Lorraine Pascale has just appeared on UK TV with a stunningly good programme about baking.
After several years in the modelling business, Lorraine Pascale decided to look for a new passion and enrolled to study for the year-long Leith’s Diploma of Food and Wine.
Lorraine then did a two-year foundation degree in International Culinary Arts in Pastry and worked in some of the most renowned kitchens in the world, including Petrus, The Mandarin Oriental, Gilgamesh and The Wolseley, later starting her own business making celebration cakes. Lorraine’s first TV series is BBC Two’s Baking Made Easy.
It's hard to ignore that as an ex-model she is stunningly good looking but what is so unusual is that her approach to baking simplifies and makes excellent results possible very simply. She is an experimenter and simplifier. The programme is well engineered so it actually instructs, debunks and simplifies. There hasn't been a programme yet where I have said "I can do that" and have got up and "done it". Yesterday she made a swiss roll without butter (has to be eaten straight away) and included new tips for me like adding a tablespoon of water to stop the sponge mix cracking when you fold it. Never heard the tip before ...... but it works. Many new tips included in each new idea.
Yesterday she also made some focaccia which I thought was "faulty" as it only had a single rise ie no proving. I thought they'd made a mistake as no reference was made to this only having a single rise. I checked with the web site above. No mention. I tried it. My wife said it was the best she had tasted. So from getting the flour out of the cupboard to eating it with some chicken liver pate was around 2 hours and it was perfect.
Highly recommend it.