‘Inside out chef’ Wendy Paterson offers some unique food choices in Edinburgh
Edinburgh’s ‘secret’ dining scene shows no signs of slowing down. Pop-up, secret suppers, guerrilla dining, whatever you want to call it, comes in all shapes and forms in the capital city.
Last night saw Edinburgh’s first ‘pudding club’ hosted by Wendy Paterson who runs Inside Out Chef and offers ‘bespoke cuisine with bite’. The services offered by Wendy vary from private dining events and picnics in the park to catering for events and the very clever ‘freezer fills’ for those too busy to cook for themselves. The latter is very popular with new mums and and busy professionals who want good quality home-cooked food but don’t have a spare minute in their day.
Edinburgh’s first pudding club
We were intrigued by the idea of a ‘pudding club’ and managed to grab a ticket to the sweetest table in town. Wendy recently appearance on BBC Radio Scotland’s Kitchen cafe, where she had listeners salivating as she reeled off her pudding club menu.
Last night, we found ourselves amongst several Edinburgh Cake Ladies at a ‘secret’ location on the south side of Edinburgh.
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Beautifully set table
A welcome drink of pink lemonade was served in vintage babycham glasses and cleansed the palate before the inevitable sugar-high.
The table was set beautifully for the 13 lucky diners, with a copy of the menu on each place to remind everyone what was coming their way.
The starter was a trio of shooters of pomegranate and sparkling wine jelly, chocolate mousse and a strawberry topped buttermilk panna cotta.
The room came to a silence as the dishes were savoured and enjoyed.
After a suitable break, the ‘main course’ was to be served in a few portions. Individual sticky toffee puddings were served with the most delicious toffee sauce and lashings of fresh custard. The room became silent once again as every mouthful was devoured.
Next up on the menu was pavlova, which was served family style. A huge pavlova per 4/5 people was placed on the tables, with one of them being a pillow-sized beauty of meringue and fruit.
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Trio of starters
Some diners demolished their pavlovas and declared it the highlight so far, whilst others sampled a piece, but saved themselves for the two cheesecakes coming next.
10 different puddings to try
Slices of baked rum and raisin cheesecake were placed on the table alongside slices of a no-bake blackberry one. Diners were beginning to struggle a little with the sugar highs at this stage.
Knowing that a dessert course of three ice-creams were still to come, a couple bowed out in defeat to the cheesecakes.
Wendy had planned for such an eventuality and informed everyone that she would package up their cheesecakes so they could take them home to enjoy.
We managed ours but had difficulty deciding on a favourite. Both were creamy and extremely moorish with the most perfect biscuit base. Having never experienced a rum and raisin cheesecake before, we declared that version the winner.
Another suitable gap with lashings of tea passed before it was time for ‘dessert’. A trio of ice creams were presented as the finale and since these couldn’t be taken home, everyone just had to eat them.
The coconut and ginger combination worked well and the keylime pie was perfectly zingy. Even we were struggling over the last piece of home-made shortbread and our limit of sweet food in one sitting had been reached.
We soldiered on and tried the red ripple ice cream, which was in the shape of a heart and summed up our feelings about the evening – we loved it.
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A pillow-sized pavlova
This sweet dining experience is not for the faint hearted, but if you pace yourself, you can do it justice.
Deposits for the evening were £5 and a further ‘donation’ was required on the night. As ever with secret suppers, the event was BYOB, but most opted just to drink the water and lashings of tea on offer.
Wendy plans to do another pudding club this summer as well as other secret supper events.
Information
For further details on all the service Wendy offers, have a look at her website.
You can contact her via email, or phone her to discuss your requirements.
You can follow Wendy on twitter @Insideoutchef and find her on Facebook.
You can subscribe to her news and updates by entering your email on the top right hand side of her website.