The 5pm Restaurant blog may drool over the latest dude food joint or marvel at news of the UK’s first cat cafe but, much as we enjoy the shock of the new, we sometime like to kick it old school.
Eighteenth century old school, to be exact.
Our old chum Neil Forbes, previous winner of the Chef of the Year gong at the Scottish Restaurant Awards, head chef at Cafe St Honoré and all round good guy, is co-presenting an eighteenth century Slow Food master class. Taking place at Cafe St Honoré on Saturday 23 February, the event will feature Fiona Houston relating her experience of living for a year like a Scottish country dweller of the 1790s.
Eat your oats
Back in 2009, Fiona abandoned her home to live for a full year like her 1790s rural ancestors. She wanted to prove that she could live and eat well without modern conveniences. Wearing home-made clothes and eating Scottish oats, barley and wholesome food from her garden, she set about discovering long-forgotten skills – fashioning quill pens, candles and nettle string, and learning how to light a fire with a tinderbox – all the while entertaining an array of family, friends, and curious visitors.
Initially recorded month-by-month in The Herald, her account of the year is now available as a book, The Garden Cottage Diaries.
Wearing her 18th century clothes, Fiona will be demonstrating recipes and and talking about rural culinary custom from 200 years ago.
Don’t burn your bannocks
As part of the class, she will demonstrate recipes for the two forms of bread most widely used in Scotland’s past: barley bannocks and oatcakes.
She will also show how to make an 18th-century venison dish – Venison Sokey – that would have been served at a gentleman’s table.
Tickets, including a two course lunch, cost £25. The event starts at 11am with coffee and shortbread. The master class lunch menu, including a glass of wine, Innis & Gunn beer or Cuddybridge apple juice, is as follows:
Home-made sourdough bread and beremeal bannocks
Venison Sokey – a rich ragout with a strangely Scottish twist
Oatmeal pudding and cream
Artisan Roast coffee and home-made tablet