I’ve been visiting the Essential Ingredient since it opened in Crows Nest back in 2005. It’s my favourite place in Sydney to buy gourmet spices, ingredients you struggle to find elsewhere in Sydney, cooking equipment I never knew I needed and a great range of cookbooks. But this was my first time doing a cooking class there.
I chose Mexican because it’s a food I love and it’s sadly under represented in the Sydney dining scene.
The class ran for around 3 1/2 hours starting at 6pm. During the class we cooked 6 dishes: vegetable quesadilla with tortillas we made; tequila prawn tapas with guacamole and pico de gallo; achiote barbecued chicken; barbecued corn with chipotle mayonnaise; rocket, radish and orange salad and Oaxacan mangoes.
Despite a bit of a hitch where someone mistook a bowl of salt for sugar, all of the dishes turned out great. They were all full of flavour but still very light and fresh.
The presenter Wanitha Tanasigam was very bubbly and clearly had a wealth of cooking experience. There were only 8 of us in the class so there was plenty of time for one on one instruction. As well as showing us how to cook the dishes, she helped everyone improve their knife skills and showed us plenty of little tips that will make things easier in the kitchen.
While at $170 it may not be the cheapest cooking class in Sydney, given it included the cooking instruction, wine and beer to have with the meal, take home recipes, a 10% off shopping voucher and a tortilla warmer, I think it was pretty good value especially considering the quality of the instruction and the produce we cooked with.
