Yemi Adelekan is a food writer and blogger who was a semi-finalist in last year’s BBC TV’s Masterchef  competition. Every Saturday Yemi will be writing on the Stray Ferret about her love of the district’s food  and sharing cooking tips– please get in touch with her if you want her to review a restaurant, visit your farm, taste the produce you sell or even share a recipe.  

‘Push, push, push; stop and twist’ was the mantra at the end of my day at Bettys Cookery School. Let’s get back to the start of my day so you know how I ended up with a mantra and a tip that you will find useful.

Bettys is a Harrogate institution and thousands of people are welcomed each year for the Bettys experience. As a local, I am not surprised that every guest we have wants to visit Bettys and some repeatedly so.

For lingering memories of your Bettys experience, you can shop at the end of your meal, order Bettys products for home delivery or better still, sign up for their cookery school so you can take that knowledge home with you. 

I signed up for the pastry class which I knew would give me different skills. 

Lisa Bennison, the chef tutor, joined Bettys to gain work experience as part of her training from York Cookery School and never left. She has spent 37 years in different roles with the past 20 years at the cookery school.

She loves teaching basic principles, sharing fail-proof tips on how to get the perfect results whilst encouraging everyone to embrace and learn from any mistakes. 

Our day started with warm chocolate pastries with a choice of coffee or tea before we moved on to the first demo.

The pastry class includes making Bettys signature lemon tart and profiteroles. You learn how to make sweet tart pastry, perfectly roll out your dough, line your tart tin and create your tart cases without any cracks or accidents. You then move on to making the lemon filling before learning about the importance of timing and temperature control to correctly manage all elements. 

Salmon salad

Whilst our tarts were baking, we sat down to a gorgeous meal of salmon salad with garlic roasted potatoes with choice of wine or non alcoholic drinks. The strawberry cheesecake dessert was divine and went well with a hot drink. 

And we were off to the second half of the day after proudly checking out and taking pictures of our lemon tarts. 

Next we learnt how to make a choux pastry, knowing what to look for to ensure we get the perfect glossy consistency to ensure a perfect rise. 

Then came the mantra of ‘push, push, push; stop and twist’. This is how to perfectly pipe out your profiteroles to get the even round shape. Hold your nuzzle down directly on the baking tray and pipe gently moving up whilst thinking of the mantra. 

This easily became a song in my head and we all had a laugh knowing we would be reciting it every time we pipe our choux. 

Off we went to make our choux pastry and then came the piping and mantra with many still a bit scared they would pipe it wrong. My first few attempts were hit and miss but Lisa gave me some tips and using them, I decided to re-pipe all my choux and I was happy with them.

Read more:

• Yemi’s Food Stories: Memorable weddings with Blossom Tree Cake Company
• Yemi’s Food Stories: Sweet smells at the Lavender Rooms in Knaresborough

The crème patisserie and the chocolate ganache were the last two elements that we learnt how to make whilst the choux buns were baking. Other tips include looking for the v-drop of your choux pastry for the right consistency and don’t be afraid to let the choux make contact with the pan when cooking. We are tempted to constantly stir but we don’t need to do that and once it starts to leave a film on the pan base, it’s cooked. 

A great idea for couples

As with all things Bettys, the experience is well crafted starting with a team of people that made you feel welcome, a knowledgeable tutor who loves her job, stunning cutleries for your drinks and meals; plus table setting and food that made you feel like you were in Bettys tea room.

The facilities were top notch with enviable range cookers and adequate work surfaces for all participants. It was obvious they didn’t cut any corners in creating a cookery school to be proud of. 

Participants were across all age ranges, careers, had limited to good knowledge of food and came from as far as London. It was a day to make new friends, learn new skills, surprise yourself with your creations to wow friends and family, enjoy the Bettys experience beyond dining in the restaurant and most importantly take home the skill to occasionally recreate some Bettys signature creations.

A Bettys cookery school experience is a great idea for couples, hanging out with friends or co-workers, a gift for the budding or hesitant cooks in your life and would be perfect alternatives to hen-dos with everyone learning a skill for life. 

The icing on the cake was taking home all your creations after eating the ones made by the chef tutor. 

With classes including three-course meal, chocolate and bread making, patisserie and macarons, there is something to learn. The classes fill up quickly so get booking for a fabulous foodie day. 

Yemi Adelekan is a food writer and blogger who was a semi-finalist in last year’s BBC TV’s Masterchef  competition. Every Saturday Yemi will be writing on the Stray Ferret about her love of the district’s food  and sharing cooking tips– please get in touch with her if you want her to review a restaurant, visit your farm, taste the produce you sell or even share a recipe.  

If you are looking for recommendations for a place to go for a special occasion, spa or golf days or an amazing meal, Rudding Park hotel always makes the list and quite often is at the top of the list. It’s the reason my 49th birthday celebration was there.

Multi award winning Rudding Park, set amongst 300 acres of beautiful landscaped gardens and woodland with stunning sculptural pieces, is one of the most beautiful hotels in Harrogate offering 90 stylish bedrooms, award winning spa, three AA Rosette Horto Restaurant, and two AA Rosette Clocktower Restaurant, kitchen garden, gym, private cinema, golf course and events venue.

With a Best Fine Dining Restaurant amongst its many awards, I was intrigued by the kitchen garden, which plays a key role in making great dishes happen.

Horto Restaurant offers contemporary fine dining using ingredients from Rudding Park Kitchen Garden with the menu prescribed by nature, the creativity of the chef and the skill of the gardener.

Spending the day with Emma Pugh, kitchen gardener, was eye opening. I was impressed by the pivot from her previous career as a physiotherapist to becoming a gardener, from lifting limbs to lifting plant pots and helping them to grow or recover. Her passion for nurturing and growing things shone through.

Working closely with the chefs, the gardeners influence their dishes by supplying them with in-season produces or growing new plants for fresh ideas and they reward their hard work by creating stunning dishes for the guests who enjoy the results of this collaboration.

There was so much to learn about the different plants that were in season with my mind blown by many varieties of produces that are out there. There were plants that Emma was still learning about and some she was growing for the first time.

I loved tasting the different plants to identify the flavours, notes and coming up with ideas on how they might be used for a sweet or savoury dish with some drawing raised eyebrows and different facial expressions from Emma.

Yemi and Emma exploring the kitchen garden

I discovered Orach which reminded me of Swiss chard but with a slightly salty taste, and can be used to replace spinach in recipes or stuffed like cabbage leaves. I love cooking coarsely blended red peppers, onions, chilli and garlic with olive oil and seasonings until all the water is evaporated and the sauce is well fried releasing all the oils before adding my spinach.

Spinach releases a lot of water when cooked so to reduce this, I rub the leaves with some coarse sea salt to draw out the moisture before rinsing and squeezing out the juices. Orach would work really well in this recipe.

I was introduced to ying-yang beans, and red and green borlotti beans which I had only ever seen the canned versions before.

Sweet Sicily was an interesting herb to taste with the seeds, leaves, flowers, and roots all edible. The young leaves would bring a fresh taste to a salad and can be added to sauces whilst the root can be used as a sweetener. The flavour profile reminded me of fennel, anise seed and liquorice.

This plant would make for a nourishing cup of tea with health properties that are said to help with asthma, breathing problems, digestion issues, cough, chest and throat infections and urinary tract infections.

Sea Kale and Okahijiki (land sea weed) were plants that I had never used before and found them eye-opening. Okahijiki is often used for sushi, and can be added to a salad to introduce pops of saltiness and it would pair well with fish and white meat. I would suggest adding them to sauces just before serving so the crisp texture is retained. I reckon the pops of light saltiness they provide would provide contrast and relief from overly rich and sweet sauces.

I love showcasing colours in my food and cooking with chillies and peppers in many of my sweet and savoury dishes so I was particularly excited to see Hungarian black and purple peppers. I will definitely attempt to grow some of these to elevate the colour and flavour profiles of my dishes.

I left Rudding Kitchen Garden with my head full of new ideas for sweet and savoury dishes, herbs and garnishes. From blue Kuri squashes, butterfly sorrel, purple sage, blackcurrant sage and apple marigold which I think would make great dessert flavours to the weird and wacky looking ice plant.

Nature and great produces inspire chefs to curate new, exciting and delicious menus creating award winning dining experiences. This and so much more is what is waiting for you at Rudding Park hotel.

Next week, I will be writing about my day at Betty’s Cookery School.

I’m also checking out Samira Effa’s new menu at Bar & Restaurant EightyEight at Grantley Hall and going behind the scenes at Dutch Barn Orchard Vodka, so look out for these posts in the coming weeks.

Read more:

• Yemi’s Food Stories: Memorable weddings with Blossom Tree Cake Company
• Yemi’s Food Stories: Sweet smells at the Lavender Rooms in Knaresborough

Yemi Adelekan is a food writer and blogger who was a semi-finalist in last year’s BBC TV’s Masterchef  competition. Every Saturday Yemi will be writing on the Stray Ferret about her love of the district’s food  and sharing cooking tips– please get in touch with her if you want her to review a restaurant, visit your farm, taste the produce you sell or even share a recipe.  

It was love at ‘hello’ when Kean Ong opened the door to the Harrogate-based kitchen design studio which immediately transported me into a timeless, elegant, classic and stunning space that set the perfect scene for what was to come.

Kean grew up in Malaysia and worked in Singapore as a chef before relocating to the UK where he continued to hone his skills working in pan Asian, French and modern European kitchens including the Marriot Group, where he discovered a love and passion for pastry.

Picking up a best-in-year award for the advanced diploma in culinary arts patisserie and confectionary at Westminster Kingsway College was the beginning of a truly amazing career at some of London’s finest restaurants including Albert Roux’s The Brasserie at Sofitel St James, Quo Vadis in Soho, Inamo at Wardour Street and St James near Piccadilly.

At Blossom Tree Cake Company He is half of a brilliant duo with Stephen, who I can only describe as the heartwarming ‘behind the scenes yet keeping the show on the road’ main man, and Kean credits Stephen for being a key enabler to their success story.

The name Blossom Tree was inspired by a tree in their front garden and the oriental influences of Kean’s background.

Despite having had an enviable career, Kean says making wedding cakes is what he loves the most. He considers being a part of a couple’s big day a privilege that he pays back by creating the most beautiful, elegant, contemporary and delicious cakes to match their important occasion.

He makes cakes that look as good as they taste on the inside and he wants couples to look back years later still happy with their timeless cake design.

As a food lover, Kean is driven by passion and quality which have translated into him making quality, ethical and traceability choices including growing his own fruits and herbs and moving from fresh flowers to hand crafting life-like flowers for his cakes.

The flavours in his cakes are created using the freshest ingredients, with every element homemade, minimal use of food colouring and the cakes are infused with his signature syrups that keep them moist and light without being overly sweet.

For the tasting, Kean made me three flavours including a new one which he will be unveiling for the next wedding season.

The Chocolate Salted-Caramel cake was a delight with the lightest chocolate sponge perfectly balanced with the salted caramel buttercream. As a non-chocolate cake lover, I was an easy convert by the delicate flavour which didn’t smack me in the face with chocolate.

Kean explained that he kept the flavour light because people would have been eating all day and wouldn’t want a cake that is heavy or overly sweet.

Yemi and Kean Ong with some of his creations

I moved on to the most popular flavour of Passion Fruit curd, Vanilla buttercream and White Chocolate sponge and could immediately see why this is popular, with most couples asking for a layer. The passion fruit curd was sublime cutting through the white chocolate sponge making me want to go for yet another bite.

My favourite all time cake remains a well made Victoria sponge cake and the new flavour that I tasted took it to another level. We are often told the classics are classic for a reason and should be untouched, but I counter that by saying sometimes a classic needs a facelift in the hands of a craftsman.

That’s exactly what Kean has done with his twist on this well loved classic featuring quintessentially British ingredients, capturing the smells of summer and champagne.

Each flavour was the front runner until I tasted the next one; I left without being able to decide my favourite but I remain partial to his latest creation.

Kean puts his heart and soul into his work; his artistic flair, skill, experience and training as a pastry chef was rewarded with four Guild of Fine Food Great Taste Awards in 2022 for his Elderflower & Blackcurrant, Raspberry velvet, zesty Lime, and Pistachio & Plum flavours.

Another three awards were added in 2023 for Zesty lemon, Chocolate & Cherry and Lychee, Raspberry & Rose flavours.

Blossom Tree Cake Company’s creations have been featured in many magazines and is the preferred partner for many venues including Goldsborough Hall, Grantley Hall, Ripley Castle and Rudding Park  in Harrogate.

Bookings are taken a year in advance with tastings done over the winter period. Tailored consultations result in your wedding cake complimenting and being a talking point on your big day.

With a warm welcome, cakes that look like artworks and creatively delicious flavour profiles, I left Blossom Tree Cakes still in love and armed with tips and inspirations to take my own baking to the next level. Kudos to this dynamic duo.

Read more:

• Yemi’s Food Stories: Sweet smells at the Lavender Rooms in Knaresborough
• Yemi’s Food Stories: The perfect day out at Yolk Farm

Yemi Adelekan is a food writer and blogger who was a semi-finalist in last year’s BBC TV’s Masterchef  competition. Every Saturday Yemi will be writing on the Stray Ferret about her love of the district’s food  and sharing cooking tips– please get in touch with her if you want her to review a restaurant, visit your farm, taste the produce you sell or even share a recipe.  

Food is emotive, engaging all the five senses of sight, touch, taste, smell and hearing.

From hearing the sizzle of onions and garlics in olive oil to the aroma that immediately fills the room, the senses play a key role in our dining experiences.

Smell can also be controversial when it comes to food – from pungent smells of fermented sauces or condiments, stinky blue cheeses to sweet smell of lavender, we all have our own opinions on the smells we love to associate with our food.

A little too much of the wrong aromas and the dish is described as over powering or over bearing. Lavender is one of the smells that a lot of people only associate with their nan’s drawers or perfumes.

Lavender smells and looks wonderful in many applications but most of us don’t reach for it when we are cooking.

The Lavender Rooms at Market Place in Knaresborough is steeped in history. Located in the oldest chemist in England dating back to 1720, it acquired the name when the wife of a chemist bottled her lavender water in the upstairs rooms.

The rooms can’t get any more traditional with their exposed low beams, which were the perfect height for me but tall people need to watch their heads. Dotted around the lavender rooms were relics of history, pictures telling stories that date back centuries.

With a good selection of wraps, melts, sandwiches, breakfast, hot dishes and rarebits including ploughman’s lunch, pate of the day and Yorkshire rarebits served with options of bacon or sausage, I was spoilt for choice. Their board showcased several dishes of the day offering even more options.

I was interested in their cream tea selection, which included sweet and savoury options. The savoury cream tea included savoury scone with cream cheese and red salsa served with a pot of Yorkshire team.

I ordered their signature lavender and lemon scone, which came with an option of jam or lemon curd and clotted cream. The one and only time I’d had lavender in scones was over 20 years ago and I remember being intrigued by the smell and the conversation with other ladies about the unusual flavour. The purply lavenders dotted the scones making them ‘a thing of beauty’ and compelling eat.

I was keen to see how their lavender and lemon scone compared and whether it would live up to my memories. As soon as the scone was served, I couldn’t resist taking a whiff to enjoy the delicate lavender and subtle smell of lemon. It was exactly as I imagined and tasted even better; the scones were well risen with a crispy top.

I had mine with jam and clotted cream washed down with a cup of tea and a bottle of Harrogate water.

Spoilt for choice

The manager Rowan Bardon was passionate about the business and was delighted to tell me that everything was made fresh on site everyday. Their option to buy now and eat later allows diners to order a nibble to take away.

With their outdoor sitting on a sunny day, indoor sitting in multiple rooms overlooking the street you are spoilt for choice for a more intimate cream tea or full blown meal with friends and family.

As I left the Lavender Rooms, I thought about other polarising food smells and rose petals and rose water come to mind so my next challenge is to make a rose-scented dessert.

Knaresborough is a noted town with lots of celebrity links so make plans to visit the Lavender Rooms and enjoy their warm hospitality and the great Yorkshire food.

Next week, I will be visiting Rudding Park kitchen garden, an awarding winning Harrogate based cake designer and Betty’s cookery space so look out for my food stories on all of them.

Read more:

• Yemi’s Food Stories: Cooking the perfect steak
• Yemi’s Food Stories: My slow love for avocado