Not far from Wimbledon Park tube station sits a house where Reiko Hashimoto-Lambert lives and where she’s been giving Hashi Cooking classes in Japanese cooking for the past 10 years. I first read about these cookery classes on Luiz’s blog The London Foodie where he described the wonderful dishes so typical of Japanese home cooking that he learned and though I wasn’t looking for cooking classes at the time, the information stuck in my head. When Luiz then invited me along to a special cooking class that he was organising for bloggers to learn about the classes and about Japanese cooking, then well, by golly, sign me up!
And so last Wednesday, I found myself in Wimbledon in Reiko’s beautiful kitchen along with five other bloggers: Gastrogeek, Gourmet Chick, Greedy Diva, Kavey Eats, and The Wine Sleuth, all excellent company during the class. We six were taking part, though lovely Luiz was also there as Reiko’s assistant for the lesson. Normally her classes have up to eight participants, which to me is still a good number – we all still had many chances to speak one-on-one with Reiko. Reiko herself is lots of fun and really puts you at ease in the classes, just in case you’re nervous.
We started at 7pm and were given notes about the recipes we’d be making as well as crib notes on Japanese ingredients and where to purchase them in London. We would be making four dishes – four?! I can barely make 2 or 3 in a night and there were eight of us altogether! It’s quite inspiring that one can push out four dishes suitable for a dinner party in such a short amount of time. Menus for her classes can be found on her website and in our case, the menu was put together with dishes spanning a number of the class levels (I’ve indicated the class levels below).
Preparation of the dishes overlapped one another based on the need for marination or cooling but I found everything to be very well organised and we never experienced any confusion between the dishes. The classes themselves are mainly demonstration but when it comes to the really tricky parts, then we got to take part too. Always best to learn by example and at this class, it was folding the gyoza and boy, did we fold a fair few! And of course, everything we learned to make, we also learned to eat; those four courses made up our dinner that night.
We started with the seared fillet of beef with creamy sesame sauce (a Gourmet level recipe), which was a real lesson in plating for me. It was absolutely gorgeous and tasted equally fabulous with the tender beef, the creamy sauce and the sharpness of the shredded shallots underneath. The best part is that it looks much more difficult to make than it is!
Moving on, we learned to fold gyoza (part of the Beginner’s menu) and these were then panfried and steamed and served to us. Tasty little morsels they definitely were and Reiko’s taught me to push the frying of gyoza and potstickers just that little bit further to get them extra crispy.
Reiko’s signature dish, and one she teaches in the Gourmet level, is the grilled scallops on sushi rice with creamy spicy sauce. Sashimi grade scallops and tobiko sit on sushi rice and the lot is topped with a mildly spicy mayonnaise before being grilled. It’s creamy and fresh and the various textures in the dish really work together well. This really reminded me of the motoyaki I first tried in Vancouver – mayonnaise and seafood can be a winning combination!
The final dish was cold noodles with spicy aubergines (from the Master Chef level). I love aubergines and I love noodles so this could never go wrong – but it was quite different from what I’m used to. The noodles were boiled and cooled, topped with deep fried aubergine sticks, and served in a cool dashi based broth. This was so refreshing and I picture it being perfect on a hot summer’s day.
Thank you so much again, Reiko, for the lesson and to Luiz too for organising this special bloggers get together. Overall, I did learn quite a bit – new dishes and new ways of plating – and it was fun! I’m counting my pennies in the hopes that I can attend another set of classes there! Vouchers for the classes are also available and I reckon they’d make a terrific gift for any Japanese food lover. All details of classes, prices, menus, vouchers, etc, can be found on the website. Reiko also has a cookbook coming out next year!
All my photos from the night can be found in this Flickr photoset.
Hashi Cooking
(and apart from the cookery classes, Reiko also caters.)
Oh, and I’ve been profiled over on Krista’s blog Londonelicious today. Do hop on over and take a look! Thanks, Krista!
Mon, 17 May, 2010 at 13:02
fun lesson! and great profiling!
Mon, 17 May, 2010 at 13:07
Goddamit! this is what I missed out on? I’m kicking myself. Actually I’m kicking work for making me work that night. I so want to go!!
Mon, 17 May, 2010 at 14:03
This looks great, and literally right around the corner from my house…!
Mon, 17 May, 2010 at 19:40
Hi,
Looks like a great night out and a different slant on a wonderful cuisine.
Mon, 17 May, 2010 at 22:15
Looks great Su-Lin… you’re making me very hungry.
Tue, 18 May, 2010 at 03:57
Hey Su-Lin, thank you so much for the excellent write up and the mention. I am so pleased you could come to the event! Hope all is well with you! Lx
Tue, 18 May, 2010 at 04:56
the gyoza look perfect! I will have to go check out the website for the recipes, everything looks delicious.
Tue, 18 May, 2010 at 06:49
Wow, everything looks wonderful. Judging from Reiko’s smile, she looks like someone who is very down to earth and cooks from the heart. Love it. Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Tue, 18 May, 2010 at 18:59
from what i’m seeing in the photos, it looks like a great class
Wed, 19 May, 2010 at 17:46
This is a great London find! Definitely also keen to find out where to get good Japanese supplies (if there are more leads besides the Atari-ya network)
Will check it out when I’m back in UK. Thank you for sharing.
Wen
Thu, 20 May, 2010 at 12:41
The food here looks fantastic, and it sounds like it tastes as good well. I think that presentation is so important when it comes to Japanese food as it seems to really balance the taste with aesthetic appreciation as well. So it;s good to know you learn about that too.
I am intrigued by the aubergine noodle dish – did you let the aubergines cool down before serving them with the cool dashi and noodles?
Thu, 20 May, 2010 at 13:13
kat: Thank you! What’s it like in Japan for cooking classes? Any that cater for the tourist or for locals?
catty: Oh nooooooo!
marshy1903: 🙂 Then you must go one day!
Dave: I guess a lot of these homey dishes don’t really make it to restaurant menus… they were great!
Adrian: Thanks for dropping by! Apologies for making you hungry!
Luiz: And thank you again for the invite!
foodhoe: I don’t think her recipes are online but y’know, if you’re interested, I can email you the gyoza one!
June: You’re described her exactly – she’s full of fun stories too.
justcooknyc: It was an excellent class!
Wen: Other shops off the top of my head include: Natural Natural, The Japan Centre, a few shops along Brewer Street.
The Grubworm: The aubergines were fried about half an hour before we ate the dish so they cooled in that time. So yes, the aubergines were cool.
Thu, 20 May, 2010 at 14:41
Wow her dishes looks amazing! Would love to be in her class!
Sun, 23 May, 2010 at 15:40
That all looks delicious! Especially the dumplings. Did you learn how to make those from scratch as well? (What were they stuffed with?)
Sun, 23 May, 2010 at 16:44
Thanks for blogging about this! I’m making potstickers tonight for the first time, and I am looking to your pictures for guidance on folding them!
Sun, 23 May, 2010 at 23:47
3hungrytummies: It was really good – I hope to go back once I save some money!
Elizabeth: Yes, we learned how to make the filling but not the wrappers (though perhaps I should blog the Chinese version one day!). This one had a filling of minced pork, pureed squid and chopped cabbage.
Foodycat: Good luck – make four pleats, two on each side. There are some good pictorials online if you need more guidance.
Tue, 25 May, 2010 at 01:46
oooh how lucky, Su-lin! i think i read about Reiko on World Foodie Guide’s amazing blog- i have been drooling just thinking about it. i’d love to attend one of her classes. the photos are fantastic. xxx shayma
Mon, 31 May, 2010 at 22:17
shayma: It was probably the London Foodie’s blog? She’s such fun and the class is excellent!
Tue, 8 Jun, 2010 at 09:29
My goodness… my mouth started to water when reading this – I am so hungry now 😉 lol
Mon, 12 Jul, 2010 at 22:59
[…] are cut up and coated in a cornmeal crust and then deep fried. After frying some aubergines to make Reiko‘s noodles at home, there was still enough oil to deep fry a little something on the side. […]
Fri, 20 Aug, 2010 at 12:28
Hi Su-Lin,
I just found out your photo Gallery of the class you have attended. I want to thank you for am amazing gallery you have created. Also, looking at the post here again and I am admiring your photos. Maybe you should start teaching the photography course. I will be first one to sign up!
Best wishes,Reiko.
Sun, 29 Aug, 2010 at 22:54
Asian flush girly: Glad you like the post!
Reiko: You are too kind! I have no plans to offer any classes yet but I’ll let you know if I ever do! I’m glad you like the photos.
Tue, 27 Sep, 2011 at 14:07
my site…
[…]Hashi Cooking: Japanese Cooking Classes in Wimbledon « Tamarind and Thyme[…]…
Fri, 1 Mar, 2013 at 08:23
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