Yesterday we were privileged to have Sara Danesin Medio host a cookery demonstration in our upstairs AGA showroom.
Just to demonstrate that Sara can handle pressure, the elements threw all they could at her. Torrential rain in York meant that Sara couldn’t make her intended train. The train she managed to catch then encountered the ‘wrong kind of leaves’ delaying it further. However, Sara was as calm as a cucumber. With only a few minutes before she was due to start she breezed in to the ‘kitchen’ all smiles and raring to go.
Sara started by giving us all a lesson in making the perfect fondant potato. Stressing the importance of allowing the potato its full cooking time. She made reference to the influence of her family in her chosen career. The delightful quote from her mother went along the lines of ‘it takes nine months to make and perfect a baby and it takes forty five minutes to make the perfect fondant’! So we see the Danesin family have a healthy sense of humour as well as a gift with food!
A light and colourful vegetable frittata was next on the agenda. A perfect dish for lunch with friends or a light supper. Sara explained that when using garlic she felt less was more. It was the French that were the proponents of garlic as opposed to the Italians. Throughout Sara’s cooking she stressed how flavours must be allowed to speak for themselves and not overpower each other.
A similar sentiment was apparent in her preparation of aubergines parmigiana. This dish was much acclaimed on masterchef and has been a huge hit at her dining club.
Created using the finest ingredients this was a delicious dish. Part of it incorporated the now infamous ‘Medio’ sauce – most of us have a ‘bog standard’ tomato ragu, but not the Medio family. They enjoy a ‘Rolls Royce’ of tomato sauces with their vegetables! (How do they all stay so slim?!)
Finally Sara cooked grouse for us. Again it was fascinating to see different parts of the bird benefit from different methods of cooking. It made such good sense, but this common sense approach to cooking seems to be in short supply these days. This attitude is indicative of Sara’s approach to food. She has a flair for what flavours mix well and she has the discipline to pay attention to detail.
The audience was full of praise for her demonstration. In the same way that Sara was full of praise for her AGA. Sara has an AGA at home and uses it to its full advantage at her dining club. Having enjoyed her demonstration at our shop we now all want to go to Sara @ St John’s. See her web site for further details www.saradanesinmedio.com
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