Mixing with Dani

About a year and a half ago I received an email from a lady in Australia whom I didn’t know. Her name was Dani Valent, and she was talking about writing a Thermomix cookbook. Hmmm, I thought, usually it’s Vorwerk or the Thermomix distributors who write Thermomix cookbooks. Who else could be writing one? I continued to read the email and stopped in my tracks. This Dani person had actually read my blog and wanted to include one of my recipes in her cookbook. Specifically, my Spicy Crab Tempura recipe.

What??? Publish one of my recipes? In a real cookbook? It sounded too good to be true.

Now that I have my own signed copy of In the Mix: Great Thermomix Recipes (Slattery Media, 2011) I can actually believe it. And as an Independent Consultant Demonstrator for UK Thermomix, I was assigned the task – make that afforded the great honour – of hosting the In the Mix Thermomix Cookery Class at Gordon Ramsay and Andrew Maxwell’s Tante Marie Culinary Academy in Woking, Surrey, on Monday 23^rd July 2012.

And what a class it was!

First off, I had the privilege of meeting Dani ahead of time at Raymond Blanc’s fabulous Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons in Oxfordshire, where we had a delicious meal and a lovely evening.

Then I shared the stage of the main demonstration kitchen at Tante Marie with Dani, first introducing her and then assisting Dani by handing her clean Thermomix bowls, trays of ingredients I had prepared according to her recipes, and generally trying to be useful. This was the last of four In the Mix Thermomix Cookery Classes in her UK book tour, and Dani has certainly perfected her style and presentation. A real pro, she is at ease in front of an audience and at ease handling a Thermomix. Contrary to what I originally felt, the recipes in In the Mix are not all complicated and “cheffy;” rather they are very accessible to the domestic cook.

An audience of about 60 participants was the ultimate proof not only of the growing popularity of Thermomix in the UK, but also of the appeal of Dani Valent’s approach to Thermomix cooking. With beautifully illustrated recipes from top chefs, high profile Thermomix users and food bloggers around the world, In the Mix will easily take your Thermomix cooking to a level you would not have suspected.

In a 2.5 hour class, Dani is able to prepare ten different recipes with the help of our trusty friend, Thermomix – and our equally trusty friend Lucy from UK Thermomix head office, who managed the back kitchen and four more Thermomixes quietly cooking and blending away. It’s a very slick operation, and I’m sad that it was the only class I got to participate in. I could do this every week 😉

So big thanks go out to Dani Valent, Lucy Heath and Isobel Turner, without whom none of the four UK classes would have been possible.

I know that Dani is working on Volume Two of In the Mix, so I look forward to contributing another recipe, and to Mixing with Dani again in the future.

Bon appétit !

To order your copy of In the Mix, contact Thermomix Australia or UK Thermomix, or your local Thermomix Demonstrator/Consultant.

P.S. My recipe is on page 85 🙂

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