Angela Malik Cook School – London
Angela and the team in action
As the recession bites and people prefer to stay indoors than eat out, why open a restaurant when you can sell your skills instead? That is new Asian chef, Angela Malik’s recipe for success as she educates and inspires foodies in the art of Eastern flavours, with the launch of her cooking school in West London.
Recognising a gap in the London Asian cookery market, the Angela Malik Cook School in Acton is open to everyone from the novice to the more confident cook. The school aims to teach how to bring flavours of the East together with British ingredients to create a new style of European food that “sings in the mouth”.
Indian-born, but raised in Edinburgh, Angela was a chartered accountant for ten years before pursuing her passion for cookery and enrolling at Leith’s School of Food and Wine. After gaining experience at Bibendum and Vong and working with chef Tom Kime, she went on to establish her cookery school with her two resident chefs, Geoff Redfern and Bethany Hughes. Opened just last month, I decided to try my hand at one of Angela’s classes: Dim Sum.
Dim Sum is a Chinese tradition, which originated in the Canton (Guangdong) province of China. Teahouses opened up to provide travelers in the Silk Road with teas and snacks served in bamboo baskets. Steamed, fried or deep-fried, popular Dim Sum snacks include spring rolls, dumplings and spareribs and can be hot, sour, sweet or spicy.
My menu consisted of Prawn Wonton Soup, Steamed Spiced Pork and Water Chestnut Siu Mai Dumplings and Stuffed Gyoza Dumplings, known as “Potstickers”, as they literally stick to the pot while cooking.
The class was relaxed and fun, with more of an emphasis on you attempting the dish rather than watching Angela cook it. She will give a quick demonstration but after that, it is very much a hands-on class.
All the ingredients are laid out for you at your own workstation, complete with hot plates and wok. Angela encourages you to “taste, taste, taste!” to show how adding each ingredient transforms the flavour of the dish. As Dim Sum is quick to prepare and cook, once your creation is complete, you are free to enjoy it hot out of the wok or bamboo steamer, with a glass of wine to complement the flavours.
Angela helps out students in one of her classes
Whilst working with wonton wrappers can confuse even the most masterful of origamists, you do come away from the class feeling surprisingly confident and inspired to recreate the recipes in your own kitchen. And you don’t just learn new cooking skills but some interesting food philosophies as well.
Angela bases her classes on the five taste sensations – hot, sweet, salty, sour and umami (or bitter) and believes a balanced meal will contain elements of these as they work in harmony with each other. Bitter, called “umami” by the Japanese, is the taste you find in leaves, some berries (blackberries), condiments (soya sauce, dark chocolate) or in the flavours created by the caramelisation on roasted meat. Angela says this balance is called the “correct taste” and an excess of any one element can stress the body; too much chilli makes you sweat, too much salt dehydrates and too much sugar makes you feel sick.
“Cooking to stimulate all our five tastes is something I’m passionate about,” she says. “The perfect dishes are a delicate balancing of the five tastes; slightly fiery, a touch of sour tang, with perfectly balanced salt and a touch of sweet, underlying it all the power of bitter.”
She also encourages cooks not to become “recipe and supermarket slaves”. Angela says we should explore Asian supermarkets and not be afraid to substitute ingredients for something similar that “you can find in the your cupboard”.
While the Acton-based school on Churchfield Road may be a hike for some Londoners, Angela lives in the area with her husband and young children and wants to “give something back to the community”. The front of the fully refurbished school has been turned into a shop and deli. There, Angela sells freshly prepared curries and other Asian dishes, as well as Angela Malik produce including her trademark Vibrant and Fragrant Indian Pestos, home ground garam masala spice blend and her guaranteed flavour hit –chilli sugar – a combination of chilli, sugar and salt.
Her classes cater to all skill ranges and offer a variety of Asian cuisines including; Indian Express Lunch, Real Vietnamese Cooking, How to Create the Perfect Indian Dinner, Thai Food Made Easy, Brilliant Cocktails and Canapés, A Taste of Morocco and Simple Chinese Cooking. If you don’t know your coriander from your cumin, smaller classes are available if you prefer more individual attention, while children’s cookery classes, corporate, team-building events and alternative hen and stag parties are also offered. Classes range from £65 to £125 and we think that this would make a great gift for someone too!
Working with the wok
And for those who find the thought of London’s Chinatown a sensory overload, Angela conducts guided tours of the vibrant community; explaining and simplifying the various supermarkets, produce available and best places to eat.
With the 25th of December fast approaching, Angela is also challenging Londoners to spice up their Christmas feast.
“Christmas dinner should make your taste buds buzz!’’ she says. “Bored with the usual brussel sprouts for Christmas dinner? Try some of my delicious Asian-inspired alternatives – fragrant marinated turkey, spice-tossed seasonal vegetables and how about my own tamarind, blueberry and jaggery chutney as a swap for cranberry sauce?’’
