Just back from the opening sesh at Taste of Edinburgh. Weather was a bit spotty but otherwise it was all peachy.

Met some lovely people including Leila, the blogmeister behind Leil’Appetit, a blog dedicated to all things foodie in Edinburgh.

Jean-Christophe was cutting a swathe through the ladies at Taste. He could barely walk five paces without someone asking to be photographed with him. Natch, he looked as though he was loving it.

One of the other blokes in our group reckoned that he was wearing eyeliner or mascara (I dunno, something to make your eyes look bigger) but that may have just been jealousy.

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On the food front, I would recommend the pulled pork with spiced slaw on focaccia from the Tony’s Table tent and also the roast beef fillet with black truffles from the Action Against Hunger and Launceston Place pop-up stall.

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I was there as a guest of AEG who had kitted out the interactive kitchens for the Nick Nairn Cook School tent. If you click here then you can read all about the benefits of induction hobs. They did look very cool.

What really tickled me was that, apparently, you can put, say, a newspaper, book or £10 note between the hob and a pan full of water, switch the hob on and the water will boil but the paper or whatever won’t even heat up.

If that fact is not a sure way to impress your male friends then nothing will. I hope to make at least a pony out of that through dodgy proposition  bets at my next poker night.

Anyway,the interactive bit was a good idea. In most of the demo kitchen tents, you can watch a chef prepare a few dishes. All fine and dandy but not quite as much fun as actually cooking along with them.

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At the AEG/Cookery School tent, there were about a dozen work stations set up, each with their own induction hob, ingredients and utensils.

With Nick Nairn leading from the demo table at the front, we griddled some asparagus and served it with poached eggs. I burnt the asparagus and my egg yolk wasn’t runny. I blame the eggs.

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