“Top chef Mike branches out into home-cooking!”

Top chef Mike branches out into home-cooking!

Posted: 13 Aug 2010 01:13 AM PDT

Top chef Mike branches out into home-cooking!

9:05am Friday 13th August 2010

AFTER a long day at work, sometimes you can feel too tired to cook a proper meal.

Out come the menus as you dial up for a curry, pizza or a Chinese takeaway.

Now hungry people in Bolton are being given another option — they can call out a top chef to cook for them.

Mike Harrison, who has appeared on TV cookery shows and writes for The Bolton News, is the man behind Cheftogo.

The chef will come to your kitchen and show you how to cook your meal yourself, or with his team, prepare a sumptuous dinner party for you and your friends.

Father and son Mark and James Noble called out Mike to teach them how to prepare and cook cordon bleu food ahead of a dinner party for guests.

Company director Mark, aged 46, and his son, James, aged 22, who is home on weekend leave from the Army, opted for a cookery lesson in their own kitchen in Darcy Lever.

Mark's wife, Jan, aged 47, had a day off from the kitchen and while she relaxed with friends in the next room, the men started to prepare the three-course gourmet meal, which they would serve to seven guests that evening.

Earlier in the week, they had discussed menus with Mike before settling on fresh scallops and black pudding with a pea puree, followed by a choice between fillet of beef with a potato and mooli rosti or a Gressingham duck breast and confit of leg accompanied by a reduced prune and orange sauce.

A fancy white chocolate pudding, with a creamed white chocolate filling topped with fresh raspberries, would round off the meal.

Mike said Cheftogo was becoming more popular as people entertain at home more.

He said: "The most popular package we do is where we come in and cook the whole meal, serve it on our crockery and then we clean the kitchen. That would cost around £40 a head plus £10 an hour for waiting on staff."

He added: "James had recently returned from Afghanistan and it was a pleasure to work with a brave soldier. He and his dad were keen to learn and were good students and we all had a good laugh."

It was a long but enjoyable day for the Nobles. They had an early start with a shopping trip to Bolton fish and vegetable market to buy scallops, beef and all the vegetables and fruit.

Mark said: "I'm a basic cook and it was really good having someone like Mike, who oversaw what we were doing and advised us on how to pick the right ingredients, and told us about presentation and flavours we might not otherwise have used."

James added: "Having a professional chef teach me the art of cooking was a great experience. It made me appreciate the hard graft great chefs put in to making food when I go out for a meal.

"It was excellent being able to work in such an intense way and I learned things about cooking that I will use in the future."

● For more information, email cheftogo@btinternet.com.

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Cookery

Friday, August 13, 2010