Hundreds of recipes pass through my purpose-built Test Kitchen each year, all meticulously measured and timed to ensure that each dish not only tastes fantastic but works perfectly every time.
What goes on inside the Test Kitchen
Inside the Test Kitchen no two days are the same, whether it’s recipe testing and development, filming content for TV and social media or conducting product tastings and trials.
There are usually three or four of us working on projects at any time, which means we have lots of different opinions and ideas when a tasting takes place.
A typical testing day is pretty much prep, test, taste, prep, test, taste all day long. We fine tune quantities and ingredients, modifying our notes until we’re all 100 per cent happy that we’ve created the ultimate version of any recipe.
Of course, all of this cooking requires some serious organisation and a rolling stock of ingredients to ensure we have everything we might need to hand. Much of our food is ordered ahead online these days, but I complete at least one supermarket shop each week – and like to see what’s available in different retailers in case I need to adjust any recipes accordingly.
Appliances and equipment
Not surprisingly, the Test Kitchen is very well equipped to cope with the huge number of recipes.
We have, 5 ovens, 4 fridges, 3 freezers, 3 stand mixers, 3 food processors, 3 blenders, dozens of mixing bowls, cake tins and pans in all different sizes. Three sinks and a super-quick dishwasher cope with the huge mountains of washing up that we create.
And everything is designed for a domestic kitchen, so we can be sure that the recipes here will work for you at home.
The Test Kitchen Garden
A lot of hard work goes into the maintenance of the Test Kitchen Garden and in the summer months it’s teaming with life…. courgettes, cabbage, kale, cauliflower, carrots, aubergine, spinach, rhubarb, blackcurrants, apples, gooseberries, rocket, runner beans and lettuce to name just a few; plus just about every herb. More recently, we’ve been under planting with colourful flowers such as dahlias and hydrangeas too.
