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OUR FOOD REVOLUTION WEEK! (cooking with Poh, Jamie Oliver, Maximillian Lundin, friends & kids… phew!)

Hi lovelies! Hope you all had a fabulously foodie Food Revolution Day (or a good regular Friday the 16th of May, if you didn’t take part 😉 ). I “cheated” a little again this year and celebrated FRD in numerous ways over multiple days (not that Jamie would mind, I am sure).
My week began in a cooking frenzy when a dear friend, The Green Brunette, popped around for a Poh’s Kitchen-inspired afternoon. We had to juggle fixing the remaining mis en place (I had done as much as possible in advance), cooking Poh’s divine Chunky Cream of Mushroom soup, making her delicious Parmesan Croutons, baking her version of Potatoes au Gratin, settling/feeding Baby Cupcake, eating lunch, picking L up from nursery school, organising snack time for the kids, remembering to take some pics and hastily snapping away for late posting on Instagram (lol) AND baking Poh’s perfect Chewy Choc-Chip Cookies. We had an approximate time frame of around 2.5 hours… for all of this :P. A potentially hectic/stressful afternoon was made thoroughly enjoyable because, simply, we all love food, chatting, playing and experimenting! And of course, we had wonderful guidance and inspiration direct from Poh’s Kitchen* ;).


On FDR itself, cooking with Jamie Oliver was on the agenda. I happened to be close to my computer as Jamie, DJ BBQ, Cupcake Jemma and a great gathering of school kids and teachers went live to air on Food Tube for Jamie’s live cooking lesson. When little L came home from a visit at his grandparent’s house, we watched the video again and cooked together. It was honestly one of the loveliest kitchen experiences we’ve had together. L, who is 3 years-old, was no doubt excited to see the big kids cooking and to have Jamie talking “directly” to him (he said “Jamie Oliber loves me.” Bless! <3 ).
At one point, after assembling our first wrap, L started running in circles around the kitchen singing “Rainbow salad wrap! Rainbow salad wrap!” :D. He loved using a grater for the first time (with supervision, of course!), shaking the dressing jar, pouring the dressing, helping with wrap assembly and eating the finished product. Actually, he couldn’t get enough of those wraps. I assumed we’d have lots of salad and tortilla breads leftover, with only 2 adults eating the food plus a toddler hanging around who’d already eaten dinner with his grandparents. Not so. After all three of us got stuck in, there was enough remaining to make only one wrap the next day. I must admit, I was a little sceptical about how tasty these wraps would be, but they were clearly a success!

GET THE RAINBOW SALAD WRAP RECIPE HERE

Oh, and for those of you who’ve wondered if Jamie managed to break the GUINNESS WORLD RECORD™ attempt for the ‘Most participants in a cookery lesson in 24 hours (multiple venues)’, it was done! Congrats to Jamie, his team and all the participants worldwide!

WATCH JAMIE’S RAINBOW SALAD WRAP COOKING LESSON HERE


I had barely scrubbed down my own kitchen and stacked my dishwasher at the end of FRD when, the very next day, I headed off to the professional kitchen at Restaurang Akademien to attend Maximillian Lundin’s vegetarian (vegan) cooking workshop. After 4 hours of broken sleep (ugh), I was not in the best form to tackle a full day of cooking/knowledge-absorbing (let alone in Swedish), but the day was exciting, my partner was thankfully super-lovely, Maximillian was hugely inspiring, his team were encouraging and the food itself was absolutely delicious. Maximillian’s food philosophy is much like my own and the theoretical side of what he shared with us resonated with me very much. He has been at the pre-“hipster foodie” forefront of the contemporary organic food movement in Sweden and now aims to promote veganism amongst chefs, restauranteurs and the general public here. No mean feat, given Sweden’s meaty history! But if any man’s up to the task, it’s Maximillian Lundin. Even his name is impressive.
There were some real high points of the day… and the menu.
Lunch was delicious and featured some seldom-seen-in-Stockholm-but-wonderful flavour combinations (orange and corn, for example). It was lovely to chat casually over a glass of chilled Jus de Pomme Pétillant with Maximillian and two of the ladies who shared my kitchen work station. When the conversation turned towards South Australia, my heart sang. The beyond-favourable impression my home state has made upon these Swedish foodies was wonderful to hear about.
Back in the kitchen, my cooking partner encouraging/trusting me to hastily create a vinaigrette based around whole spices- for the first time- was an enlightening experience. I am starting to recognise certain strengths I have in the kitchen, in conjunction with the areas that require improvement. An intuitive understanding of flavour combinations is something I have working for me. My love of pottering around the kitchen, taking my time reading and rereading recipes, chatting, etc., would make me, in my “raw state”, a potentially disastrous addition to a commercial kitchen environment!
I was thrilled to get a copy of the Årstiderna cook book that Maximillian collaborated on and proud that we were some of Årstiderna‘s very first customers, way back when their business began… and before trendy “Eko Stockholm” was in full swing. We were encouraged to take food home with us which I, of course, did … and I loved the fact that Baby Cupcake could eat any of the dishes without me worrying about her getting ill (she seems to be dairy protein intolerant, although test results have been inconclusive thus far).
The raw cake was a particular hit with the little ones (ok, the big ones too). I now have my own swanky Restaurang Akademien apron and diploma… and a name badge which, I realised upon returning home, had been upside-down all day. Ugh. The perils of chronic sleep-deprivation**, people. I need to take my own advice 😛

Last but not least, my Sunday morning began with a quick baking session to prepare cookies for a friend who offered me technical support via a comment on a desperate Facebook status update (back when my computer was dying on me). I promised that, when he visited Sweden again, I’d bake something to thank him for his assistance.
He flew in from LA on Sunday morning.
He was eating my cookies that afternoon.
Now, you can’t say Miss Marzipan’s not a woman of her word 😉
Hoping you all had a fabulous weekend. And if you celebrated FRD 2014, please drop me a line to let me know what you got up to! 🙂 xx
*Poh’s new book, Same Same But Different, has just been released in Australia! It looks amazing and I plan to have a copy smuggled into Sweden for me 😉
**Perhaps “chronic” is an exaggeration, but I have not had 8 consecutive hours of sleep (the amount I used to rely upon daily!) since pregnancy insomnia kicked in around July 2010 when I was pregnant with L. Despite Baby Cupcake currently weaning herself, my body seems to still brace itself for nursing on demand throughout the night, and I wake repeatedly as a result. Oh well, this too shall pass…

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Comments

  1. What an awesome post Marzi! I missed this. Wasn’t even aware of it. I would love to be a part of this revolution next time. How do I keep myself posted on it?

    • Hi there! Thank you! And I would say that the best way to stay up to date with this is to follow Jamie Oliver on Facebook/Instagram (if you use them)… or even follow the Food Revolution fan page on Facebook. You can also type Food Revolution into your reader search bar to remind yourself to search for posts (there’ll be a load of them leading up to mid-May 2015, no doubt) 🙂 xx

  2. Hi Miss Marzipan, it sounds like you had a really exciting FRD 🙂 These photos are gorgeous, it’s so good to hear about how excited your son was to cook, I guess it runs in the blood right 🙂 I absolutely love Poh’s book, the styling is great and the art is very cute. That’s such a lovely comment that she wrote. That chocolate cake looks divine, are you able to pass on the recipe? 🙂 Keep smiling and happy cooking 🙂

    • Hi Brendon! Thanks for the lovely comment! Glad you like Poh’s book too! have you seen her new one? I am so curious about it 🙂
      Yes, my little boy takes after me in that regard 🙂
      Re: the chocolate cake, I will need to translate the recipe before sharing and might make a couple of small tweaks, but will let you know when it’s up! Have a great day 🙂

  3. A fabulous food week. And lovely to read of L’s pleasure in creating the Rainbow Food Wraps. I am sure he’s right that Jamie Oliber loves him!

  4. “L, who is 3 years-old, was no doubt excited to see the big kids cooking and to have Jamie talking “directly” to him (he said “Jamie Oliber loves me.”
    For me, this sentence was the highlight of your post. L will remember this special day in years to come and will seek a more balanced approach to food preparation. L will connect food with good times that are shared within the context of a community. We live in a fast food world where there is less and less activity in our kitchens.
    A joyful and life-affirming post that reminds us to participate in making our food spectacular. The revolution continues…

    • Thank you! And I absolutely agree! I don’t want food to be fuel that gets me or my kids from A – B. I want it to be an adventure, something that brings us together, something that nourishes the body and spirit…
      <3 xx

  6. This post looks good enough to eat.! What a treat for the eyes..
    L sounds like a little dream boy, and Baby Cupcake is certainly in good hands.
    I had to smile – a lot – when I read this:
    Restaurang Akademien apron and diploma… and a name badge which, I realised upon returning home, had been upside-down all day. Ugh. The perils of chronic sleep-deprivation** – Oh, the joys of motherhood! 😉
    Well done on a brilliant post, and a great experience.

    • Aw, thanks so much Carolyn! The joys of motherhood, indeed! 😉
      L is fabulous! Such an enthusiastic little guy… very helpful and creative. My Cupcake is a sweetie… loves her food and her mama 😉 x

  8. Aw, I didn’t even know about Food Revolution Day- What a wasted opportunity! Regardless, I’m glad you made the most of the occasion with so many colorful, fresh meals.

  9. I had no idea there even was a FRD, but loved all your photo’s. I do love the interior patchwork page in Poh’s book, so pretty and colourful. Linking over to the rainbow wraps now, they look healthy and colourful too. Cheers!

  11. What a beautiful, lively post with your usual, awesome photography, MM! Also, congrats on being part of a new Guinness world record! 🙂

  14. That is so funny to know that we’ve been cooking along then together with Jamie… 🙂 I was in Amsterdam for Food Revolution Day cooking along with a couple of chefs during Taste of Amsterdam (food event)
    And I didn’t know Po had a book out so will be trying to smuggle one into the Netherlands too…. 🙂

    • Hi Simone! Awesome that you cooked with Jamie and some local chefs for FRD! Sounds amazing 🙂
      Yes, she has 2 books out now! Same Same But Different is the new one and apparently it will be translated into Dutch at some point! She ADORES Amsterdam and visited recently to appear as a guest on Dutch MasterChef. I really want to see that episode! Best wishes, MM xx