• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Miss Foodwise

Celebrating British food and Culture

Workshops

Renaissance Tarts – Cooking Class & Talk

24th July 2017 by Regula 6 Comments

Clara Peeters, Antwerp, 1611

New date for this workshop:
Friday 28 july 2017 – 14h – in the Historical Kitchen of Port Eliot House, St-Germans, Cornwall UK.
Learn about these intricately decorated tarts and their meaning, see how they were made using the original tools.

Growing up in Flanders, Belgium, it feels as if still life paintings have always been a big part of my life. My entire childhood I’ve sat at the dinner table at my parents house, gazing at a dark still life painting with a pumpkin which hung on the wall on the other side of the room. Nothing makes sense in the image, why has the pumpkin such a prominent place on this formal dining table, and why is it on a formal table with china cups in the first place. A pumpkin like this would be more at home in a kitchen scene, on a bare wooden table, ready to be cut, its pips taken out, and the flesh diced for soup or stew.

Mysteries like these in food paintings have always intrigued me. One of my first books was a shabby old artbook with renaissance still life paintings by the Dutch and Flemish masters. All the food in the paintings had such carefully thought out symbolism. Bread indicates humility and catholic faith, a peach means truth and oysters mean lust. A glass of wine with little liquid in it symbolises the fragile nature of life but also wealth. In combination certain fruits and foods can tell a story. A paining with peaches and a butterfly mean hope and faith. Oysters or oyster shells in the vicinity of a woman in a painting means that the woman is promiscuous. If a bun of bread is near, it means she has lost her humility and has given in to the desires of the flesh. Heavy stuff no? An abundance of fish symbolises the catholic faith, but a cat near the fish means doubt, the painting could mean a warning not to take everything for granted when it comes to faith (big lessons to learn here)….

Read More »

Filed Under: About my work, Classes & Talks, Renaissance, Uncategorized, Workshops Tagged With: cooking class, events, Renaissance, workshop

Three Acres Creative Gathering – New dates and a Recap

26th January 2017 by Regula Leave a Comment

three-acres-regula-ysewijn-9173

New Dates april 20-23 2017

In october my friends Giulia and Sarka and I hosted our first Three Acres Creative Gathering. An event born out of our own habit of meeting up several times a year to cook, eat, drink together, laugh and inspire each other. We each live in different countries so gatherings are always planned ahead. This made us think…

On a crisp and unusually sunny first of januari Giulia and I sat by the fire in her Tuscan family home, sipping fennel tea and talking about creativity. We wondered if we could create an event to include others in our usually quite private meet-ups. And so on our next get-together – in London this time – Sarka and Giulia and I decided to make it happen. A creative gathering in the rolling Sienese countryside, catching the very end of summer as a preparation for the cold and dark months ahead.

Our guests came not only from Italy but also from The Netherlands, Ecuador and the USA. A diverse bunch of women, all creative and eager to spend a few days with other creative people. We visited an organic sheep cheese farm situated in a rough rural landscape with the most exquisite view. We tasted the different cheeses with the farms thick fig compote made from their own precious few figs and slices of new season pears in an unusually warm autumn sun outside. The red wine served from a large glass carafe into lemonade glasses tasted like a rich grape juice, we all knew that back home it was already winter and savoured every moment.

…

Read More »

Filed Under: Creative Gathering, Travel, Uncategorized, Workshops Tagged With: Creative Gathering, workshop

Quince tart and our workshop in Dorset

14th December 2016 by Regula 2 Comments

quince-tart-regula-ysewijn-8907

A still life of puddings I created for Borough Market Life Magazine – featuring the quince tart

Two weeks ago on a frosty yet sunny winter morning, we welcomed our workshop attendees at All Hallows Cookery School in Dorset. We started with tea and mini mince pies plus pancakes from the AGA for the early birds. It was hard to get started because we were all having so much fun getting to know each other, or catching up. We made the more delicate puddings from my book, a sweetmeat pudding – otherwise known as the Bakewell pudding, Snake fritters and a quince tart with intricate pastry work. Lunch was beef with prunes, lovingly prepared by our host and owner of the school Lisa Osman. I can’t think of a dish more fitting on a day of English cooking. After all, beef and pudding have been the icon of English food for many centuries. There was a time during the Napoleonic war when eating roast beef and plum pudding would have showed your patriotism. Visitors from all over Europe spoke with high regard about the quality of English meat and beef especially.

After our rather festive lunch in Lisa’s beautiful dining room which made me feel as if I was in a Jane Austen novel, she taught us wreath making which sounds far more easy than it actually was. We struggled and have a huge respect for wreath makers now. We all concluded we now understood why a impressive wreath is so pricy. It takes a ton of work, and will leave you with very painful hands. I finished mine at home and now have it on my front door for all to see….

Read More »

Filed Under: 17th century, christmas & thanksgiving, Historical recipes, Pride and Pudding, Pudding, Sweet, Uncategorized, Winter, Workshops Tagged With: 17th century, dessert, Food history, pie, Pride and Pudding, pudding, quince, tarts, winter, workshop

A day at All Hallows in Dorset 25 november

17th October 2016 by Regula Leave a Comment

12697080_1677199815874943_882928774687249992_o

Join us at All Hallows Farmhouse in the historic village of Wimborne St.Giles on Friday 25th November 2016 for a celebration of early winter. I will be demonstrating cooking from Pride and Pudding using the AGA in the beautiful farmhouse kitchen and beside the open fire. There will be tastings and plenty of creative conversation. Followed by a seasonal farmhouse lunch, slow cooked in the AGA of course. Then later in the day there will be a wreath making workshop with Lisa Osman, the owner of All Hallows and then the opportunity to relax and enjoy a high tea of English puddings.

The cookery school is only a 2 hour train ride from London, just long enough to enjoy some reading and short enough to have a full day at All Hallows after. We can arrange a car to pick you up from the station, or you can drive yourself.

This house is truly beautiful and Lisa is an excellent host, I can not wait to share this day with you!

Price 150 £ includes all lessons, a delicious lunch and drinks. For more information, get in contact as soon as possible as places are very limited.

…

Read More »

Filed Under: Workshops Tagged With: events, workshop

Primary Sidebar

Subscribe

My Books: Pride and Pudding

My Books: Pride and Pudding

The Official Downton Abbey Christmas Cookbook

test

Oats in the North, Wheat from the South

Oats in the North, Wheat from the South

The National Trust Book of Puddings

The National Trust Book of Puddings

Brits Bakboek (British Baking)

Brits Bakboek (British Baking)

Belgian Cafe Culture

Belgian Cafe Culture

Check out my husband’s ART

Check out my husband’s ART

Meet Regula

Meet Regula

Share & Follow

  • Bloglovin
  • E-mail
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Footer

Connect

Regula Ysewijn is a food writer, stylist and photographer, with a particular interest in historical recipes. he is a Great Taste Awards judge and a member of The Guild of Food Writers, as well as one of the two judges on 'Bake Off Vlaanderen', the Belgian version of 'The Great British Bake-Off'. A self-confessed Anglophile, she collects old British cookbooks and culinary equipment in order to help with her research. She is the author of 5 books: Pride and Pudding the history of British puddings savoury and sweet, Belgian Café Culture, the National Trust Book of Puddings, Brits Bakboek and Oats in the North, Wheat from the South. Read More…

  • Bloglovin
  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2021 · by Shay Bocks · Built on the Genesis Framework · Powered by WordPress