Next week 23 Feb – 3 March is real bread week.  This floury fiesta encourages people internationally to share and gain baking skills, and the spotlight is thrown on small, independent, bakeries at the hearts of their local communities around the world.
 
Here in Warrington it’s not that easy to find real bread, unless you’re close to a Sextons or make it to one of the growing number of makers markets that pop up across the town.
 
Why though, is there even a real bread campaign and who is behind the movement to ditch mass produced bread?
Campaigners are naturally people who want to preserve the skills of making bread and pass it down to future generations as an essential skill, but they’ve got a real point behind doing so. Bread has (wrongly) had a bad reputation for several years and it’s time to change people’s opinions by making it properly again, with love for the ingredients.
Your plastic wrapped supermarket loaf is likely to be the most processed food that you eat, and most people eat at least a slice, a bagel or a crumpet every day, without giving it a second thought. But did you know shop bought wholemeal bread contains significantly more salt, sugar and yeast than real bread and it could be a contributing factor to the increase in intolerance and symptoms of IBS. Add to this the list of additives, enzymes and preservatives and you’re eating a concoction far removed from real bread.
 
But the answer isn’t to stop eating bread, far from it, bread is a fantastic staple, and is the backbone of almost every culture in the world. Instead the hope from the real bread campaign is that more people will support their local bakery or to get into the kitchen to bake their own.
 
As you’ll know from previous columns, I’m a big fan of shopping local, supporting local butchers, bakers and producers of anything that cuts out the hidden ingredients, and so I am a natural fan of the campaign and backing it again this year.
 
The problem we have to overcome is that a generation or two have missed out on the opportunity to learn kitchen basics, and many older people don’t have the confidence to try making bread, even if they’re good at baking cakes.
I know from personal experience that the adults and children that come to Room Forty baking classes to learn to bake bread go away happy and confident, even inventing their own recipes afterwards, and I get the satisfaction that they’ll be healthier, happier and have a new skill for life – that hopefully they’ll pass on to their families.
 
As its half term we’ve put a recipe online for you to have a go making with your children, its quick and easy and doesn’t involve kneading and waiting for the bread to prove – a great quick result for a starter bread. You can work up from there to make your bread pretty, plaiting it, glazing it or adding seeds and nuts.   
 
I baked the ones pictured in little silicone plant pots (available from the Range) to make them super cute!  
 
If you’d like to learn to make bread head to www.roomforty.co.ukbakingworkshops the next class is a bit tricky, sticky buns and tiger bread on 3 March St James Church, Hood Manor but our beginners class is great for anyone.  Get involved #realbreadweek
 
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Did you see me at Tatton  Park Foodie Festival?  This is the recipe I demonstrated. Perfect pastry for people who have warm hands - not so easy to make in a cold tent!


The Room Forty Mince Pie (aka the easiest, most delicious mince pies ever)
Imagine a pastry that is incredibly short, sweet and buttery. Imagine a pastry so easy to make that you don’t need to roll it out, butter the tin or blind bake. Here’s our recipe for the easiest, crumbliest and most delicious mince pies you’ll ever make. Quick, easy and absolutely no faff!

This recipe makes about 24 small bite size mince pies (ideal for Afternoon Tea, or as a tasty morsel to sit on your saucer with a nice brew). We make them in a mini-muffin tin (you could obviously make larger if you wished – it’ll make 12 – 18 ‘regular’ sized pies)

A note about Mincemeat:
As you know - or may not - Mincemeat is so called because the recipe used to contain meat along with the fruit. Over the years this has changed but most commercial mincemeats will still contain suet (which are the white bits that you see). So far, so good, but not good if you are vegetarian. Most commercial brands now contain vegetable suet, HOWEVER, most vegetable suet is made from Palm Oil, the harvesting of which is controversially responsible for deforestation and the demise of the Orangutan. At Room Forty, we make our own – it is incredibly easy, delicious and suet free . Our recipe will be published next week in the Warrington Guardian.

You’ll need

• A large mixing bowl.
• Mini –muffin tray – enough to make about 26

Ingredients

• 225g diced butter
• 350g plain flour
• 100g caster sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 280g Mincemeat [See our note below about Mincemeat
• Enough icing sugar to dust

Instructions
First, set your oven to 200 degrees.
To make the pastry, rub the butter into the flour until it looks like fine breadcrumbs then mix in the sugar and add a pinch of salt (use a food processor to do this if it is easier and you have one). Combine it into a ball and give a slight knead to make it into a firm, but crumbly dough. DON’T add any liquid *

Simply drop a small walnut sized lump of dough into each of the tin holes, pressing it in with your finger as if you were using modelling clay until the base is covered and it has been pressed all the way up the sides to the top (it doesn’t need to be neat).

With a teaspoon fill the pies with the mincemeat.

Then take slightly smaller balls of dough and press them into a round pastry lid in your palm, big enough to cover the top of the pies and pop them onto the top, gently pressing the edges down to seal them (we told you this was easy – no need for egg or milk – they will seal on their own)**

Pop into the oven for about 15 minutes until they are golden

Remove them from the oven and leave in the tins for 5 minutes. Then very gently prise them out of the tins using the corner of a sharp knife (careful as this is very short and crumbly pastry ) and place on a cooling rack.

Dust with icing sugar, pour a glass of sherry, and enjoy!
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*At this stage you can chill the pastry and use it the next day
** You could now freeze the pies unbaked in the tray for up to a month
Room Forty is a multi-award winning mobile Afternoon Tea Emporium and Baking School www.roomforty.co.uk
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When I started Room Forty Afternoon Teas just two years ago I had a vision, but no idea about how to achieve it.

Every day was a baby step (sometimes backwards) designing menus, learning to bake and create, finding better ways to do things and tweaking and refining. Not to mention the business side of things and finding a way to store all the vintage crockery.

On the days or sometimes weeks with no bookings I didn’t give up, I just stretched the goals and worked harder.

Working with the fabulous Mitch Poole to expand the Room Forty offer we began bread making courses and now run them across the north west, achieving silver in the world bread awards for our white delight loaf.

Our canapés take an age to produce, but they’re individual, tasty and from the heart.
Our recipe is simple. Give something extra. Try something new. Delight in surprising your customers....
...and have people around you that believe in you.

Anything is possible. This award proves it.

Thank YOU for being part of our journey.
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#wba2018 #hospitalityprovideroftheyear

Here's a bit of the media coverage so far! 

http://www.goodtastemagazines.co.uk/room-forty-warrington-business-awards/

http://www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/news/16278922.12_winners_announced_at_Warrington_Business_Awards_2018/

http://www.warrington-worldwide.co.uk/2018/06/08/warrington-business-awards-winners-announced/

The first major author to influence the cooking of the nation was by a woman, Isabella Beeton. Isabella was the original Domestic Goddess, her book, Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management, was first published in 1861. An instant bestseller; the 76 chapter volume was a compendium of household tips and duties for the staff with a substantial cookery section. She exalted the merits of cooking seasonal and local food, a message that resonates today and particularly is a mantra for me and my business Room Forty. Most of her recipes, though tested by Mrs B, had in fact been purloined from a host of other writers - albeit that they too were all female. The influence of this book however cannot be understated. Incredibly, I50 odd years later, the book remains in print.

Fast forward 60 years and although ‘King of Chefs’, Auguste Escoffier was undoubtedly a culinary genius, King Edward VII, preferred the ‘Queen of Cooks’, Rosa Lewis. The brilliant Rosa cooked in the French style; lighter and less stodgy fayre than the Victorian cooking of Isabella Beeton. She was appointed as Edward’s personal chef, a role she looked after for 20 years. Rosa was formerly the chef to the Churchill family and a favourite of Kaiser Wilhelm II too. By the age of 35 this talented and clever woman had moved on. She bought the Cavendish Hotel which she transformed into one of the most fashionable hotels of the era frequented by the glitterati of the day.

1939 saw the start of World War II and the necessity for frugality. Marguerite Patten was appointed by the Ministry of Food to guide the nation through rationing. She wrote recipes and hosted a radio broadcast called The Kitchen Front designed to make the most of what was available. By 1947 she had become Britain’s first TV cook (although she was always insistent to her death that she was NOT a cook but a Home Economist). Still revered by contemporary chefs, it was Marguerite to whom Jamie Oliver turned for advice when working on his school dinner campaign as to how to make meals on a budget. In her remarkable 99 year lifetime she wrote an incredible 170 cookery books including one that I possess, The Everyday Cook Book in Colour, which went on to sell over 17 million copies. Tried, tested and trusted it remains a faultless reference.

Eccentric, slightly bonkers and so perfect for TV, Fanny Cradock hit British TV screens in 1955. The advent of colour TV in the late 1960’s brought technicolour to her odd make up and bizzare culinary creations such as garishly colour dyed piped mashed potato and odd things suspended in bowls of yellow aspic. Whilst she may have reigned on TV and been of huge entertainment value her legacy has not stood the test of time. Meanwhile Elizabeth David, was creating a revolution in food.

Elizabeth had toured around the Med and lived in Greece and France. As enthralled and excited as she was by the Mediterranean diet she was as equally appalled with the bland, grey, boring British diet that greeted her on her return to live in austerity London in 1946.. Her book A Book of Mediterranean Food published in 1950, was transformational. It introduced austerity Britain to the vibrancy and colour of the Med diet; garlic, pasta, lemons, fresh herbs, brie, cous cous, peppers, olive oil… along with recipes for such exotic delights as moules marinières and spanakopita, bouillabaisse and brandade, boeuf en daube and dolmades. She became a revered and go-to spark of inspiration for chefs. Her journalistic skills brought the pages to life and she followed her initial book success with a series of similar acclaimed, inspirational titles.

Her friend and contemporary was fellow journalist Jane Grigson who wrote classics about British and French food; Fish Cookery (1973), English Food (1974), The Mushroom Feast (1975), Jane Grigson’s Vegetable Book (1978) and Jane Grigson’s Fruit Book (1982). An early critic of battery farming, she cared passionately about such things as provenance too; things that resonate very strongly with my personal ethos.

About this time Nigella Lawson’s mentor Anna Del Conte was making her mark. Having moved to the UK from Italy after the War she too found the British diet dull and wrote the classics Portrait of Pasta (1976), followed by Classic Italian Cookbook (1984) for a British readership and The Gastronomy of Italy (1984).

In 1960, the amazing Pru Leith moved to London from South Africa, attended the Cordon Bleu Cookery School and soon set up Leith's Good Food, a party and event catering business. In 1969, she opened Leith's restaurant which won her a Michelin star at a time when Britain held but a handful. By1975, she had founded Leith's School of Food and Wine which became the UK equivalent of the Cordon Bleu, training professional chefs and amateur cooks. In 1993 she sold the school which by then had grown to have a turnover of £15 million. As a business woman and cook Pru is incredible. Little wonder she was named Veuve Cliquot Business Woman of the Year in 1990, has been awarded 13 Honorary University Degrees an OBE and CBE.

The fabulous Mary Berry mustn’t and couldn’t be left from this list. She has published over 70 books following her first, The Hamlyn All Colour Cookbook, published in 1970. She is an  inspiration to millions with her foolproof recipe’s with clear instructions and a regular on TV.
The names Delia and Nigella have become Mononymous, ie, Delia Smith and Nigella Lawson have both become so successful that you don’t even need to mention their second name.

Delia’s recipes are to this day, delicious, failsafe classics. Delia was omniprescent in magazines, through her books and on our TV screens from the late seventies up until her last book in 2009. The ‘Delia Effect’, was one of a trust so powerful that when she started using coiled mini whisks they sold out the next day. When her BBC How to Cook programme was first aired in 1998, supermarkets recorded an increase in sales of 1.3 million eggs the next day. Elizabeth David and Anna Del Conte may have introduced us to the concept of the likes of balsamic vinegar, but when Delia used it, it flew off the shelves. Another very clever business woman, Delia co-founded Sainsbury’s magazine and has the majority shareholding in her beloved Norwich City FC.
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Nigella, Domestic Goddess, took over Delia’s culinary mantle, first appearing on TV in 1998. Her vampish profile belies her phenomenal, achievable recipes and she currently still reigns supreme. Think the vogue for spiced baked cauliflower is new? Check out Nigella Bites, she was championing it in her first book back in 1991.  Her journalistic skill empowers her with a descriptive writing style that is as delicious and luminary as her recipe’s.
 
All of these women are inspirational, quite brilliant and clever. In this celebratory, centenary year of women having won the fight to get the right to vote I would argue that rather than being enslaved by the kitchen it has been a forum in which women have for over 160 years, shown themselves to lead, enlighten, inspire and excel.
 
Ask most male chefs who was their cooking inspiration and, certainly in the case of Raymond Blanc, James Martin and Marco Pierre White, it was their mother or grandmother. For me, I am delighted to say it was my mum as she always cooked amazing food and taught me the basics to build from. 
Who feeds your inspiration?  
 
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​The 1920’s provides a fabulous theme for a fantastically glamourous party, and will be the party everyone remembers forever!

Set the scene
To create the intimate setting of a salubrious speakeasy, cover furniture and 21st Century items in dark velvet, faux fur and luxurious fabrics.  Subdue the lighting using small table lamps and (fake) candles in old liquour bottles.  Gather small tables to sit around and play silent black and white movies on the TV.

If it is at home fill your bath with ice and store your drinks in it – instant ‘bathtub gin’.
Hide cocktail menus inside old books and serve all your drinks in crystal glasses and tea cups.  Silver and glass platters should be used for canapes, and dress bartenders in uniform.
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Plan the arrival
To begin, the entrance to your venue needs to be subtle. Use a side entrance or a flag to show where the party is. A gruff bouncer on the door would add authenticity, but the most important part of arrival is a secret code to gain entry.  Often guests would arrive with a book so if the authorities turned up they could pretend it was a book club with their tea cups!

Don’t forget to add any secret entry codes to the invitations – which should be black and white art deco, with instructions for the dress code too.
 
Food and drinks
Most of today’s cocktails were invented in the 1920’s, mixed to hide the awful taste of bathtub gin and moonshine, so anything goes.  Preferable are those with raunchy names like between the sheets! 
The important thing is to serve them in secret – you could be raided at any time. Fill those teapots and vases with ice!

Canapes are the perfect party food for an evening speakeasy, as most people will have had dinner before they come.  How about bagels for later to soak up the moonshine!

Music
The 1920s saw the height of New Orleans and Chicago styles of jazz, sandwiched between the Dixieland sound of the 1900s and the Swing era of the 1930s. Fill your playlist with authentic 1920’s sounds: pianist and bandleader Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five, cornetist Bix Beiderbecke, pianist Earl Hines, pianist James P. Johnson, and saxophonist-clarinetist Sidney Bechet.
If you have the budget, the sound of a live upbeat jazz band will add a wonderful energy to your evening! A pianist, with a singing Sheba, is also rather swanky.

Dress to impress
The 1920’s was a significant period of change for women, in fashion and role. They drank, smoked danced and voted. Think glamourous beauty, sequins and tassels, heavy makeup, feather boas and pearls.

Some speakeasies were used as homes and offices by gangsters, who adopted an extravagant lifestyle. Successful gangsters could be identified by their fashionable silk suits, expensive jewellery, and guns, hidden in violin cases! Men – you can’t put on any old ragsthink Jay Gatsby in Tuxedo’s and spats, or baggy trousers and braces.

Dancing
Why, the Charleston of course Darling!

For tea cups, props, canapes and waitressing for your speakeasy party contact Room Forty Afternoon Teas on 01925 357940  www.roomforty.co.uk  hello@roomforty.co.uk

The history, in a very little nutshell.
In January 1920 the US government banned the manufacture and sale of alcohol. Driving production and consumption underground, and giving rise to gangsters such as the notorious Al Capone.  The problem was, America’s boundaries are so big and gangsters so powerful, that their success in out manoeuvring the few prohibition enforcement officers became notorious.
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In 1929 the government realised that prohibition was not working and in 1933 Congress repealed the law in the 21st Amendment.