Square Mile magazine: Far from the F word
Far from the F word
Another night, another restaurant, another set of clients to entertain. One alternative is to get your fingers dirty and do the cooking yourself. Chris Peck dons his chef's hat and cooks up a storm with KPMG.
"So, are any of you good at cooking?" "Yeah. If beans on toast is your thing." Not the most inspiring words when you're at a cookery class at corporate cookery school, Venturi's Table, in Nappy Valley, or Wandsworth as they might prefer to call it. Thankfully, these are the words of a student, not the chef. When it comes to work/life balance, the poet John Donne had the right idea - "we're born astride the grave," he cheerfully pointed out, referring to our brief sojourn in this life. And when you factor in time for sleeping and bear in mind that Londoners work the longest hours in Europe, it seems a cruel joke that we're expected to spend some of our leisure time wining and dining clients.
The less imaginative among us will pump for pouring even more dough into Gordon Ramsay's back pocket. (And plump for more dough helping to expand your already plump waistline). It's hardly going to be an evening with a different for your client- in fact, as the economy sheds pounds at a rate of knots, Savile Row must be laughing. "A few inches to be let out here and there? Certainly, sir."
Which is why I found myself crossing the river for an evening with a difference in Wandsworth. I spend the evening cracking eggs, blending chicken and baking almonds in true Italian home-cooked style. No, I hadn't got an evening job in the kitchen - I was tagging along with KPMG as they treated some prized clients to corporate entertainment with a difference.
Venturi's Table is the UK's only 'custom-built corporate cookery school.' Owner Anna Venturi, one half of the mother-and-daughter founding duo, eschews the corporate entertainment tag, prefering to market it as a means to build relationships. "People come together in the kitchens," she says. "Nowhere else do they speak to each other so openly."
Whether you actually want to learn about cooking, build business relationships or just enjoy the wine, it makes for a relaxed and entertaining night out. And with a client list including ABN AMRO, Green & Blacks and the private equity group 3i, Venturi's Table can mix it up with the most sought after restaurants in town.
Our menu for the evening included fresh spinach ravioli, chicken pancetta and pistachio loaf, rounded off with meringue roulade. All preceded by welcoming glasses of the finest Italian prosecco, fresh focaccia, Parma ham and the biggest green olives I have ever seen, specially imported from the heel of Italy. And there's no doubting the freshness of the food. Everything eaten during the evening was made from scratch by our fair hands. Which included watching the KPMG boss get down and dirty with the pasta dough.
After an introductory chat by Anna, the group neatly divided into three sets. Those who actually wanted to learn about cooking, those who felt they knew a little but still needed some expert guidance - and those that just wanted to get pissed.
Taking City folk out of the office is like putting Masai warriors on top of Mount Everest. They'd never admit defeat for fear of losing face, but at the same time, find it difficult to run at full pace.
Which in turn suits the atmosphere for the evening. From peeling potatoes to rolling ravioli there is no pressure to get it perfect. (But there are a fair few bragging rights at stake.) Venturi and her team encourage participants to relax, to talk, to drink, to learn something new and to play with the food (in a let's enjoy eating, not in a alphabetti-spaghetti kind of way though). From the girlish squeals emitted upon discovering that, yes, organic potatoes can sometimes come with maggot holes to watching the bean-counters counting out the beans, there was a certain air of indecision as everybody wondered how it would all turn out. Enter the expertise of the resident chefs who guide participants with a passion for food that is surpassed only by Amy Winehouse's passion for Bolivian marching powder.
After baking, chopping, rolling, drinking, slicing, spreading, squeezing and talking our way through more than two hours of cooking it was time to sit back and enjoy the fruits or our labour. Dinner was served.
Fresh pesto- carefully crafted by the girl who freely admits that she needs a sat-nav to find the kitchen at home- accompanied the chicken. Creamy ravioli hand-rolled and hand-filled by men who are normally happier with a balance sheet than a greaseproof sheet. Delicate meringue from guys who normally only see fruit in a cocktail. (I can't swear what fruits were used in the meringue - it was so good I swallowed it in one.)
The evening ended on a high. The banter was flowing, as was the wine, and despite our collective lack of experience, between us the food was easily restaurant quality.
As the taxis arrived to deliver everyone back home, I asked Anna how many classes she does a week, "Oh, we can cater for up to four a day, with most finishing at 10pm. I'm normally in the kitchen by about 9:30am and work right through without a pause for lunch."
She's an authentic Milanese mama on a mission to take her kitchen to the boardroom. Save her the trouble, book an evening and see what delights you can cook up.
With thanks to Venturi's Table. Call 020 8875 7488 or visit www.venturis-table.com.
This London press article was created on 1st June 2008