Brazilian Cookery Masterclasses at West London College

West London College Professional Cookery Level 1 students were treated to a morning of Brazilian cookery masterclasses as part of their Enrichment activities last month. The students were shown how to make potato salad, vinaigrette, fejao tropeiro and garlic rice, using recipes kindly supplied by ‘Top Chef Brazil’ winner Luciana Berry.  As well as butchery skills demonstrations, the students enjoyed a talk on the provenance of top-quality Australian Wagyu and lamb rump, kindly sponsored by Meat & Livestock Australia.

The butchery demonstration comprised whole lamb rumps, trimmed and cut into steaks and then whole Wagyu rump cap also trimmed and cut into steaks using Deglon boning knives supplied by Chefs’ Forum Sponsors Meat & Livestock Australia and Mitchell & Cooper.

The students had the opportunity to meet Stephen Edwards, a Business Manager from Meat & Livestock Australia and learn more about the provenance of the lamb and beef that they were working with.

Carolinny Ribeiro, Professional Cookery Level 1 student, played Head Chef for the day in helping her classmates create the wonderful Brazilian dishes, saying: “It was really fun to have a Brazilian task to do and loved making the traditional dishes from the country with colleagues on my course – I was so happy to get the opportunity to direct my course mates and give them the opportunity to sample some delicious sides that turned out really well.  I really like the way that the college embraces world cuisine and for me, it was a real taste of home.”

Weber Grills kindly gifted The Chefs’ Forum a professional standard kettle BBQ, which is used to teach the students how to control heat and ensure the meat is cooked through, using a live fire.

West London College Chef Lecturer Bob Carruthers said: “This was a fantastic opportunity for the students, cooking with Wagyu for the first time, as college food budgets wouldn’t normally allow such expensive ingredients. It is sponsorship like this that helps us give students the opportunity to work with top-quality ingredients. Our Weber BBQ is an amazing addition to our equipment inventory as more and more operations are using charcoal as their fuel of choice. BBQ skills are not on the curriculum, so enrichment like this is so very useful to the learners.”

Each of the students received a Certificate of Curriculum Enrichment from The Chefs’ Forum for their portfolios to show to employers in the future.

Catherine Farinha, Founder of The Chefs’ Forum said: “I really enjoyed cooking with the students. I love cooking Brazilian cuisine and BBQ techniques and it was great to be able to pass these on – I have learnt these skills over the years on many trips to Brazil. It’s probably one of my favourite genres to cook and eat! The students were a real credit to West London College and all were engaged for the entire session, asking lots of questions and really looking like they were enjoying themselves. The feedback from our guests – thirteen top London chefs – was that the food they produced was absolutely delicious, so everybody greatly benefitted from the day.”

 Watch the video from the enrichment cookery masterclass below: