Tuscan meatballs at Underground Cookery School
It’s a week night and a few people are standing nervously in the foyer of St Mary’s Church in the heart of the City. The corporate high flyers are not here for Bible study, but a cookery class, yet all we can see through the glass doors are pews and a pulpit, not pots and pans.
Bang on 5.45pm the side door bursts open and Matt Kemp leads us down to the basement with a pro-style kitchen. Wine is quickly opened and snacks come out: olives, big plates of hot roast sausages, pizza. There’s enough for a meal and with good reason: we’re not going to sit down and eat the food we’re cooking at the end of class, we’re taking it home to show partners and flatmates.
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A refugee from the kitchens of restaurants including Pont de la Tour, The River Café and Bibendum, Kemp’s unusual idea in setting up his cooking school was that people should be able to learn the dishes they wanted to make. Tuscan meatballs was the deciding factor in my choice of class, though the evening also included fish pie and bread and butter pudding.
We start where most recipes begin: chopping onions. Kemp explains the pro technique, then we each grab a knife and a board and have a go. Slowly and correctly is better than fast and bleeding, and Kemp finds something to praise even in the worst efforts. All the onions are piled into catering-size pots to start frying because although we’re preparing ingredients individually, they’re cooked en masse.
Amid the air of semi-organised chaos, Kemp’s prone to improvise, showing us how to tweak a dish to suit the palate or mood. For example, he tastes the tomato sauce intended to cloak our meatballs, and decides what it really needs along with more salt and pepper are some squares of dark chocolate – not to add a molecular gastronomy twist but to give another layer of richness. His inspired recipe for fish pie is similarly freestyle, so to a double cream base we add lemon juice, Colman’s mustard powder, pepper and grated cheese until the mixture tastes vibrant – quite a change from the gluey white sauces of butter, flour and milk that normally feature in cookbooks.
Then it’s a short walk to Liverpool Street Station and home to enthusiastic applause – not so much for our class’s culinary achievements, as the surprise delivery of freshly made Tuscan meatballs.
Jenni Muir
Underground Cookery School, 4/5 Eldon St, EC2M 7LS (020 7426 2171/ www.undergroundcatering.com) Liverpool St tube/rail. Classes £60.
