"

But then I am a glass half empty kind of guy

[smitch Profile]

Presentations don’t bother me at all. Despite being pretty reserved and introverted, standing up in front of over 100 people talking about the uni, courses, finance, support available etc is something I’ve done loads of times. I’ve also delivered finance and personal statement sessions to large and small groups of students and trained academics on how to conduct applicant interviews.

The only thing I dislike is hearing my own voice over the lecture theatre sound system parents can be a tough crowd and groups of teenagers can also be tricky.

[dennispc Profile]

Done a far bit of teaching and lecturing in my time, including lecture halls with over a 100 reluctant art students and University lectures. Not really a problem for me.

Demonstrating is quite different and I’ve only done practical things like electrifying a dolls house or making scenery for various types of modelling. Demonstrating something that’s changing before your eyes and is time critical would be a nightmare. I’ve shown individuals how to make bread etc., but that’s individual tuition - quite different.

[Pampy Profile]

I have no problems giving demonstrations or presentations as I've done both at various times in my working life. I've also carried out training to smaller groups of people who often didn't have English as their native tongue (which can be quite challenging especially when trying to translate technical terms from German - a whole other story there!!).
I separate eggs using the shell - a sharp crack to halve the shell then pass the yolk between the halves until all the white has dropped off into the bowl below.

[Stokey Sue Profile]

I think, having done both and not being scared of either, there’s a big difference between giving a lecture, and demonstrating something practical

Demos are very much harder - they say don’t work with animals or children but inanimate objects are usually even less cooperative

Sounds as if Sophie could do with a partner in crime When I saw Adam Handling demo at a festival he had John Whaite to introduce him, and when the stove misbehaved John could go over, fiddle with it and confirm that for some reason it was not right, which saved Adam (then very young) from either getting flustered or looking stupid for not operating the equipment. Fortunately he had his samples prepared in advance. Yum.

[Pepper Pig Profile]

I think you’re right Sue. The best demo I ever saw was Jamie Oliver in his early days and his sidekick was Genaro. One of the worst was Paul Hollywood who very much relied on the Blue Peter technique. (Here’s one I made earlier).

[Joanbunting Profile]

I think Sue has hit the nail on the head. The most sucessful cooking dems I ever did were compered ones, usually with my partner in crime a lass from Radio Newcastle. We did lots and they were huge fun for the two of us and, if feedback was anythig to go by, for the audience too.

A pratical dem is an entirely different beast to a lecture of which Ihave done plenty, from pregnant teenagers to handwriting and gawd help me, the wines of the Rhone Valley!

[karadekoolaid Profile]

Giving a food demonstration ( or course) is very different from making a presentation in public, IMHO. Given my past history of getting in front of hundreds of people and singing, the move to making presentations was no problem.
Cooking demonstrations, however, are quite a different thing. You must have all your ingredients ready, prepared for cooking - there´s no point in the audience watching you cut up a chicken, prepare an artichoke, or chop an onion in 30 seconds UNLESS you want them to do it afterwards. The recipe must be imprinted on your brain ( and I can assure you, sometimes it´s not!) and the "preparation/cooking" must be as seamless as possible, otherwise your audience gets bored. It has to be slick, and there´s little room for ad-libbing - unless something goes wrong.

[smitch Profile]

I wasn’t suggesting demonstrations and presentations are the same thing. I was just adding a general comment based on a couple of things that were said upthread.

I can’t imagine a situation where I’d have to do a demo in front of a large audience, my professional skills don’t really fit with that situation

[jeral Profile]

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I can’t imagine a situation where I’d have to do a demo in front of a large audience, my professional skills don’t really fit with that situation

Not many are blessed with the skills to demonstrate something that could appear frenetic if not done in a controlled way, whilst thinking on their feet at the same time, The clever clogs who can probably are capable of chewing the proverbial gum simultaneously as well

I make a distinction though that if one pays specifically to view someone cooking they'd better be worth the fee as that is what they're selling, whilst ad hoc cooking demos included in the gate price in an untested minimal kitchen set-up have a bar set much lower.

I'd have thought that most people after seeing a demo leave with something, even if it's only what not to do.