Zilli Restaurants

2012-05-14 11:21

Mystery Masterclass Mystery Masterclass

Hi all. Hope you loved my column again this weekend in Saturday Magazine and attempted to make the delicious scones recipe! I’ve had a very busy weekend... On Friday, I had a complete ‘foodie’ day as I ventured to Borough Market to do some food shopping for my mystery masterclass in the evening. I bought a live lobster, some monk fish and scallops from the fish stall, then headed to the vegetable stall for the best heritage tomatoes, basil, fennel, red rucola, chard leaves, karoubi, courgette flowers and artichokes to name a few! After I’d delighted in all the fresh produce of the market, it was off to my mystery masterclass for the evening for well-known Radio One DJ, Scott Mills. His housemate bought him a surprise cookery master class with me to improve his culinary skills! As I arrived at his house, his flatmate opened the door and led me into the kitchen so I could start prepping with my assistant, Charlotte. Ten minutes later, Scott came in ready for his cooking masterclass to begin. I taught him to cook a whole variety of dishes starting with homemade fresh pasta to dealing with a live lobster and stuffing courgette flowers with mascarpone and mint. We went on to roast the monk fish with artichokes and fennel and shallow fried the diver-picked scallops served with fresh pea and mint purée. I also taught him how to make a fresh carbonara sauce for the spaghetti and showed him how to flame a lobster with brandy... instantly setting the fire alarm off! I also grated beetroot and karoubi into a fantastic salad. Well, by this point, the guy was now salivating so I totally had his attention. A few glasses of vino later, he managed to eat the whole lot! Well done, mate, let’s hope you talk about me for the rest of your radio life! Haha. Saturday was family time. I played football with Rocco and little Twiggy joined in too. Then Sunday, Mamma Zilli’s idea was to venture out to the coast, so off it was to her favourite furniture shop in Brighton. We parked outside and guess what... she locked the keys in the boot of the car! One phone call to the AA, two hours later and two screaming kids, the car finally opened and off to the beach we headed. The kids were happy, Nikki and I were stressed but I suppose all in all it was a lovely day out in the end! We then headed home for an early night as Monday is a big day for me, I have a busy day and night as I’m off to see my favourite rock show in London, ‘We Will Rock You’, with Variety Club UK. Will keep you posted on how it goes! Ciao for now.