Wednesday, July 1, 2015

Cooking workshop with Gautham Mehrishi


After a very long time with the request from few family and friends, I took some time to do a write up about my visit to Cooking workshop by Gautam Mehrishi.

When I saw the advertisement on the workshop been conducted in our home town, I was excited to join in and learn few tips, tricks and lot of different recipes. About 35 people attended the 2 day workshop. Indian, Thai , Italian and few Baking recipes were thought. We all had fun cooking with chef and assisting him  in  preparing the dishes. Best part was tasting all the dishes. All together 25 dishes in 2 days. 

I would like to write few lines about Chef  Gautam, a  humble, simple and very down to earth guy.
I have watched very few of his TV shows, but  from what I had seen is his dishes reflect his personality simple dishes with few ingredients , easy to cook by anyone and easy on presentation.
Along with cooking he showed us how to chop, mix, use fresh items which are in season. One more thing which took all of us by surprise was is sense of humor along with showing us on how to prepare dishes he also made us all laugh . The 2 days with chef was lot of fun and with many delicious dishes learned.

Below are few pictures of Chef showing his expertise in cooking and reading few jokes from his whatsapp messages.

Chef in action.


I had an opportunity  to cook 2 dishes with the chef, one was an Indian started dish Steamed dumplings with Raisin chutney and other was Italian vegetable Carpaccio a salad.





Assisting the Chef to prepare Indian starter and Italian Salad.
After tasting almost all the yummy dishes. I plan on to cook them all again in my kitchen and share the recipes with pictures (hopefully ;).

Firstly he started the workshop with Indian dishes, few starters like vegetable steam dumpling, cutlets with black beans, koftas, brinjal and capsicum stuffed. My favorite was Biryani, its really an art to make them, I have never attempted making biryani in my kitchen, but after this workshop have confidence to try and share.
Few Indian dishes - koftas, stuffed peppers, Biryani and few starters.
After the lunch session it was time for Italian food. Personally I have made pizzas and pasta.
Got to learn few salads and starters and main course dishes. Italian dishes are made by using  different cheeses and olive oils, without these 2 ingredients Italian dishes would be incomplete. Recipes are real simple but names are really hard to pronounce. Also made a sweet dish with cheese and coconut milk.   Along with pizza and pastas, I'll be trying out these newly learnt dishes.

Italian veg. Carpaccio, Risotto and Gnocchi.
Day 2 was about Thai cooking and baking.
Main ingredients in Thai cooking are coconut milk and spicy red and green chillies. After Indian food I am very fond of Thai foods, reason being its spicy like Indian food. Loved all the recipes tasted during the workshop. Specially chef made a simple salad with raw papaya which tasted very delicious. Made dishes with tofu and every famous Pad Thai and Thai green curry.  These day all the required items for international cooking is available in stores like Nature's Nectar and Organic Planet. Both the stores are based in Mysore.
Thai dishes like tofu with orange glaze, green curry, pad thai,
Raw papaya salad.
After Lunch was time to bake. This session was interesting for me I always shy away from baking, reason being have to measure and add it more like science and temperature should be right. 
But learnt a lot about adding right ingredients and baking methods. With Short time left after lunch made lots of baked goodies like doughnuts, cinnamon rolls, scone, and cake.

Baked dishes Doughnuts, cinnamom rolls, scones.





















Tried and tasted all the recipes with lots of interaction with chef and fellow Mysoreans. Most of us wanting to eat and learn more stayed till late and finally said good byes.  I'll be looking forward to more such workshops here.

Soon will start adding recipes on this blog.