About Angela

Food writer, food consultant, broadcaster, and former chef to the rich and famous including Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, Angela Gray spent eight years globe trotting with her chef’s kit back in the 80s. She returned home to Wales and settled in Cardiff.

There she pursued a slightly different career in the media world. A degree in Food and Consumer Science together with her extensive knowledge of food formed the basis of what has become an amazing culinary adventure. Angela’s passion for food led to her presenting two cookery series for BBC Wales namely, Hot Stuff and More Hot Stuff, which took the viewing audience on a whistle stop cooks’ tour of Wales. A book followed named after the series, containing all the recipes and anecdotes from the programmes.

She also presented a series, Overnight Success, looking at the pros and cons of the hospitality business. Angela has been a live guest on UKTV Food Live, Flavours of Britain, UKTV Food Heroes with Gary Rhodes and Market Kitchen’s Great Adventure. For two years she presented a radio series on BBC Wales entitled My Life On A Plate, grilling guests like Kim Howells MP, Lowri Turner, Antonio Carluccio, Monty Don, Stephen Bull and John Humphries about what their life and heir favourite menu. Angela penned a second book The Welsh Cheese Book (Gomer Press) which is a celebration of the wonderful cheeses now available from Wales. This popular little book was recently updated and a second edition printed.

Angela also loves cooking in front of a live audience, and is a regular at many festivals around the UK. For the past 11 years she has organized the masterclasses at the Abergavenny food festival working with top chefs from all over the UK.

In summer 2009 Angela organized and managed the food elements for Wales At The Smithsonian Folklife Festival. 1.2 million visitors came to the Washington Mall where 130 participants from Wales shared a plethora of Welsh cultural elements from slate splitting to food.

The next chapter brings her back to Llanerch Vineyard, and in her words “It’s going to be fabulous!”. She is very excited about welcoming people into her world, she describes her venture here as a culmination of an exciting 30 year career. She looks forward to sharing her knowledge, skills and anecdotes, and promoting the art of cooking as a daily ritual, which she insists is achievable in 20 minutes!

More recently, Angela has been choosing finalists for culinary competitions on BBC1's The One Show.  We have had two episodes filmed at the Vineyard, where the finalists have fought it out to win the title of the Best Mince Pie and Best Trifle!  Angela has been joined on the judging panel by the Food Critic Jay Raynor and we look forward to welcoming him and the crew back for another competition in the New Year.

 

About Claudine Boulstridge

Angela is very pleased to welcome Claudine to the teaching team at the Cookery School.  Claudine has an Anglo-French background and trained as a professional chef at the renowned Leiths School of Food and Wine in London. Thereafter, she developed a successful career teaching and demonstrating a wide range of culinary styles and techniques at many cookery schools: LeithsSchool of Food and Wine, Divertimenti Cookery School and The Cookery School in Little PortlandStreet. Claudine also worked as a freelance chef for an exclusive London design company andprovided catering for private clients.  
 
Claudine has now settled in Wales, with her husband and young family, where she continues to teach at several cookery schools including The Bertinet Kitchen in Bath and she regularly returns to teach in London.  Claudine has for some time worked closely with a well known celebrity chef, creating and testing recipes for his cookery books and other media publications. She also creates recipes for a popular condiments brand, and works on a freelance basis for a foodconsultancy company.  She is currently in the process of writing her own cookery book.


About Jackie Palit

Connected by family to both Flintshire and Pembrokeshire, Jackie actually trained and qualified as a nurse in Liverpool. It was there that she met and married Arabinda Palit. During a year's placement in Nigeria, Jackie began to develop skills in cooking Bengali food from friends and their families.  Since 1973 Jackie and Arabinda have lived in Narbeth with their two daughters. Every year, however, there are lengthy visits to Kolkata which is where Jackie has learnt to create stunning regional Indian cuisine from relatives who trace their origins to East Bengal and are experts on Behgali food.
Jackie is a very versatile cook and has an excellant reputation for her East-West Cuisine catering business.  Recently Jackie has retired from the Narbeth Food Festival Committee of which she was a founder member. Much of the Festival's success can be attributed to her input and their loss is certainly the Cookery School's gain.
Jackie has worked closely with Pembrokeshire College where she has done lecturing, teaching and demonstrating.
Jackie's courses will include a mixture of typical Bengali dishes using recipes from family and friends from Kolkata with an emphasis on fish and vegetarian ingredients.
Her course on April 28th, will include Chola Dahl with Coconut and Ginger, Cauliflower, Potato and Peas, Fish With Mustard, Onion Rice, Vegetable Samosas and Cocktail Fish Fry wtih Mint and Coriander Chutney.
Her course on April 29th will include Masoor Dahl and Coriander, Cabbage with Shrimps, Chicken Malai, Pea Pilau, Sweet Potato and Onion Pakoras, Alu Dom and Luchi Bread.