The African Relish kitchen was covered in clouds of flour as our fourteen passionate guests, mixed, kneaded, rolled and folded. Jacques Erasmus, our visiting maestro, conducted a master-class in the patient art of pastry making and helped everyone dispel the myth that it is a difficult and intimidating process. In no time at all our amateurs were stroking and caressing their silky dough and rolling with such acute attention that the silence in the kitchen was palpable, and fear that speaking too loud would upset the delicate layers of their puff pastry. And so to the fridge for resting while a slurp or two of a cup of tea or a glass of chilled chardonnay was necessary to gather the thoughts before being launched into the next task.

Jacques is a consummate professional and made everything look so easy for the aspiring pastry chefs. Before too long, after all the resting and rolling had been done, suddenly tarts, quiches, profiteroles, strudels and pies all puffed and crispy appeared for our eager tasters. Proud aspirant pastry chefs posed for photographs with their newfound trophies and compared slices and bites with a healthy dose of competitive banter.

African Relish will be scheduling more pastry courses in the future so keep an eye on our website or contact us for any further information about these and our other exciting culinary experiences.