workshop

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)….

Three Acres Creative Gathering – New dates and a Recap

26th January 2017 by Regula Leave a Comment

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.

…

Quince tart and our workshop in Dorset

14th December 2016 by Regula 2 Comments

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….

A day at All Hallows in Dorset 25 november

17th October 2016 by Regula Leave a Comment

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.

…

Creative Gathering: Tuscany 28-30 October

3rd September 2016 by Regula Leave a Comment

I’m excited to finally announce what my dear friend Giulia and Sarka and I have been working on for the past few months!

Join us for a creative gathering which will celebrate the seasonal food and the pleasure of getting together in a quiet location in the Tuscan countryside.

*UPDATE*: Be an early bird and get on the waiting list for our Spring Edition, email us for dates!

For five years now we have been growing creatively together and while we struggled to find a work/life balance, especially in the process of writing books! We always managed to find new strength by arranging creative get togethers where we laugh, cook, eat, drink and most importantly learn from each other. We have now joined forces under ‘Three Acres’ to create this get together in beautiful places so you too can join in the conversation, the learning, the cooking and the eating. We will take photo’s though you don’t have to be a professional or even hobby photographer, just capture the moment with whatever camera you got. From a smart phone to a proper shooter, all is welcome.

Three Acres – Creative Gathering

Strands of mist entangled around the branches of the trees on the hilltop. The smell of a fireplace at dusk. A whiff of roast chestnuts around every corner, a chestnut cake with rosemary, pine nuts, raisins and olive oil. Mushrooms and squash. A glug of nocino – a traditional walnut liqueur by the fire. Toasted bread with a drizzle of new olive oil and creamy beans spooned on top.
You can not find a better moment to visit the Tuscan countryside.

Details

October 28 – 30 2016…

Workshop ‘Krachtvoer’ in Antwerp

30th September 2014 by Regula Leave a Comment

On sunday 19/10 my friend Loes and I will be teaching a food workshop for children again. We were asked by the Belgian food festival ‘Krachtvoer’ to come and teach a workshop like the one we did for Food Revolution Day back in may. The theme is ‘scarcity and abundance’ and we will be showing the kids how you can create some mean flatbreads using up all kinds of leftover fruit, veg, meat and cheese from your fridge. I will be showing them how they can make cheese and Loes will take care of the flatbread dough part.

To register for this workshop, go to the ‘Krachtvoer’ website here for more information

When

Sunday 19/10 at 14h

Where

Antwerp

Who

children from the age of 9

Spaces are very limited.

Food Revolution Day 2014 – keeping cooking skills alive

17th May 2014 by Regula 5 Comments

A Day of cheese making, dough kneading, and pizza baking!
Yesterday was Food Revolution Day and like last year (you can see it here) I got my thinking cap on to see how I could make a difference on this day. Why? Because doing nothing won’t change a thing.
Like I said last year and will say again, every day should be a Food Revolution Day, this day is just the moment when we celebrate it, and get other people involved, to spread the word. Knowing so many ‘foodies’ in my line of work, I is my opinion you can’t be a foodie without being a food activist. You can’t love food and not want to be a part of a world wide battle for change in food choices. As a foodie you want the best produce, and the best meat is raised stress free and with respect, the best veggies are local and the best grains are those that are GMO and chemical free. You don’t want additives, colorings and other types of crap that shouldn’t be in food. But is saddens me to see that there are in fact ‘foodies’ who don’t care about where the food came from and how the meat was reared. Or they do care, but don’t care to take a stand and try to educate others about the dangers that linger on our supermarket shelves. Anyway, we can’t all be pro-active.

Food Revolution Day is the brainchild of Jamie Oliver, who finds it important to use the fact that he is famous for a good cause by getting people involved in this day dedicated to food education. He has been campaigning for better food education in schools in the UK and USA and a change in school dinners. He has also set up Ministry of Food centers where people can come and have cooking lessons for free, just so that they would be able to cook from scratch for themselves and their children. He also has his Food Foundation charity to raise funds for projects in food education.
Why having a day to raise awareness and having a jolly good cook off is important is stated on the Food Revolution Day website here >

“It’s time to take action!
We need every child to understand where food comes from, how to
cook it, and how it affects their body. This is about setting kids up
with the knowledge they need to make better food choices for life.” Jamie Oliver

This year the focus is on children, they are our future after all and for the future’s sake, something has to change in our eating habits. So the plan was, get some kids together!

Nine in the morning and it feels like the silence before the storm. Twenty five 11 year old children are coming to my friends Loes and Krikke’s restaurant to learn how to make cheese and bake their own pizza’s in an old Flemish wood fired bread oven. To make it all more exciting for the children Bruno has designed another smashing set of goodies, a box containing a diploma, a recipe booklet and a wooden spoon for them to take home as a prize of the day.
They arrive, with a storm, as anticipated. They are eager to learn and we start off with a little talk on what Food Revolution Day is all about. I explain to them that although cooking is so much fun, so many people never cook because they don’t know how to. They totally agree that packed meals and processed foods are bad for you and see no sense in why you would buy it – fantastic, these kids understand! All but a few know who Jamie is and think he’s cool for getting us all cooking and breaking a world record by hosting the worlds largest cooking lesson. Cheering and jumping up and down follows when I tell them that the record has been broken. I love these kids.

We start with cheese making, we are working with raw milk that came straight from the farm that morning and I explain that this is raw milk because it hasn’t been pasteurised. Once the milk has been heated to blood temperature, one of the kids adds the buttermilk, salt and vegetarian rennet and we wait and see what happens. ‘Oohs’ and ‘aahs’ when the milk starts to thicken and true amazement when I show them the pot of milk I made an hour before. The fresh pot goes to rest and we transfer the curdled milk to a bowl with cheesecloth to drain. They take turns wiggling the cheesecloth and then comes the coolest part of squeezing the curds. Twenty five little hands squeeze and squeeze and I stop them before there is no cheese left to squeeze, the kids just love to get hands-on and feel every process.

The cheese is now ready to drain further and the children go to my friend Loes who explains them the process of making your own bread and pizza dough. She explains why we are using spelt and the difference between yeast and sourdough. To show them a live organism she passes around her sourdough starter which is bubbling away. The children are eager to smell and look at it as the curious little creatures they are.
The kneading is fun and they love to put their weight in and they are amazed by the rising little balls of dough. Veggie cutting for toppings happens with dedication and they can’t wait to start creating their own pizza’s. Pizza time shows us how hungry 11 year olds can be and we soon fear we won’t have enough to fill their bellies as they keep on coming back to decorate more pizza’s and devour them in seconds.

Luckily we have strawberries straight from the farm with the cheese we made before, to fill those last gaps in their tummies. They go through the lot in minutes and keep on asking questions, these kids are eager to know more and gives me hope for the future. They really get the importance of this and seeing their happy, excited and amazed faces throughout this day fills my heart with joy.
I think I’m going to do more of these workshops with children, I know my partner in crime Loes will be up for it too. The future is bright when you want it to be.

Special thanks to:
Bruno, my rock, for always supporting me in things like this and for the artwork he created for the workshop • Loes and Krikke, my friends who were a part of this last year and again this year. Loes especially for teaching the children the pizza making on one of her most busiest weekends of the year • To the children of this class, you guys were brilliant • To the parents for trusting us to teach their children good things.
And last but not least, a huge thanks Jamie, for being there to motivate us to take action and get cooking. You rock, big time.

Regula x

You might also like
Food Revolution Day 2013: Last night’s leftovers lunch
Food Revolution Day 2012: My local food

Workshop food photography and styling in Antwerp for Flanders and Brussels food week ‘Week van de Smaak’

20th September 2013 by Regula 6 Comments

I was asked to come and teach a food styling and photography workshop for Flanders’ food week, ‘Week Van de Smaak‘. I’m very excited to share this with you, especially my Belgian and Dutch readers who would be able to attend.
There are two dates: 17 and 23 november and there are only 3 places left!
Gosh that went fast! So if you would like to attend, send and email to margot@beeldexpressie.be and do it quickly so you don’t miss out!

We will also be cooking some tasty food to shoot. On november 17 cookery teacher Daphne from Food for Foodies will be cooking up Asian cuisine and on the 23th we will be exploring the rich Middle Eastern dishes, all in the spirit of the festival’s theme ‘water and fire’.

Location of the workshop is Antwerp, Belgium.
All you need is something to take a basic picture with, so even your camera phone.
Note that the workshop will be in Dutch.

*Update* The two workshops are now sold out!

workshop

Three Acres – Creative Gathering

Details

“It’s time to take action! We need every child to understand where food comes from, how to cook it, and how it affects their body. This is about setting kids up with the knowledge they need to make better food choices for life.” Jamie Oliver

Footer

Connect

“It’s time to take action!
We need every child to understand where food comes from, how to
cook it, and how it affects their body. This is about setting kids up
with the knowledge they need to make better food choices for life.” Jamie Oliver