Jellybean Christmas Party
We can talk the talk but can we walk the walk? An evening in the kitchen with the Beans…
Anyone who knows or knows of Jellybean, knows that we can most certainly boss our way through the marketing and PR of any food brand… But can we cook?
On Friday 11th January, as a late Christmas celebration, the Beans ventured to The Underground Cookery School in Old Street.
The evening began with the mighty C’s: champagne and canapés. Once well-oiled, the Beans were split into three teams, one team was assigned a chicken deboning section and the others a pasta making section and a desert section to make a chocolate cylinder.
I must say, cutting up a whole raw chicken was something I never expected to do at a Christmas party but in my 4-inch heels, a glass of wine in my left hand and a butchers knife in the other, I took on the task. It ended up being rather fun and the perfect motivation to partake in Veganuary! FYI, the whole of the Jellybean team walked away with all 10 fingers! Absolute pro’s.
With the gory part out of the way and the drinks still flowing, the next task was making fresh pasta sheets from which we would proceed to make our very own ravioli. Whilst I’ve always wanted to do this, I always thought it’d be easier! But
with the help of one of the lovely chefs, we got through it and managed to produce some perfectly edible ravioli filled with spinach and ricotta (and a special dairy-free version for the annoying lactose-intolerant Bean, which is me).
After seasoning our chicken and preparing it to go in the deep fryer and making sheets of dark chocolate to wrap our Black Forest Gateau we then contributed to the making of a Crème Anglaise. By this point the Bean team were all well over the legal limit, and unfortunately the legal whisking limit too… which made this task a challenge.
Next up, as the French would say, la dégustation! The team sat around a gorgeous table, as our glasses were filled (for the 100th time that night) and we were served with our appetising meal. Spinach and Ricotta filled ravioli topped with truffle oil and cheese to start, paprika, garlic and onion infused chicken fried two ways with grilled lettuce (surprisingly, very tasty) and a Black Forest Gateau with a dollop of ice cream on top. Once extremely full, with top buttons of trousers undone and an inability to move, we were served tea and coffee (a great way to sober up before the journey home).
Tasty food + a variety of wines + a bunch of great Beans = an overall great time. The Underground Cookery School were extremely accommodating to my lactose intolerance with dairy-free cheese and ice cream which was greatly appreciated. They insisted our glasses were always full, luckily this didn’t cause any casualties!
To conclude… the Beans can talk the talk AND walk the walk. What a great night during a very grey January!