Cyrus Todiwala’s Show of Spice at Café Spice Namaste!

On Monday 13th May, The Chefs’ Forum held its London quarter two event at Café Spice Namaste. TV Chef Cyrus Todiwala works closely with the colleges in his Asian cookery competition ‘Zest Quest Asia’.  Mentoring and nurturing students is very close to Cyrus’ heart and he donates his time to young chefs on a regular basis.

Cyrus attended the launch of The Chefs’ Forum at Westminster Kingsway College in 2014.  Pierre Koffman, Arthur Potts Dawson and Ruth Rogers also attended the inaugural event.  Five years on, The Chefs’ Forum were delighted to hold an event at Cyrus’ oldest site – Café Spice Namaste.  The event served as an opportunity to bring together top chefs from across London, teaching staff from colleges and top suppliers to showcase their produces, products and services.

Chefs’ Forum Founder, Catherine Farinha teamed-up with Denise Charles of West London College to welcome the chefs to Café Spice Namaste and explain the work The Chefs’ Forum does to enrich students’ learning at the college.

Guests were welcomed with a canapé and Sake & Beyond drinks reception prepared by Cyrus Todiwala (Café Spice Namaste) and the students from West London College and Westminster Kingsway College.  The students spent the morning in the kitchens at Café Spice Namaste, creating a fabulous canapé menu including Malabari beef samosas, pork vindaloo with garlic rice bowls, galinhas cafreal chicken, hake koshimbir poori, smoked mackerel kevaabs, Kerala nyannd masala, dhaniawalla jhinga.

Cyrus was very impressed with the students from both colleges and when asked to pick a ‘star of the day’, couldn’t choose between Amelia Hsu from Westminster Kingsway College and Nweti Pinto from West London College who both impressed him.  The girls each received a signed copy of Cyrus’ book ‘Simple Spice’ and a day in the kitchen with Chef Cyrus to enjoy an intensive Indian cookery masterclass at Café Spice Namaste.

Cyrus said

“Its very important that we mentor and nurture the next generation of hospitality professionals and keep introducing them to wonderful food and cooking styles from all over the world.  Its great to welcome West London College and Westminster Kingsway into my kitchen today, they have been a real credit to their colleges.”

Jack Cook of Walter Rose & Son joined forces with Cyrus for a Butchery Masterclass.  Jack broke down half a pig, whilst Robot-Coupe Brand Ambassador, Cyrus, used the new Robot Coupe Robot Cook to create his famous pork vindaloo and explained that Vindaloo is actually a Portuguese word!  He also told the story of how the various spices became mainstream in Goan cuisine.  Sam Guarino of Santa Maria provided some spice samples to Cyrus and he was very impressed with the quality!

Cyrus invited Ron Maxfield, former Michelin-starred chef and current veg expert from First Choice Produce onto the demo stage to talk about his fabulous seasonal produce being used in the demo.  Cyrus created a fabulous coconut rice with fresh asparagus, wild hops, Tahoon Cress™ and a wide range of delicious mushrooms including cordy ceps, royal chestnuts and baby eyringi.

Paul Da Costa Greaves and Jak Cresser-Brown then joined forces for Koppert Cress cookery master class. Jak created two dishes focused around the main two ingredients mushroom and Tahoon™, with the Tahoon™ in various forms. The second dish was focused on using the Yka Leaves™ in various textures and a beautiful rhubarb jelly was given to the chefs to sample. The cress experts also touched upon how best to extract flavours from microgreens to incorporate them into a recipe.

The Chefs’ Forum stages forty chef events each year, across ten regions in the UK, bridging the gap between education and industry.  Each event has a different theme and chefs and hospitality students are exposed to the latest cooking trends and key ingredients.  The next London event will be held at the Waldorf Hilton in Aldwych on Monday 22^nd July 2019, any chefs or suppliers wishing to participate should contact rebecca@redcherry.uk.com

Photography by www.kentfoodphotographer.com