Making Pasta at Black Pearl Epicure - Guest post by Mr M

This post stars M & B's very own:

Mr M: Man of many talents....but cooking? No talent!! (Sorry Mr M)
Mr 7: Son of many talents.......especially eating food!

Mr M and I have had many discussions about spending one on one time with our three kids, so I set about finding something exciting for them to do as a special treat. All three of them are addicted to watching anything that involves cooking (not my fault at all *cough*) so I decided that it was their turn to have a cooking lesson of their own, seeing Mr M and I had already been to some ourselves.

I found a kids making pasta class with either mum or dad at Black Pearl Epicure. We hadn't experienced a cooking class there yet as most of the classes we have done so far have been at James Street Cooking School. I set about booking a class for Mr M and Mr 7 for some special bonding (hoping they may actually learn something also!)

The menu for the day was "Roasted pumpkin and ricotta ravioli and creamy thyme sauce, garnished with a tomato and lime salsa". Yum! (lets hope they can re-produce this at home!). The boys set off very excited, and they were gone for 3hrs (actually nice and quiet at home with just myself and the girls....sorry boys!).

Upon the boys return, they walked in with huge smiles on their faces and no sooner than I asked Mr 7 how he went he was asking me to book him into another class ASAP!! They had a fantastic time and had eaten themselves silly. Mr M took a couple of pictures to share and he recommends getting out and doing a class!! "So much FUN!!"

So here's Mr M to tell you about it! Take it away Mr M!.....................

We arrived a couple of minutes late and paired up with a Mum and Son combo. First up our chef William Pointu welcomed us and he seemed very friendly and had us eating out of his hands. He ran through what we were about to make and had a few laughs. We washed our hands - the most important first rule (Maude and I have seen where these kids put their hands - NOT GOOD!).

First off was our dough, plain flour, egg and some salt. The kids came to life, Master 7 was attacked by dough, the more he pushed and pulled the more he was consumed by the beast!! Chef William dropped in too see each dough table and gave my Master 7 some clues (a pinch of flour and rub your hands together seemed to do the trick).

Our dough wrapped up in glad wrap aside, Chef William showed us our filling, roasting pumpkin, french onion and thyme, he said french onion was a good substitute for garlic with kids. He then showed us some great knife skills and safety skills.

Kids are up front for some salsa time, they all got along really well, smelling, tasting and adding ingredients and having a great laugh while our communal pot of creamy thyme sauce was waiting to boil.

It was then back to our work bench and working on our dough, we had our rolling pins and pasta machines ready, a quick tumble of our filling ingredients pumpkin and ricotta and a pinch of salt, we were ready to roll, the room is now well and truly alive!

I must admit the kids were doing a better job than I was but we were all having a great time. Chef William was preparing to plate up and we all sat at the dinner table, trading stories and laughs about our experiences.
It was a truly pleasant morning had by all.

Well done boys!! And thank you Black Pearl....my two men now want to make this every weekend!

M x