Cooking Class by Sebastian Ng, Restaurant Ember

October 22, 2006 superfinefeline

One of my favourite activities during the weekend is attending cooking lessons. In my laziness, I seem to have moved from actually cooking during weekends to becoming a theoretical cook, a.k.a. armchair cook. :)

I attended a lesson conducted by Sebastian Ng, Executive Chef & Owner of Restaurant Ember @ Hotel 1929. He was teaching Modern Singaporean Cuisine @ Shermay's Cooking School.

The first course of Pan-Roasted Tiger Prawns with Baby Green Salad, Feta Cheese & a Mint Leaf Vinaigrette was refreshing and the prawns added a nice crunch & sweet flavour to the salad. The Feta Cheese added a savoury touch. This was the easiest dish to make amongst the 3 courses that we learnt for the day.

The second course of Poached Snapper Stuffed with Maine Lobster, White Bean & Bacon Stew Served with a Tomato Fondue was a wonderful mélange of a variety of flavours. The delicate flavour of the snapper went well with the sweetness of the lobster. The sweet flavours of the seafood was well complemented with the White Bean & Bacon Stew, which imparted a smoky flavour to the dish. The Tomato Fondue added a slight hint of tartness that provided more depth to the flavours of this dish and also enhanced the sweetness of the seafood. Chef Sebastian also showed us how to make a lemon sauce to add another dimension to the dish.

The final course was dessert, Frozen Valrhona White Chocolate & Banana Parfait with Poached Banana Ice Cream. The dessert was plated on a bed of chocolate sauce. We learnt how to make banana ice cream from scratch but the chef was using an ice-cream maker which costs about $1,600! That is a huge investment unless you're totally committed towards making your own home-made ice cream for your immediate family, your friends & neighbours etc.

At the end of the class, while sampling portions of the dishes, I had the pleasure of meeting 2 ladies & a gentleman. As it turns out, they're photography enthusiasts which is great for I'm a photography-ignoramus.

One of the girls showed me features for my camera that I never knew existed! They looked shocked when I told them that I'm clueless about how to handle my camera beyond snapping, viewing, deleting & downloading pics. I learnt so much more about my camera in 10 minutes than I ever did in the last 13 months! This is largely because I'm too lazy to read the instruction manual. I tend to throw instruction manuals out together with the boxes after removing my gadgets.

Here's a sample pic that the girl shot for me. I was inspired. I'm now determined to find a copy of the instruction manual & try to explore the various functions that my camera has so I can fully enjoy it's features.