The Cookery School in Belfast

Fui a la clase de barbacoa con algunos amigos. Gran anfitrión en Niall. Profesor muy informado y comprometido. Mucha información sobre la comida Gran manera de pasar la noche.

Asistí a la noche de curry que fue muy informal e informativo. Cocinamos tres platos que eran excelentes y regados con un buen Pinot Grigio. El chef estaba feliz de compartir mucha información sobre el restaurante en sí y me asombró la cantidad de preparación que entra. Por ejemplo, 12 horas para hacer caldo y esto es una tarea diaria. Definitivamente probaré uno de los otros campos.

Como no cocinera (generalmente hago el lavado), mi esposa me arrastró, estaba encantada con todo. Gran ambiente, Niall fue genial explicando todo, y los ingredientes estupendos. Hicimos nuestro propio bernaise y salsas de pimienta que comimos para el almuerzo con deliciosos bistecs. Todo sumado a una experiencia realmente agradable.

Mi hermano y mi ley y yo fuimos comprados en esta escuela de cocina por Navidad, podemos cocinar un poco, sin embargo, pasamos un buen rato y aprendimos mucho en un ambiente muy relajado, muy bien.

Fantástica manera de pasar un día de lluvia en Belfast. Diferentes métodos de cocinar mariscos incluyendo vieiras, mejillones, pescado frito y pan recién horneado y patatas de algas. El chef es muy experimentado miembro del equipo restaurante cuando no la enseñanza de estas clases. Él tiene un buen sentido de gente y es un animador natural. Aunque he preparado pescado toda mi vida, me recogió un montón de ideas y ahora preparar platos como vieiras y mejillones, que he evitado en el pasado. Una ventaja es que te dan de comer toda la comida al final.

This was part of the culinary tour - baking scones. Our host Carl was excellent and we had three types of scones. The explanation and demonstration was top notch, coffee and tea service with the scones was exceptional ensuring the coffee and tea was fresh and hot. I would come back and do another class - it was excellent!!

Super venue and concept for getting colleagues together for a bit of team building. I would highly recommend the JSS Cookery School.

A delightful 2 hours, learning, cooking, then eating, in very pleasant company. Well organised, and presented by the chef(the boss!) in a relaxed friendly way. Good value, though disappointingly I see that they don't run the lunch club very often - I would like to return!

I booked this last year for myself and 4 colleagues, to prepare and cook a 3 course lunch. We got Niall McKenna (celebrated chef who owns it, and has been on Great British Menu) for about 3 hours. We had a fantastic time. Prepared a pasta starter, a main course (some of us chose fish, some steak), and a desert. Made everything from scratch including the pasta. It was a busy but really informative and enjoyable 3 hours. Great fun with Niall too, though I know you won't always get him. Finished with Niall plating up the meal and serving it to us. Despite our worst efforts Niall managed to make sure the food was great, so we had a super lunch and hours of pretty unique fun - fantastic value in my opinion. Would happily do this again, either as a business team builder day or just a group of friends or family.

Foodies with a passion for cooking should get themselves along to one of the classes currently being run at the James Street South Cookery School. The Dining Quarter 21 James Street South Belfast BT2 7GA United Kingdom www.jamesstreetsouth.co.uk 028 9043 4310 With the days getting longer, what better way to spend a Saturday morning than to attend a game cookery master class in the assured hands of Niall McKenna at James Street South Cookery School. When I arrived I was very excited as I do love my game but am a bit wary of how to cook it! Niall soon put me and nine other intrepid foodies at ease. He had a fantastic menu lined up, with Quail, Pigeon, Pheasant and Venison on offer. He demonstrated how to prepare the birds - the finer points of butchery - before we all had a go. Then we started the cooking process. First, the birds’ legs and wings were cooked in a vegetable and red wine sauce which would become the “Jus”, before starting the oven roasting process. Paramount to the whole procedure was the sealing of the birds in a pan with the new in thing, “rape seed oil”. This oil, which can now be purchased in all major supermarkets, is fabulous because it has a very high burning point, tastes great and is also healthy. Once the birds were sealed they rested whilst we got on with making the Venison Pithivier. There was definitely a French theme running through the menu, and these techniques were very intriguing, as previously I had only ever cooked game Indian style. Pithivier is basically cooked potatoes, carrots, celery, leeks, thyme, rosemary and garlic all minced with cooked venison onto a round sphere golf ball in size. This is then placed into a puff pastry “sandwich” rather akin to ravioli. The edges are then crimped and egg washed before being cooked in the oven. The puff pastry was made in the restaurant but Niall assured me that all the supermarkets had very good puff pastry. A wee tip here is not to buy puff pastry which is very yellow in colour because it will have had food colouring added to it. Our class started at 10am and before we knew it, it was nearly 12.30 and time to start plating up. There was an absolute mountain of food and I did feel guilty about having to tuck into this glorious feast without my wife, so I decided to take home the pheasant to share. Niall is a brilliant chef and demonstrates his methods very clearly. He was always willing to answer any questions and share pearls of wisdom when it came to techniques. He has had a good grounding in cooking, starting off with Paul Rankin in Roscoff before moving on to work in London. Since deciding to come back to Belfast he has never looked back and is an absolute asset to the chef culture here in Belfast. His talent and passion can be seen right through all of James Street South Cookery School, Bar and Grill and Restaurant. Once again the BFM shares the food love!!! Ciao down now!!!

I got a voucher at Christmas time to attend this class. It is only on once a month so had to wait until last Friday night to attend. I had never been to any kind of class before but I obviously like cooking and was really keen to make a real curry (better than the indian restaurant I was told by the chef, ha)I arrived at 6 and we were greeted by the chef and waiter and had a coffee while we waited for the others to arrive. The room is nicely laid out and there was a table set for 10 people. Only 4 people showed up. We got started about 6.45 and were out the door at 8.10.I was disappointed to see that there was nothing to prepare. All the ingredien3ts were laid out in containers – chopped meat, onions, spices, coriander etc. everything required had been prep'd. What are we going to learn by having that done for us? Completely pointless.So all in all the cookery class was not much of a cookery class. I did not learn a thing. All we did was put the ingredients in a pot at the instruction of a very arrogant chef!The class was finished just after 8 when we had finished eating what we had made. It was kind of “time of to go home now"We made 2 curries and rice and while they were ok they were nowhere near the quality you get in a good Indian restaurant.Overall a very disappointing experience :-(