On Last Saturday, Hemingways Mall hosted their its latest Chef’s Kitchen event at the Key Largo restaurant. Since I am always on the lookout for free food opportunities, I obviously agreed to attend.
As has been mentioned previously, the point of these events is to allow chefs to show off their skills to a hungry audience.
For this week, the chefs of the hour were Terri Struckmeyer and Olwethi Kuta.
In addition, each of the four meals was paired with a Beyerskloof wine.
The evening kicked off with an entrée consisting of a deconstructed duck in a phyllo pastry parcel glazed with orange and paired with duck consommé. The parcel was surprisingly sweet in a similar manner to pulled pork and when combined with the more savoury consommé, made for a delicious opener.
Next up was the lamb kofta salad which was made up of lamb meatballs rolled on a fresh herb salad with a hummus dressing.
Unlike the entrée, this course is was mostly savoury with the hummus providing a light sweet touch. The lamb was cooked well while the greens were satisfyingly crisp and crunchy.
With the two starters out of the way, we moved onto the main course. This was spinach and ricotta wrapped in handmade tortellini pasta, folded in a tomato concasse and dusted with parmesan shavings. Interestingly enough, this meal reminded me a lot of pasta dishes I’ve enjoyed at home and I found this made it all the more enjoyable.
Finally, to end off the night, we tucked in to everyone’s favourite part of a meal: dessert.
For this Chef’s Kitchen, we were treated to baked chocolate brownie cheesecake, chocolate macarons, and white chocolate and orange mousse.
The cheesecake was amazing as was were the macarons. I found the mousse a bit too citrus-y for my taste, but I’ve never been a big fan of citrus so don’t take it as a big criticism.