Salami classes at the Lit and Phil...

EAT! Festival is in full swing at the moment, cookery classes, eat along films, markets, pop ups, naked dinners on top of buildings, cities made of cake... they have everything going on that you can imagine really.. I have a couple events going on as part of the festival, salami making classes and a SuperRaw Food Supperclub and brunch! Both quite new avenues to me...

The salami making classes took place on Sunday in the Eat 'Speakeasy and Salon' a brilliant space in the depths of the Lit and Phil Library in Newcastle, they have transformed a room into an amazing hideaway, full of tea cups, books, low lighting and lovely music. While I was there setting up and demonstrating there was also a fish masterclass going on, a Jewish cookery class and film, a food poetry event and a cocktail bar in full swing, it was lovely buzzy and fun, loads of lovely folk and lots to eat and drink!

 

Now I am no expert in the ways of charcuterie, I just dabble in making my own with varying degrees of success. But it was a really fun afternoon sitting with some interested folk experimenting with a lot of different flavoured salami. I set up a 'flavour station' with fennel seeds, juniper, paprika, cumin, chilli, garlic, black pepper, coriander seeds, red wine, walnuts and more... I'll be interested to see how they all turn out. Most people there had never made anything similar before, and I was pretty impressed with their efforts. The first time I turned my hand to salami making was a disaster, but everyone who attended went away with a pretty professional looking salami!

 

I thoroughly enjoyed my afternoon and met some lovely people, it's great to see so many people getting involved in all the amazingly diverse events that Eat have organised, we're very lucky to have it in our city! I'll be dining on top of Fenwick's tomorrow night, I can't wait...