The Kitchens is now cooking with gas
This month, our feature InsideR article on the new Icon Cookery School has been contributed by one of our long-time CBDRobina staff members. Thanks for your contribution Liz, glad you enjoyed your cooking class and we look forward to your take on cocktail making for the next issue, we’ll be happy to taste test if required!
The InsideR Team.
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I have been wanting to take my 13-year-old son, Andy, to cooking classes for a long time. With The Kitchens recently opening at Robina Town Centre, I was able to sign us both up for a child and parent workshop at the new Icon: The Cookery School.
The workshop is 3 hours long and offers two of the following: pasta making; pizza making; cakes; desserts or pastries. In our workshop, we made Napoli sauce with fresh Fettucine and Chocolate Whoopee pies.
I wasn’t expecting to learn anything new and had chosen the workshop just to do something fun with my son during the school holidays and also to encourage his interest in food and cooking. We made the pasta from scratch which is something I have never done before and have always wanted to do.
There were five pairs of adults and kids, making 10 attendees in total. Us, a dad with his son, another mum with her daughter, and grandparents visiting from the UK with their two Australian granddaughters. Our instructing Chef was Herman, who was very friendly, personable and encouraging. He made the class a really fun learning environment. Assistant chef, Ashley was also very friendly and helpful. All of the equipment is state of the art and the teaching kitchen all shiny and new.
We watched Herman demonstrate how to make the pasta dough and then went off to our benches to recreate the same. We kneaded our dough and then left it covered to rest. While it was resting, we made the sauce for the pasta. Next was the cookie dough for the Whoopee pies. Again, everything was demonstrated first at the front and then the two chefs came around to everyone to see how we were getting on. Once the pasta dough had rested, we watched how to use the electric pasta making machines to roll out the Fettucine strips. Herman also demonstrated how to make fresh lasagna sheets with herbs trapped inside the dough… Yum!
We were given the recipes for everything we made. The cookies were light and airy and we piped white chocolate, milk chocolate and green buttercream into them. Andy particularly liked the cookies without the filling as they had a light and chewy bite to them. Now having experienced how easy it is (when you know how) to make fresh pasta, I definitely plan to do this again at home. The pasta only took a few minutes to cook.
We all sat down together at a long table and enjoyed the pasta lunch we had made with our new friends. The cookies were boxed up for us to take home. The aprons we were given at the start of the class were ours to keep.
Andy had been apprehensive to attend at first, as he thought a 3-hour workshop would be too long. However, he said to me afterward that it all went by so quickly. The workshop was a fantastic way for us both to learn cooking skills together and try new foods. The ingredients used were high quality.
Find Out More / Enrol in a Cooking Class
Icon: The Cooking School offers a varied number of masterclasses and workshops including Healthy Lifestyle, Sweet Treats and International Cuisine – they also take corporate bookings. I am already booked in for my next one – Cocktails, Beer & Wine (sorry Andy, I think mummy’s doing this one without you)! Make sure you’re subscribed to CBDRobina’s InsideR newsletter to read my next review.
For more information or to book a class, visit the Icon website. For more on the new restaurants and fresh food offerings at The Kitchens Robina click here.
