A few weeks ago, I was fortunate enough to be one of the few bloggers invited to an exclusive Masterclass Event featuring Ian Curley from the European Restaurant in Melbourne. The event was hosted by Bosch Kitchen Appliances and was held in their Brand Experience Centre in Heatherton.

The room was set up very nicely for a cosy, elegant and intimate dinner setting. We were all immediately going around admiring all the shiny and beautiful looking kitchen appliances… the ovens, the cooktops, the fridges… we all wished we had a kitchen like that!

After getting all settled in with a glass of wine in hand, we were all ushered into the test kitchen for our masterclass session. It was a very casual and hands on session. Ian started by demonstrating how to fillet a John Dory and then in just what seemed to be a few minutes later, he was already halfway through demonstrating us how to cook his John Dory dish! We were all very impressed with his skills, and the speed of his cooking. After all, he is pro! Plus, it helps that he was using super efficient tools such as the Bosch hand blender to speed up the process of making the cauliflower puree and cooking the fish on a really good quality Bosch stove top.

Before we know it, (and time seems to fly really fast when you are trying to multitask taking photos and tweeting and learning all at the same time), the John Dory with Cauliflower Puree and Braised Witlof is ready. Our first dish of the day. We did not actually sit down to eat this, as we all then split into groups to the next part of the session which was the “hands on” cooking experience with a mentor in each group, but we were all tucking in whenever we had the opportunity in between again, trying to multitask! The fish was cooked to perfection, and it was just delicious! I have to admit I went back a few times to have another taste, hehe.

I was in Team Seafood Paella with Thanh and April, and guided by one of Ian’s assistant chefs Miles we were taught the step by step to cooking the perfect seafood paella. The recipe itself was three pages long, and the list of ingredients seemed endless! But it was so full of flavour, and actually a lot easier to cook and prepare than it looks! The end result… was a beautiful tasting paella with TONS of fresh seafood much to the delight of some of the seafood lovers, and had a really good kick of spice to it.

The best thing about my experience cooking that evening with my team, was that I got to experience cooking using a Bosch Induction cooktop first hand! It was my first time cooking using an induction cooktop so I was very excited, hehe. It was truly amazing. Didn’t take long at all to heat up the pots, and yet it’s not hot when you touch it! The whole technology and science behind induction cooking is just incredible, and I went home that night already wishing I had one. On my Wish List!

Moving on, Team Crab Linguine were cooking with Ian himself so of course the pasta turned out beautifully! I can’t comment much on the cooking experience, lol but I sure did enjoy eating my little bowl of pasta!

Even though I was more than happy to have the opportunity to learn how to cook the perfect Seafood Saffron Paella, I was semi envious of Team Beef Wellington because I have always wanted to learn how to make this dish! The technique of making the perfect pastry, and then cooking the beef just perfectly, I really wanted to learn it and try it! Thankfully, we all got recipes for ALL the dishes so I guess I’ll just have to give it a go someday… but Team Beef Wellington did an amazing job. It was just perfect, and I was so happy it was one of the dishes we actually all got to have our own plate and sat down to enjoy it. I’m not sure about the cooking process, but I think they used the Steam Oven to cook it and maybe that’s why the meat retained a lot of its moisture?

Last but definitely not least, after we all sat down and had dinner, we were ushered back to the test kitchen where Ian showed us how to make this AMAZING mouthwatering dessert – the Olive Oil, Polenta and Ricotta Triffle. This was quite an interesting sounding dessert, almost savoury to be honest! But it was far from savoury, it was deliciously rich and I just loved how the Olive Oil really brought out the flavours of this dessert. The pastry stick was a simple yet brilliant idea anyone can easily do at home.

After dessert, we all stuck around for a little bit longer as Ian demonstrates how to make the perfect pasta using Bosch Pasta Maker and the kind staff from Bosch also very kindly showed us how all the other appliances worked. I was very impressed with all of them! Even the microwave ovens are not your typical microwave ovens, they have such state of the art features that makes cooking and heating so much better, targeted to different types of foods, and quicker, and they even have a Step by Step setting which allows you to control the power levels for a better end result. Very clever appliances… and I will not do justice to them trying to explain it myself, so you will just need to consult a Bosch specialist near you 🙂

Overall, it was a lovely evening full of fun and drinks and good food and great company. Thanks to Bosch for organising the event and I definitely look forward to a lot more events such as this in the future.