Friday 24 February 2012

Caribbean Curacao and Cookery Courses...


 

A short stop over to Caribbean Food and a look at British Cookery Courses...

Thank you so much to everybody for your very encouraging comments on my last post. I am so very grateful to all those who take the time to post a comment on my fledgling blog and an extra thank you to those who sign up to be a ‘follower’ of my blog-to those-a very big thank you indeed!!
Thanks to you all and I will keep posting...


Following onto my last post, the next island we visited was the beautiful island of Curacao. 



This island is again, part of the Caribbean Lesser or Leeward Antilles islands just off the South American, Venezuelan coastline.
 

Very much Dutch influenced with delightful old tall Dutch colonial houses painted in gentle, pastel colours. 

 
I was excited to visit this pretty island not least because I had signed up in anticipation to participate on a cookery course actually run on the island itself...

 
I love Caribbean food with its mixture of vibrant colours and exotic flavours and was eager to learn more.

The Caribbean has so much to offer in terms of abundant food.
Curacao is a delightful island and full of colour with an abundance of fruit and vegetables...

There is a wonderful floating market with boats tied up at the key side and selling directly to the customers...



However, the cookery course was indeed a huge, huge disappointment to me... 

I’m not going to mention any details as to where it was, who ran it, etc and will just say these are my own personal thoughts...

When I sign up for a course I do expect it to be well run i.e. participants  are met in a timely and friendly and hospitable manner and not left to stand for an hour in the exposed sun whilst the people involved in the course argue as to who is to transport you...

If, like myself, despite that you have given advance notice that you don’t cook or eat meat that you are not then made out to look awkward and difficult by the host in front of the others...

You are not then ‘told’ to cook certain dishes without any consideration of your own personal preferences or desires...

 The actual, so called recipes, involve readymade pastry, tinned fish and meat and shop brought spice mixes...

Very little is actually taught and you don’t come away with any sense of having learnt more about Caribbean cooking...

The whole event was being filmed to promote the person running the course...When I saw the rushes following the course it was ‘amazing’  how all mine and the other participants who were equally unhappy and had made adverse comments, had miraculously disappeared...

I did write a detailed letter of complaint, however, just received the standard letter of receipt back and nothing more...

Oh well, you live and learn...

Next time I visit, I will explore more of this colourful and picturesque island.



And now on the more positive and upbeat side, I am very much looking forward to attending various cookery courses here in Britain this year.

These include,

The Vegetarian Cookery Course at Raymond Blanc’s Le Manoir,  Cookery School http://www.manoir.com/web/olem/le_manoir.jsp

The Summer Preserves and Liquor Making at The Artisan School of Food.

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall River Cottage- Veg at the River Cottage

And finally a chocolate making course with the charismatic Jules James at the wonderful Black Mountain Gold in Wales.
 
I will, of course, let you all know how each one goes...


Here’s hoping for a positive and enjoyable experience at each...

24 comments:

  1. What a beautiful and colourful place - shame about the cookery course - you can't win 'em all.

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    1. Hi Elaine-yes the ABC Islands as they are known as (Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao) are very strongly Dutch influenced hence the colours and Dutch style of architecture-very pretty.

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  2. What a wonderful experience... and it sounds like your really going to be busy with all your classes so make sure you let us no whats going on... thanks dusty...

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    1. Hi Dusty,

      It was lovely and by sharing memories and photos on these posts I can relive it all again-fantastic!

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  3. The colourful buildings, sunshine and sea combine beautifully, lovely photographs. Such a shame that your experience on the course was so disappointing. Onward and upwards though, the courses you have booked for this year sound wonderful. You lead a very exciting life! By the way, I can definitely see the Dutch influence in the architecture - change the colours and it could be Amsterdam, especially in photograph no. 5!

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    1. Hi Elaine, yes I can look back on that cookery course and laugh now. The person running it was reminiscent of a certain Basil Faulty...

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  4. Oh no! What a mess - that sounds just terrible :( I'd be so mad... I hope it didn't put too much of a dampener on your trip!

    Speaking of cooking courses, the ones you mentioned sound wonderful - I'd love to go to Rick Stein's cooking school too and finally learn all about fish!

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    1. Hi Charles-nope didn’t unduly effect things-just went on to the next island!!

      Rick Stein is a lovely chap-I’ve met him a couple of times-once at a market stall where we were both going to pick out the same apples and he very graciously let me have first pick! We got to talking and he is clearly passionate about good local producers. A year later I met him again and was much surprised to find he had remembered me as he picked up from our previous conversation!

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  5. I have never taken a cookery course, never even heard of one being held here. I hope the courses you have coming up will be nicer than the one you went to here.
    I think the colors of the buildings so interesting!

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    1. Hi Becky,

      I am fortunate to live in an area where we have the opportunity to meet chefs and other food experts. The camaraderie of spending time with like minded people where all you are doing is talking about food, cooking and eating is wonderful. It’s less about ‘learning to cook’ and more about expanding one’s horizons and having a great time...


      Yes those buildings were so pretty!

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  6. Liquor making, chocolate making - WOW. They all sound so exciting. I hope you enjoy your cooking lessons.

    For me though, learning to cook from my mother is a for more worthier experience than going to a cooking school because she knows enough recipes to fill four cookbooks. The one cooking lesson I took was a few years ago about preserving food by converting it into jams and pickles and when I got home I found that my mum had better alternatives than the lady who taught me how to make mixed fruit jam.

    And then of course, there is my all time favorite teacher - Youtube.

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    1. Hi Sri,

      The sort of cookery courses I choose to go to is less about learning basic technical cookery skills where you are right, you learn as you grow up, and more about gaining another perspective.

      The other people on the courses tend to be foodies and are already in general, good, competent cooks. Yes, you do still pick up a new bit of knowledge but it is more about having an enjoyable time and having the opportunity to talk to some chefs and pick their brains.

      One such course was with two Michelin star chef, Atul Kochhar. I probably will not have the opportunity to visit his restaurant but I’ve cooked his food-under his personal supervision-and had a hugely enjoyable day out with wonderful memories.

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  7. Curacao looks stunning - I must admit that when I read the post title I thought you meant the drink not the island....as I get older I do become increasingly grumpy about bad service, especially when there really is no excuse for bad or rude service. Mistakes I am more than happy to accept but rudeness no. Looking forward to the accounts of cooking courses.

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    1. Hi Liz,


      Yes I hadn’t really thought about the drink coming from there until I arrived! I’ve seen it here in it’s usual bright blue format but on the island they also sold it in bright yellow, red, orange and green!! I had a very small taste but too strong for me. Perhaps I could have used it in cooking-flambéed with a crepe perhaps...as after all, this is where Grand Marnier comes from, but didn’t buy any so will never know...

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  8. Still trying to comment on your blog! I've tried several times but without success so far...
    What a shame about that badly-organised course. It sounds awful. I trust that the UK-based ones will be better.

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    1. Hi Mark. Yes I’m hoping too that these next ones will be good!!

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  9. Hooray, it worked! (Since you removed the word-verification). Just wanted to say that I have followed your posts avidly and I think you are making a brilliant job of this blogging business. You have so much to write about too. I find that posting once a day hardly keeps up with what I want to say, and I think maybe you're heading in the same direction.

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    1. Hi Mark-sorry you’ve had such problems commenting but I followed your advice and took off the word verification though it was a bit of a faff...I had switched over to the new style blogger and you can’t delete it from there so have to revert to the old style to take it off...Doesn’t help that they don’t tell you that so it took a bit of searching...

      Thank you again for all your supportive comments and invaluable help-you are right-blogging is so much fun!!

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  10. wow! floating market...great experience... photos look fabulous and colorful

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    1. Thanks Cindyrina for stopping by and leaving a kind comment!

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  11. I have just come across your blog, and I think it's great. I'm sorry the course was a dissapointment - but I am sure the ones you are planning to do won't be!

    THe photographs are great, the caribbean is one of the places on my list I want to go to. I want to go even more now!

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    1. Hi James,

      Thanks so much for stopping by-I do so much appreciate it when people leave such kind comments!

      The Caribbean is fascinating-not least because the islands are so very different. Really recommend it to visit though strongly suggest a bit of research beforehand to make sure you don’t just do the usual tourist things but explore that little bit more...

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  12. What a shower that lot sound - I would be really annoyed to be included in a promotional film that was so misrepresentative of reality.
    Great links for the other courses - really interested to hear how the all go - especially the first one.

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    1. Hi Sally,
      Thanks so much Sally for stopping by!

      Thinking back on it, I realise now how well behaved I and the other participants were...we were never formally asked if we would mind being filmed and the dire lack of ‘people skills’ shown by the course organiser was just greeted by us with that good old British stiff upper lip and we just muttered behind the saucepans as we didn’t want to make a scene...


      Yep-on to and upward for the next courses...Le Manoir has already been on the phone to ask for my measurements for my chef’s tunic...

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