Welcome

Reaching the final of Masterchef 2007 was a rollercoaster of emotion, with huge highs and lows, but I loved every minute and learnt a huge amount. I owe a great deal to John and Gregg who had faith in my ability when I did not believe in myself. Since competing on the programme my life has changed considerably. I now write cookery columns for two magazines, give cookery demonstrations and am just working on my 13th cook book - unlucky number for some but not for me!!! I love all forms of country cooking, using seasonal and locally sourced produce. This blog is to enable me to share with you a few of my recipes and baking ideas. Enjoy Hannah xxxx

Monday 13 September 2010

It has been a delightful foodie weekend, although I am a little shattered today after the events of the last two days. On Saturday I judged the Sharnbrook show confectionary class. I have done this for the last three years and it is a pleasure to see the large number of entries every time. I have to say I was a little daunted at the start by the prospect of tasting 10 chocolate fudge cakes and 8 victoria sandwich cakes as well as a huge number of scones, rock cakes, meringues, loaves of bread, quiches and jars and jars of jams, marmalde, chutneys and pickled onions (trust me pickled onion and chocolate fudge cake do not go!) First in class went to the most gorgous chocolate and hazelnut cake - it was like eating a spoonful of nutella but even better and a very deserving winner. Yesterday was exciting too as I gave a cookery demonstration at Clarence House at Prince Charles' Start Garden Party to make a Difference. It was so much fun - even if the flames of my flambeed prawns almost licked the roof of the tent! At least it made everyone laugh. The Princes' gardens were filled with great ideas for sustainability - Virgin's pledge tree (where you wrote on a leaf what you pledged to do to save the environment) looked stunning in the breeze, giant enviro friendly paint pots and insulation sheep. I was preceded on stage by none other than Chocolate Willie who made the most amazing chocolate mousse cake from his new book - it was so nice to meet him and also lovely Valentina Harris who was hosting the stage. I feel truly honoured to have been asked to take part. When John and Gregg were yelling during our filming "This is going to change their lives" I never dreamt that I would end up cooking in a royal garden! I hope you all had lovely weekend too xxx

2 comments:

Kavey said...

It's been an EON since I commented but thought I'd say hello and say how lovely it was to meet you last night! WAS SOOOO FULL!

sadie said...

You deserve it Hannah. Your love of cooking is highly infectious. I'm glad you had such a great foodie weekend.

:o)

p.s I've got that copy of Delicious, so will have to give the cookies a try.