Palate Sensations Cooking School, Singapore

The Team Behind Palate Sensations

2013-04-17T13:38:00.002+08:00

It's been a while since I last updated something on our blog. This is because you can find everything you need to know at either our website www.palatesensations.com or on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/palatesensations.

Here is the latest behind the scenes photo we took yesterday of our team. There will be more on our website next week.

From left: Jason Ang (Chef Assistant), Chai Kok Wah (Cleaner), Felicia Khoo (Pastry Chef), Lynette Foo (The Boss), Halim Sheng Cai (Studio Manager), Charlotte D'Isidoro (Executive Chef), Loreta Valdez (Kitchen Assistant), Leslie Lau (Marketing Assistant)

Cheers

Lynette

2012, a year in review

2012-12-18T16:27:00.002+08:00

2012 has been a tremendously fun and action packed year for us at Palate Sensations.

Our signature series of classes such as Chef in Training with Chef Francois Mermilliod and Executive Chef Charlotte D'Isidoro and Pastry classes with Chef Sawarto were extremely full and highly successful. We were pleased to see the progress of participants who never held a knife before or cracked an egg increase their confidence in the kitchen.

2012 saw many highlights with fun Cooking with Friends evenings with Chef Charlotte where everyone made sangrias, paellas and fajitas. Chef Clement Ng taught a rustic cooking class at Pulau Ubin and Chef Richard Ravel taught the participants how to make soft cheese. Chef Leigh Koh arrived from London and taught some cake decorating and cake pop classes during August.

We welcomed celebrity chefs Denise Vivaldo who held her highly anticipated 2 day food styling classes, Rachel Allen on behalf of BBC and Will Meyrick from Sarong Bali conducted hands on cooking classes for the lucky few while they were in Singapore.

2012 was a year of special events. We enjoyed facilitating several cook offs from Campus Magazine and Starhub and we were privileged to host Dean & Deluca's cook off session for their store opening. Our studio was rented out to a group of die hard Dutch foodies who come together every few months to recreate the best dishes they can find from the top restaurants in the world. We are always fascinated by what they can create in the space of 4 hours.

Filming an episode for the First Eleven reality show for Channel 5 was highly entertaining and full of suprises as the participants battled it out cooking their best dishes for the judges.

With the launch of Mediacorp's new interactive service Toggle, our chefs were honored to contribute to the snippets of 15 minute meals for their channel.

We continue to support charity causes by donating 50% of proceeds collected from PACE classes held in conjuction with United World College. We also donated several cooking class vouchers for various causes throughout the year. We were not just active in our own studio as we organised some offsite classes to places such as Volvo to conduct a ginger bread and cake pop class, and to several corporate offices for talks on dining etiquette, Indian spices and floral teas.

We successfully overhauled our Party @ Palate Sensations with several new programs resulting in many murder mystery dinners held for Hens and Birthday parties. We finished the year with a Food Flicks The Great Gatsby party. Everyone had a rip roaring time as we ventured back to the 1920's.

Corporate teams were introduced to 8 new events which saw many participants engaging in food and candy tower challenges, restaurant simulations and the great pizza challenge. These events reinforced the importance of team work, co-operation and leadership.

There was fun for the family, with our kids classes and Parent & Child classes. Kids were put through their pacers with Junior Bootcamps held during the school holidays. Parents also enjoyed some quality bonding time with their kids as they cooked together.

We also catered to visiting tourists to Singapore, who in their short time here wanted to learn more about Singaporean cuisine. In conjunction with tour companies and cruise ships, tourists learnt to recognise Asian spices and cook with Asian ingredients to make delectable Singaporean heritage dishes.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank our sponsors who so kindly kept us supplied throughout the year, bringing you the very best in both ingredients and equipment. In conjunction with World Kitchen, we organised the launch of Snapware to the media and gave away Snapware festive cookie keepers for selected festive baking classes. We conducted a cooking class for Scanpan lovers, introduced Unicurd tofu to tofu lovers in a series of cooking classes. We listed our classes with Kezaar, contributed recipes to Starhub app FOOD.I.Y and partnered with UniQgift for gift purchases.

Last but not least, our kitchen team was helmed by our highly capable and engaging Executive Chef Charlotte D'Isidoro and Chef Assistant Malak Amina. Thank you to all our guest chefs who conducted cooking classes at Palate Sensations. We want to take this opportunity to thank Malak for her contribution to Palate Sensations. She is leaving for further pastry studies in Chicago in January. We are so proud of her and how much she has helped us in the past year. We wish her all the best and we hope she will return to Palate Sensations in 2013 after her pastry course is over to teach some classes.

From our team to you, we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Stay safe, enjoy the festivities and the break. We look forward to more fun and excitement in 2013.

Lynette

Making Kueh Lapis

2012-05-06T19:33:00.001+08:00

Today we held a private birthday party for a client. There were 15 of them and they made kueh lapis, the layered Indonesian cake that is baked, not to be confused with the steamed one of the same name too.

Definately not a difficult recipe to make although it was very time consuming. We decided to publish the recipe for those who are interested in trying it out at home.

Ingredients:

25 egg yolks
5 egg whites
500g butter
200g sugar
1 tin condensed milk
170g plain flour
2 tbsp golden syrup
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp mixed spices

Method:

1. Cream butter with condensed milk, vanilla essence, golden syrup, mixed spices till well mixed and set aside.

2. Beat egg yolks with sugar until thick and creamy.

3. Add beaten egg yolk mixture to the creamed butter mixture and mix well. Fold in sifted flour.

4. Beat egg whites with a pinch of cream of tartar until stiff and fold in the beaten egg mixture.

5. Grease and line an 8″ square tin and preheat tin.

6. For first layer, spread 2 tbsp of mixture in tin and bake in oven at 180 degree C for 10-15 min.

7. For subsequent layers, grill each layer for about 3 min or less.

8. When top most layer is completed, cover tin with a tray or a piece of foil and bake for a further 5 min. It will take longer if the sides are still wet.

9. Turn cake out onto a metal grid and let cool completely before cutting.

There were no doubt plenty of laughter in the kitchen as they enjoyed themselves tremendously.

If you are holding a party and want to do a hands on class, do contact us!

Making marble cake

2012-02-19T12:44:00.001+08:00

It's basic baking and so you think everyone will know what they are doing. Almost a foolproof recipe you say. Well let me tell you it's not as easy as you think! Sometimes things don't work out in class and we need to analyse what happened.

The one on the right is a marble cake and the one on the left is a butter cake (often mistaken for a marble cake)

Many commerical baking companies such as Sara Lee pass off the humble butter cake as a marble cake. A butter cake is light and fluffy and spongy and is made with self raising flour and baking powder to let it rise.

The marble cake made with plain flour is a denser more compact cake that does not rise so much even though baking powder is added to it. Alot of people spoilt by what is commercially available often tell us our recipe is wrong and it doesn't taste good. This is because they don't know what a real marble cake is.

This is a marble cake gone wrong. It is dry, very dense, light in colour and has holes in it. Somewhere along the line, we suspect they forgot to add baking powder and eggs.

So after class one day, Chef Sawarto and I remade the marble cake and it turned out perfectly. This is the correct texture and height.

We also made the butter cake with self raising flour to compare the texture. Personally I can understand why people like the butter cake better because nothing beats fluff and softness you can sink your teeth into.

So here it is, all 3 of them, the failed marble cake on top, the marble on the left and the butter cake on the right.

Happy Baking!

A recent interview I did about Corporate Team Bonding..

2012-02-14T15:45:00.000+08:00

I did an interview recently with SIM. Here is what I said.

Here's some background about my article pitch. When one hears of team-building activities, there's sometimes a negative view - that because corporations have budgeted for it and made it mandatory for all to attend, that everyone has to spend a day doing or playing some activities.

1. So how does corporate team-building work? Does it achieve what it sets out to do, or is it simply fun and games?

At Palate Sensations, depending on what types of teams they have, we have designed 2 programs for them:

Program 1

The purpose of this team bonding event is to test members working in their teams on their ability to present a coherent strategy, make decisions and execute their ideas successfully. Led by Palate Sensations’ Executive Chef, teams will be given a certain budget and limited time to shop for ingredients from the Palate Sensations ‘store’. They will then be given a certain amount of time to put together in any form (eg: cook, bake, assemble) and present the final product at the conclusion of the event. Each team will be pitted against each other according to criterias set by the chef. Once judging is completed, the chef will serve a 3 course meal prepared by him to all the teams as a reward.

This type of exercise is suitable for teams who do not often meet or interact with each other, teams with new members; and companies who want to challenge their employees and test their ability to work together in an ever changing and fast paced environment.

Program 2

The purpose of this team bonding event is to ensure that all participants work well together in their teams to produce a finished product. Led by the chef and a set of recipes, the teams will reproduce an agreed menu with a small element of challenge and team building.

This type of exercise is suitable for teams who just want to have fun and socialize while cooking a meal together; and for those who already know each other well.

Other programs:

- dining etiquette classes where they have to work together in teams to put together their dining table settings, role play on how to act appropriately etc..

- corporate trainer Bob Feldman who designs various corporate courses and works with us when requested by the companies.

2. What's the science and art behind your cooking program for team-building? What's your philosophy or some of the principles behind the design of your program?

We wanted to design a program that everyone will be interested in as not everyone is interested in golfing, bowling, paint ball and survival type games. Everyone loves to eat and even if they don't cook, they can relate to food in some ways. Everyone has an opinion and their own favorite foods.

3. What key elements of team-building are integrated into your programs? Can you share and discuss a couple of specific activities?

Leadership (who is going to lead the team to come together to make an edible meal), decision making (what to buy from the store when money is scare and resources (food) is disappearing as they are bought by the other teams), co-operation among teams and among team members, negotiations (how to get what you want when the other team has the ingredients you want), comradeship and making connections especially if there are some team members they don't work with often or don't know them at all, and of course competitiveness especially when there is a prize at the end but it is mainly driven by pride because no one wants to hear they are bad cooks!

4. How do you customise programmes for different group sizes or personnel levels? For e.g., Company-wide, entire divisions, specific departments ... executives, managers ...

We need to know who their team members are and their backgrounds so that we can work out which program is more suitable for them. Smaller teams will have different menus (e.g.: 3 course meal) and larger teams (we can take up to 40) we need to provide more a cocktail/canapes menu as there are too many people to make a 3 course meal so we do many small items to maximize interaction and decision making.

5. What kinds of request do you get from companies? For e.g., any specific requests to focus on communication skills? trust? etc

Usually team work and communication skills. We also get companies who form new teams or they have a new boss so they want to use this to break down barriers. We give them an opportunity to do that in a fun, non threatening environment over food and wine.

6. How does team building foster corporate culture? How to measure its effectiveness?

If you have a fun memorable event, your employees will talk about it for a long time. They can relate to the activities they did in the cooking class in their every day work and they will do it and remember it with fondness.. 'remember how we came first because we all decided to make that incredible omelette dish" sounds better than "our team discussed the different ways to enter this market and this is what we came up with". When people are happy and relaxed, it will foster a more effective team. Having been in the corporate world for 12 years prior to starting Palate Sensations, I did a lot of team building exercises. Very often they are not fun and you are watched and then given a full page report on how you did.

Our team bonding exercises aim to foster competitiveness and team spirit in a kinder and more effective and fun way.

Effectiveness is measured straight away when everyone goes home happy and are talking to each other. When you see unhappy teams who never talk to each other even in the cooking event, you know you cannot fix something that is already broke. It is their corporate culture and decision making internally that is breaking down the team, not our cooking event.

7. How important do you think is the reflection process before and after a team-building activity? Who plays the biggest role in this? Perhaps, how do you convince participants to take reflection exercises seriously?

These are usually led by their facilitator. We provide the means to make that happen.

8. How do you teach participants to apply what they have learnt from the team-building activities to work scenarios?

We often ask them to think about their experiences in the kitchen and apply it to their daily work. It could be as simple as connecting with another team member and knowing who to call or feeling comfortable to call him/her now that they have met each other and broken down the barriers.. it will help facilitate their work and open doors to discussion and getting things done faster and easier I hope.

9. With so many themes of team-building programs or activities available, e.g. outdoor high elements, indoor cooking, building sand castles, what do you think the trend will be like moving forward? Will any theme fall out of flavor?

I think they are all interesting and it will depend on where interest lie but for sure, food will never be out of fashion!

Photoshoot with Appetite Magazine..

2012-02-10T19:22:00.000+08:00

Last week, the great Singaporean food photographer Edmund Ho came to our studio to shoot a Spanish tapas piece with Chef Charlotte for Appetite Magazine.

Setting up the photography equipment

First shot of the deep fried prawns with a spicy mango, tomato, red capsicum gazpacho

Edmund and the editor of Appetite Magazine Amy Van looking at the shots

Eggplant tartare

Potato cake with chorizo

Mini chicken and green capsicum skewers with salmoriglio sauce

I took all these photos on my I Phone so the end result in the magazine will obviously look alot better. I like the props they brought which included wood planks to change the texture and the colour of the shots. I like all the beautiful coloured glasses and wooden plates they used. What I love to work more on is photo shoots and food styling. Of course knowing how to cook the food in the first place is just as important.

The accolades are up!

2012-01-24T12:32:00.000+08:00

I finally got around to framing my Le Cordon Bleu Diplome de Cuisine so here it is! 9 months of French Cuisine yielded this piece of paper and an unforgetable experience.

So here it is up at the studio together with both Charlotte and my details.

See you at the studio!

Happy Chinese New Year

2012-01-24T12:27:00.000+08:00

Hi Everyone

Sorry it's been so long between postings. With Christmas and Chinese New Year, we have been busy at the studio completing our renovations and touch ups. We also did a massive clean up so the studio is now nice and clean ready for the new year.

In January we have been busy launching all our modular classes with our Chef in Training classes being very full. Our next in take will be in April so do enroll soon if you dont want to miss out!

We held a Chinese New Year class where Chef Shih taught everyone how to make her own particular yu sheng which is very refreshing. It is full of herbs and shredded coconut and delicious grated fresh vegetables.

We wish everyone a fantastic and prosperous Chinese New Year in the Year of the Dragon. May all your dreams and wishes come true. We look forward to seeing you at our studio again when we resume classes on Saturday 28th January.

Lynette

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

2011-12-15T14:22:00.001+08:00

Photo by Chef Lynn Chen

HI there!

Greetings from Bangkok. How time flies! I have now almost completed my Superior Cuisine at Le Cordon Bleu Bangkok. Soon we will be having our final exams. By December 23rd, I should have my Diplome de Cuisine!

I want to take this opportunity to thank all of you who have been to classes and organised events at Palate Sensations.

2011 is our first full year at our new studio at Biopolis. We changed our team during the year with our Executive Chef Chris Bell returning to the restaurant scene in Sydney and our Chef Assistant Joel Tan returning to culinary school. Our current team at Palate Sensations consists of a female team helmed by our Italian Executive Chef Charlotte D'Isidoro, our Chef Assistant Malak and our Studio Manager Diana Soh.

This year has been an eventful and successful year where we held classes for large corporate groups of up to 50 participants, private celebrations and many public modular skills based classes. We hope you all had as much fun as we had hosting and designing classes for you. Some of the many things we participated in included hosting Denise Vivaldo's legendary food styling classes, Chef James Martin's visit to Singapore and helping Starhub launch their FooDIY App. We set up a small herb garden outside our studio, donated money to SPCA and put together a kids class for IKEA. It has been very satisfying to see so many students graduate from our Foundations classes this year. Your thirst for culinary skills has spurred us on to create more advanced level classes for you.

We now turn towards 2012. We have already scheduled all our classes for the entire year. You can download our programme brochure here. As always, our classes are hands on and we have designed some new classes and changed alot of recipes for the current classes so that you can return and learn new recipes while continuing to hone your culinary and baking skills.

We will be closed from Tuesday 20th December to Tuesday 3rd January (inclusive dates) for our annual studio maintenance. We will open the doors again to classes from 4th January. During this period of closure, we will continue to answer phone calls and e-mails. We will also continue to hold small private events only but it will be held at another studio.

We take this opportunity to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Take care of yourself and your families. Enjoy this wonderful break wherever you are spending it. I will be returning to Sydney to be with my family.

See you next year for another exciting year!

Lynette

Happenings lately at the studio

2011-12-12T23:45:00.001+08:00

It's almost Christmas and we are finishing off our last few cooking classes before we break for the Christmas and New Year. We will be doing quite abit of renovations and touch ups to get ready for 2012. I am looking forward to 2012. Are you? We have so many classes happening next year! Check out our 2012 programmes here.

Chef Sawarto who has taken over our baking classes at Palate Sensations taught a meringue class as part of our Foundations of Baking Iron Chef series.

Here is a mini Bomb Alaska filled with home made ice cream which the students demolished in about 2 seconds

Lovely coloured mini meringues which the students made

In the afternoon, Chef Francois Mermilliod from Absinthe taught a Christmas menu to a packed class of 19 students.

The first course was vol au vents with seafood and lobster sauce

Instead of the usual Beef Wellington, they made Venison Wellington stuffed with foie gras. Sinfully good!

The dessert was also a Bomb Alaska also called a Norwegian Omelette

Stay tuned for my Christmas letter coming out this week.

Have a great week ahead.

New scales

2011-11-28T18:59:00.000+08:00

It's been a while since I last posted anything. I have been busy updating my Le Cordon Bleu blog. I only have 3 weeks left before we finish the course and then I will hopefully be awarded my Diplome de Cuisine.

At the studio, we made a decision to get serious about our scales. This is because the domestic small variety is just not cutting it. With so many students handling it, it tends to break down very easily so we decided to invest in 4 commercial scales. Hopefully they will not break down so easily.

We are constantly reviewing our equiptment and changing and replacing them if necessary. That way, you always get to use the best equipment there is.

I have also decided not to work with sponsors where ever possible so that we can choose what we want to use and stand by it.

What is Persian Cuisine?

2011-11-16T22:07:00.000+08:00

Persian food is one of the world’s most ancient cuisines with its culinary dates stretching back to the 5th and 6th centuries BC.

Its strategic location made it an ideal point to exchange the culture of food and ingredients between the Orient and the West.

Persian culinary has many facets, arising from the Empire’s long and complex history. Persian eating habits and food types have been widely influenced by or reciprocally affected on the ancient Greece, Roman, Asian and Mediterranean cuisines.

This is the reason behind its mysterious ingredients and secrets which lead to an accomplishment of the most ancient culinary art.

It includes a wide variety of food types and ingredients, ranging from long grain rice, bread, meat, poultry, seafood, herbs, vegetables, fruits, nuts, flowers, which are synthesized to make savoury, diverse appetizers, dips, rice, stews, grills, pastries and drinks.

Preparation of the fragrant rice is the Persians’ pride and prowess, which culminate a variety of dishes solely. Polow and Chelow are the main classifications behind cooking the rice.

Restaurants provide limited dishes of this cuisine therefore, you must be lucky enough to be invited to an Iranian home in order to fully appreciate the true delight of a Persian dinner.

Different climates of this old Empire provided a diversity of regional cuisines, to which the main classifications are Central, Northern, East & West Northern and the Southern part of Iran.

The Persian home cooking classes are privileged to provide authentic recipes of some regional and the most popular dishes from the Central part of Iran.

Stay tuned for Persian Cuisine classes coming up in 2012!

The 2012 programs are out!

2011-11-13T16:51:00.001+08:00

It's been quite a while since my last posting.

I am pleased to let you know that we have finished scheduling the 2012 programs (the major ones anyway). We will continue to put on more classes and we will schedule them in the coming months.

We are also working on a series of classes to be taught by restaurant chefs in Singapore. Watch out for those.

Here is a sneak peak of our programs. You can download the whole brochure here. We are working on a better design before we print paper copies of these to hand out. Click on the photos to enlarge.

Let us know if you have any questions or if you have any suggestions for new classes and ideas. We would love to hear from you!

Lynette

The art of making puff pastry

2011-10-27T19:40:00.001+08:00

In one of our Foundations of Baking Masterchef classes recently, Chef Sawarto taught the class to make puff pastry from scratch. You need alot of muscles as it needs a cold environment and also alot of "turning". A good puff pastry needs time to rest and also needs at least 4 turns to create layers in between the butter.

Our participants did a fantastic job and in between, they made their filling which included sweet apple, garden vegetables and a meat based filling. Let's just say there was nothing left by the end of the class.

The puff pastries cooling on a rack

The apple puff pastry which tasted delicious by the way.

If you are interested in hands on baking classes, be sure to join our Foundations of Baking classes. Our Iron Chef series should be starting soon. We focus on techniques first and we ensure the recipes you make will support the techniques you will learn.

Update from Lynette's Desk.. a sneak peak of what's happening in 2012..

2011-10-23T16:54:00.002+08:00

It's been such a long time since I last wrote on the Palate Sensations blog. I've now graduated from Basic and Intermediate Cuisine from Le Cordon Bleu Bangkok. I am currently into my second week of Superior Cuisine. In another 8 weeks, it will all be over and I will finally graduate with a Diplome de Cuisine. How time flies!

Anyway I wanted to let you know that despite me being away, the school continues to hold classes. Here is a picture of Chef Francois Mermilliod's Restaurant series where the advanced students learn the art of plating and presentation.

At the same time, our Executive Chef Charlotte D'Isidoro is running her Italian Masterchef classes as well as many movie based classes. Here is the beautiful pine nut custard pie from the movie Under the Tuscan Sun.

Throughout the last 6 months, I have flown home to Singapore almost every single weekend and I will continue to do so for the last 3 months so that I can keep in touch with what's happening at Palate Sensations.

Due to such high demand for hands on macaron classes, Chef Sawarto will start teaching hands on basic and advanced macaron classes once a month on both a weekday and weekend. The classes will be kept small with only 12 participants per lesson.

We are working very hard in the last 3 months of the year to bring you much more sophistication next year. We are almost finished finalising our 2012 schedules which will almost all be in modular formats so that you can all build on your skills and techniques. The schedules will be uploaded on the website when they are completed and we will also publish them in a brochure which will both be a physical copy and a downloadable pdf copy on the website for easy reference.

Almost all modular classes will include a mandatory tool kit and chef jackets so that you have your own equipment to work with and wear the appropriate clothing for safety reasons when you come to Palate Sensations. Our classes next year will include:

Chef in Training for Western Techniques, Thai Cuisine, Asian Cuisine (Singaporean Hawker food), Vegetarian Cuisine, Indian Cuisine, Japanese Cuisine, Bread making, and Chocolate.

Masterchef modules will include Regional French Cuisine, Regional Italian Cuisine, Fine Dining Italian Cuisine, Chinese Cuisine, International Cuisine, South East Asian Cuisine, Japanese and Thai Cuisine.

Chef Sawarto will helm all our Foundations of baking classes in 2012. We will be offering 18 classes divided into Chef in Training, Masterchef and Ironchef. We are still looking for a Pastry chef to join Palate Sensations full time so that they can offer advanced pastry classes.

We will continue to offer one off classes such as dining etiquette, wine appreciation, cocktail & bar tending as well as the popular macaron classes.

We want to listen to your needs so do tell us what you want to learn. We are hoping to streamline our courses and offer classes that build techniques rather than recipes. After all, our aim at Palate Sensations is to bridge the gap between the home gourmand and the professional chef.

We look forward to bringing you professional chefs who will show you the right way to do things so that you can go out there and experiment.

See you real soon!

Lynette

A sneak peak of our outdoor dining area..

2011-09-25T23:14:00.002+08:00

We recently took some photos of our outdoor dining area. I hope you like them. We can seat 20 people outside and 40 inside.

The team behind Palate Sensations today!

2011-08-18T10:39:00.001+08:00

So here we are.. our latest team..

From left, Joel Tan (Chef's assistant), Diana Soh (Studio Manager), Me (The Boss), Charlotte D'Isidoro (Executive Chef)

Masterchef Black Box Challenge @ Palate Sensations

2011-08-12T23:03:00.000+08:00

Last weekend, I specially flew home to attend the Masterchef Black Box Challenge. Most of our students have been with us for 14 weeks, spending 8 weeks in Chef in Training and then a further 6 weeks in Masterchef. The accumulation of this is a challenge they have to complete in their teams. They have to make a 3 course meal for a panel of judges in 2 hours.

In Masterchef classes, they have to wear their Chef uniforms to classes to show their professionalism.

Some of the black box ingredients they can use on the day. The following list was sent to them one week before the challenge:

They will have in the box (MUST use):

Prawn
Peach
Asparagus
Ham
Raspberries
Fresh Artichoke
Basil
Thyme
Potatoes
Micro Herbs
Hazelnut

And either one of the following: (this will be chosen on the day itself and by lottery. You must be prepared to be able to cook one of these items as your main course so please ensure you take this into consideration when preparing your recipes).

Chicken Breast
Lamb filet
Black Cod Filet
Veal Shoulder

Plus any ingredients from the kitchen (not guaranteed).

Some team members cooking away

The menus by the various teams

There were so many dishes which I photographed but I cannot show them all here. This is the winning team's entree - warm artichoke vinaigrette with garlic prawns

Team 2's fish pie with mash & Spanish ham bits served with pesto sauce

Raspberry sorbet and caramelised peaches

The winning team from Team 2 - Amaya, Andrea and Yen

They were so organised they divided their work into categories of every possibility with the required time to cook and assigned responsibility for each dish. Well done Team 2. They won saute pans from Scanpan.

Our Chef in Training sessions will start again on Saturday 13th August with Chef Francois Mermilliod at 2pm. The class is almost full and is truly a rewarding experience. We start with a new batch of students and I can't wait to meet them. It makes me feel like I am back in Basic Cuisine again at Le Cordon Bleu.

Launch of FooD.I.Y App @ Palate Sensations

2011-08-01T16:53:00.001+08:00

Last week, we were very happy to work with Starhub to launch the FooD.I.Y app on I phones and I pads at our studio.

This is the signage

Chef Charlotte replicated some recipes from celebrity chefs such as Jamie Oliver and also provided some of her own recipes for the launch.

Carrot halva

Curried noodles

Watermelon, basil and feta skewers

Chef Charlotte also did a short demo to show case how easy it is to follow and make delicious recipes from the App.

Chef Charlotte D'isidoro, our Executive Chef

The MC was Lavinia and she helped Charlotte talk about how the app works. The app is now available for download. It's free and consists of many easy to make recipes from celebrity chefs as well as from Palate Sensations. We have our own tab with our chef's recipes so do go and check it out. We will be contributing at least 10 recipes a month.

Lavinia and invited guests

Introducing chocolate workshops @ Palate Sensations

2011-07-16T09:04:00.000+08:00

Pastry Chef Nicholas Lam from Pave will be joining us @ Palate Sensations as a guest pastry chef to conduct some serious chocolate workshops for chocolate lovers. A very fun guy with a tongue in cheek attitude, this pastry chef is however, a serious chef in the kitchen.

Nick is a self taught chocolatier whose aim is to learn the true taste and secrets of the Master Chefs. Armed with kneepads and a practiced puppy dog look, he left for Europe in search of knowledge. In Spain, he worked for Paco Torreblanca, the Godfather of Modern Spanish Pastry, earning the nickname of ‘El Chino Loco’ (The Crazy Chinese Dude) and finally helming Pasteleria Totel’s ‘Secciones Bolleria’ (Pastries and Viennoiseries).

Shortly after, he was offered a job at Artisan du Chocolat in the UK. Not content with the industry norm of melting chocolate bought from manufacturers, he jumped at the chance to MAKE chocolate from raw cacao mass. Two Christmas seasons spent studying chocolate science whilst face-deep cleaning chocolate conches and refiners steeled his resolve to one day make chocolates from bean to bar, with someone else cleaning the machines.

Hungry for Michelin experience, he joined 1-Star Yauatcha in London as Assistant Pastry Chef, where Pierre Herme was the consultant. Thereafter, he left for Brussels to be Pastry Chef at Michelin starre¬¬d restaurant, La Frairie. This experience was shortlived as work visas were in short supply, so he returned to Singapore.

Working with Chef Laurent Martin of La Frairie marked the end of his Euro-journey. Never had a carrot tasted so beautiful or a simple dish of cabbage and farro warm a heart so deeply. Chef Laurent was persistent in selecting seasonal ingredients for their genetic purity and cultivation methods. Their scarcity meant creative means had to be applied to wow the eyes and palate, yet maintain their integrity and tradition.

La Frairie brought the whole Euro-journey full circle and the concept of ‘Creative Purity’ arose. This concept, borne from seeking out the best ingredients and transforming them into delectable creations continues to inspire and guide Pavé.

Be prepared for his classes coming up in the second half of the year.

New Executive Chef Charlotte D'isidoro @ Palate Sensations Cooking School

2011-07-13T00:54:00.003+08:00

It's always very sad for me when I have to say good bye to our Executive Chefs at Palate Sensations. Chris Bell will be returning to the restaurant scene in Sydney, Australia next week. He has made a significant contribution to our school with his fun personality and his professionalism. I am excited he will be returning to Australia and I look forward to meeting up with him when I return in December.

At Palate Sensations Cooking School, we always pride ourselves with bringing in professional chefs to helm our studio. With this in mind, we searched all over the world for Chris' replacement. Charlotte D'isidoro joined us on Monday and we are looking forward to a continuance of what Chris has started. Charlotte will bring her own insights on how classes should be run and with a Master in Fine Food and Beverage Management and a culinary degree, Charlotte will take on a significant management role at Palate Sensations.

Born in London but raised in Italy, Charlotte is a frequent traveller whose diverse upbringing is reflected in her cooking. In 2004, after shelving her film degree from London’s Brunel University, Charlotte turned to her all-consuming passion – food – and attended ALMA, Italy’s most exclusive culinary institute.

Following her graduation from ALMA in 2006, Charlotte’s personal vision and taste of Italian cuisine began to develop even further, having trained/worked under famous Michelin starred chefs, including Karl Baumgartner and Luciano Tona. Charlotte’s pursuit for knowledge saw her enrolling into Italy’s prestigious SDA Bocconi Business School, and graduating with Masters in Fine Food and Beverage Management in 2010.

Combing her wealth of culinary knowledge and extensive cooking experience, Charlotte subsequently accepted the challenge to work as a chef consultant at the renowned restaurant 4cento in Milano. Although business at the restaurant was bleak when Charlotte joined, she managed to turn business around and transformed the restaurant into an interesting and well-sought after location for important events once again. The experience left Charlotte with a valuable life lesson – it is important to couple sufficient knowledge the drive to pursue excellence in every field.

Charlotte’s international upbringing has allowed her to travel and develop a deep love, and mad curiosity for food from all over the world. Known to serve up a mean risotto, Charlotte believes in pushing the boundaries and flexing creativity with cooking, so long proper cooking techniques and fresh ingredients are used.. Her eclectic tastes as well as her commitment to healthy eating are at the forefront of her dishes.

In July 2011, Charlotte moved to Singapore to join Palate Sensations. As executive chef, Charlotte will be in charge of running the culinary programmes and advising the Management Team on strategy and business development. Charlotte’s responsibilities will also include helming publicly scheduled classes, creating her own events and handling corporate team bonding activities.

Junior Masterchefs in the making!

2011-06-15T23:38:00.000+08:00

This week, we started the Junior Bootcamp Baking and Culinary classes for our primary and secondary school kids with Chef Angeline Poon for the baking and Chef Chris Bell for the culinary.

It's a one week course and they come every day from Monday to Friday. As both classes are happening at the same time, they get to see and taste each other's creations at the end. The kids have been extremely enthusiastic as they learn how to make and ice their own cup cakes to learning how to chop and make their own soups and salads.

The baking class for primary school kids

The kids in the culinary class with Chef Chris Bell

One of our students chopping mushrooms for mushroom soup

We will definately be repeating these classes at the end of the year so stay tuned if you want to send your kids.

Japanese cuisine at its best..

2011-05-18T10:53:00.002+08:00

This blog was written by participant Pei Lin Lim about the Japanese class she attended:

Chef Amelia demonstrating the cutting technique of the tofu

The dishes taught by Chef Amelia Seko in the Basic Japanese class are those many love ordering in Japanese restaurants. Your friends are bound to be impressed if you serve it while entertaining at home. Also, the basic dashi stock can be used as the base to making miso soup and dipping sauces for the agedashi tofu and tempura platter. It is up to you to improvise and be creative after learning the basics.

The few ingredients for miso soup can be combined interchangeably to create many different combinations for variety. My team mate and I chose to make the traditional tofu and wakame (brought back by Chef Amelia from Japan) miso soup while the other team made theirs with tofu and enoki mushrooms. Both turned out yummy. The intensity of the miso flavour can be adapted to personal preference by adjusting the amount of miso paste used.

The miso paste recommended by Chef Amelia

We ate the miso soup while it was still hot and it served as a very healthy breakfast for me. I had two servings!

Making the dashi stock | Tofu and wakame miso soup

The second dish was agedashi tofu made using Japanese potato starch. This all-time favourite was actually easy to make! The dipping sauce recipe is one that Chef Amelia had adjusted time and again to attain the perfect flavor. Sign up for the class if you want to be let into the secret of the proportions.

Little did I know that the dipping sauce should be drizzled over the fried tofu only when it is very hot in order to melt the potato starch coating on the tofu. Thereafter, the coating on the tofu turns transparent, the way it should be.

The cut up and patted dry tofu blocks | The agedashi tofu

Lastly, we went on to make a wide variety of tempura for the tempura platter which includes, shitake mushrooms, lady’s fingers, lotus roots, and of course, prawns! In addition to this, Chef Amelia included a bonus demonstration for us for making kakiage – the Japanese fried vegetable fritters, using julienned burdock roots and carrots.

The tempura ingredients

Dusted tempura ingredients

Chef Amelia showing us the technique for making tempura batter

The tempura platter

After all that miso soup and agedashi tofu, we were too stuffed to finish up all the tempura and we got to pack some home. Everything we have made in the class was delicious and I have already recreated them myself at home to a success!

The essentials of Japanese cooking

Bonita flakes which were used throughout this class

Chef Amelia Seko teaches Confessions of a Japanese Cook throughout the year at Palate Sensations Cooking School. Her classes are designed to tantalise and awaken your palate. Master the finesse of essential Japanese cuisine, with a step by step guide and an introduction of must have ingredients in a Japanese kitchen. Learn how to prepare the essentials the right way - Japanese style stock and rice.

Kids in the kitchen!

2011-05-08T13:48:00.000+08:00

What better way to celebrate a kids birthday than to get them into the kitchen and start a cook off. Last weekend, Chef Chris held a cooking class for a bunch of eager girls.

Here are the girls with their chef hats and their uniforms all lined up listening to Chef Chris' instructions.

They made some fruit skewers, sushi rolls and some chicken kebabs. Here they are all hard at work with their creative juices flowing.

As a reward, we made the birthday girl Sophia a cake to celebrate with all her friends.

See you next time!

Lynette

Macaron flavours

2011-05-08T13:35:00.001+08:00

This is written by one of our participants Lim Pei Lin about Chef Lynn Chen's hands on macaron class.

I had a great start to the Labour Day long weekend when I took part in Chef Lynn Chen’s Macaron and Petit Fours baking class at Palate Sensations. Macaron is the new cupcake - a phenomenon observed globally. There is not one patisserie in town that wants out in this juicy market. The pastry chefs are getting ever more creative with the flavours and combinations, the rainbow-coloured macaron shells are simply a feast to the eyes. Home bakers try to re-create this elusive treat at home but the results are not always satisfactory.

Chef Lynn demonstrating the making of lemon curd

I have scoured through countless food blogs hoping to find the key to unlock the mystery to making macarons with pretty feet. After umpteen attempts, I threw in the towel and signed up for a hands-on class at Palate Sensations. The tips shared by Chef Lynn throughout the class were invaluable and crucial to ensure success in making macarons. All of a sudden, the daunting task seemed so easy and manageable when you have a professional demonstrate it before you. And you know they say, believe in it enough and it will happen.

Team One getting into the act

The small class size of only twelve participants allows the chef to monitor each participant’s hands-on effort closely to point out, avoid and salvage in time when a mistake is made.

A participant piping her lemon macarons

While the macarons are neatly lined up and drying, the participants got busy with making lemon curd for the macaron filling and another egg white-based cookie - Chocolat Noisette. The differences between the Chocolat Noisette and Macaron lie in the size and type of nut used. The former is bigger and is made with hazelnuts while the latter is, of course, smaller and made with almonds. Before the chocolat noisette were sent into the oven, it gets a dusting of icing sugar and a sprinkle of chopped hazelnuts. After baking, you pipe a round of ganache and fill the center with a dollop of raspberry jam on one cookie. Sandwich that with an unfilled cookie and you get chocolat noisette.

Another team bursting the air bubbles on the macs while they dry

Baked macaron shells

yummy chewy chocolate noisettes

At the end of the class, each participant gets to bring home about eight macarons and a few chocolat noisettes. So remember to bring a box to transport the goodies home.