MasterChef the Professionals Finalist Philli Armitage-Mattin and Makes Miso Hungry Supper Club and Online Japanese Cook Yoko Nakada, curated a Japanese Yakitori Workshop exclusively for Nomadic Dinners.
40 guests across two sittings worked with the two incredible Chefs who have recently focused their inspired passions around Asian cooking over fire. The Yakitori workshop was a perfect pairing with our woodlands as this Japanese street food snack is best served and cooked over live open fire. The beginning of the masterclass started with Philli’s “What’s Your Palette” quiz where guests chose from a selection of flavoured butters smothered upon freshly baked sourdough to suit their preferences. After some delicious snacking and alluring palette chat, we headed to the Nomadic Kitchen Garden to explore the seasonal bounty of wild produce. We spoke to the guests about the punch packing zing of elephant garlic flowers and the many uses of rainbow chard with a show and tell on Jerusalem Artichokes and heritage quince and apple trees. The eager guests picked their own crudites to accompany their skewers and headed back to the tipi where their organic chickens were waiting on boards to greet them!
Our budding and enthusiastic guests followed a live demonstration on butchering a whole chicken Yakitori style in pairs, before adorning their skewers with colourful vegetables and marinating them for flame grilling! The art of Japanese butchering is that all of the animal is used, nothing goes to waste, not even the fat or sinue. The offal and organs were skewered and the bones were put into stock pots to create delicious, heartwarming sauces in which to cook the rice and accompaniments.
After the food preparation was complete, a Japanese Feast was served to all across a bright and colourful table, decorated with edible flowers, natural, hand finished bowls and upcycled crockery filled with exciting and zingy flavours, marinades and dipping sauces for the towers of Yakitori skewers, rice and floral salads. The food was paired with some organic wines that complemented the Taste of Japan.
Guests dined under the stars with our superstar chefs who hosted a Q&A session by the fireside with a book signing.
Philli’s book, ‘Taste Kitchen: Asia’ is available to buy in all good bookstores now and you can purchase tickets to Yoko’s supper clubs and try her delicious products online @makesmisohungry.
