A Delicious Afternoon: A Sneak Peek Around Saturday Kitchen
Growing up, Saturday kitchen was a bit of an institution in our household. Far too special to watch live admist the hubbub of weekend breakfast, my mum would record it to watch later; to savour every tip and dish over a lingering cappuccino from Starbucks. This tradition is part of the reason it was such a special treat to be given a sneaky peek behind the scenes of Saturday Kitchen last weekend.
When my mum and I turned up to the address in Clapham, Cactus Kitchens, the studio who makes Saturday Kitchen, we weren’t sure what to expect. In the place of a shiny new corporate TV studio, we were faced with what looked like someone’s house, an inconspicuous sign the only clue we were in the right place.
Entering the reception area, the friendly receptionist gave us our name badges and we waited with our group of around 15 others for the tour to begin. (It was in this interim that mum and I decided to pop to the ladies to freshen up, and ran into Mr James Martin himself. One flustered and smiley introduction later, and my mum was officially on top of the world).
Our day began in “cooking school”, which also gave us a further glimpse of the building; turns out it’s a converted old chapel, which explains the skinny winding staircases, stained glass windows and quirky, charming details. Our cooking lesson took place on the top floor, where wooden overhead beams and pastel benches made us feel like we were competing in a medieval version of The Great British Bake Off.
We met our chef,
Daniel Galmiche,
whose cooking philosophy revolves around cooking traditional French cuisine with a modern twist; especially when it comes to transforming ingredients through cooking methods. Galmiche was not only knowledgeable and happy to show off his craft, but he was one of the friendliest chefs I’ve ever met, too.
While prepping his dish of Chicken and Cucumber Papillotte (cucumber? We’ll get to that in a second.), he welcomed all of our questions, no matter how silly or difficult, and made us feel welcome, comfortable and part of the experience.
As his dish was cooking in the oven, we were each assigned benches in order to compete in the famous omelette challenge. Fans of Saturday Kitchen will know all about the weekly cooking competition, where renowned chefs go head to head to see who can cook up a (normally inedible) omelette in the shortest amount of time.
To the best of my knowledge, the quickest yet is a speedy
17 seconds.
Impressive – although whether or not you’d want to eat it is another matter.
Me and mum didn’t quite make 17 seconds. In fact, I added a whole minute to that, and my omelette still looked like runny scrambled egg. Mum fared better, but at the end of the day, no one was bothered about the end result; we all had a hilarious ten minutes cracking eggs and whisking and having a laugh at how ridiculous we all looked.
Following our hard graft, it only seemed right to settle back down and tuck into bitesize portions of Chef’s Chicken en Papillotte with toasted almonds. We’d all been a bit dubious to begin about cooking cucumber, rarely seen anywhere but lurking at the bottom of your salad. In fact, what we were served was a mouthful of understated, surprising and perfectly balanced deliciousness.
The subtlety of the sauce didn’t overpower the freshness of the cucumber or delicious crispy skin of the chicken – and in my life I don’t think I’ve ever tasted chicken so tender. With eyes wide and appetites whetted, we headed down to the dining room for a spot of wine tasting.
Without doubt, the wine tasting was my favourite part of the whole experience – and not just for the reasons you might think (although, yes, there were copious amounts of wine)!
It was the atmosphere I enjoyed the most – put lots of passionate foodies around a table, give them a multitude of different wines accompanied by perfectly picked appetisers, and you have a lot of happy people eating and drinking together (look at that Treacle Tart. Look at it!) Throw in the show’s producer and wine expert, Andy Clarke, and his infectious energy, and it all made for a fun, tasty and interesting afternoon.
Following the wine tasting, we were taken on a grand tour of the Saturday Kitchen studios (but not before filling up our wine glasses with our chosen tipple first. My favourite was the Pinot Noir). As well as the main studio where the chefs cook and James Martin chats to celebrity guests, we saw the editing and sound engineer rooms, the celebrity green room and the dressing room of the main man himself.
I was surprised and delighted that such a seamless, long-running and beloved programme like Saturday Kitchen was produced in this inconspicuous yet charming little building, headed up by no more than 5 permanent members of staff – with special mention going out to Food Economist Michaela, who was definitely the brains behind the entire operation.
Our afternoon came to a close with the awarding of prizes for the quickest and slowest omelette challenge. Mum and I were tucked away safely somewhere in middle place, and left the studios that afternoon full up, happy and slightly smug in the knowledge that we’d been able to witness the magic behind the scenes of such a national institution. Cheers to that.
You can experience a Taste of Saturday Kitchen for just £150pp
