Bosch Cook Off with Ian Curley

Now we're cooking with gas.

That's a common saying you hear all the time, and it is very true. In the literal sense, you do need gas to cook your food, but technology is slowly changing. I was invited by Bosch Home Appliances to attend their cooking with chef Ian Curley at their Experience Centre. I'm an engineer by profession and really love appliances and technology so I was excited to attend. Also, knowing Ian Curley is one of the country's best chefs, I knew we'd be treated to some good food too.

Firstly, let me start with the experience centre. If you're into household appliances, in particular kitchen appliances, it's like heaven. All the latest and greatest appliances, shiny and enticing. I loved the in-built coffee machine. So sexy. There are also ovens, cooktop, fridges and rangehoods.

After the intro, we all split into groups to cook various dishes, using a different piece of equipment. Let me tempt you with the Paella that Kim, April and I cooked. Doesn't it look amazing? Yes? Well, all the credit goes to our chef who helped us and to Kim, who did all the work. April was pregnant so she sat down while I went about sampling food and having a drink. I didn't want to ruin the food with my bad cooking ya know haha. Anyway, our dish turned out really good, with the rice cooked just right and lots of sweet sweet seafood. We used an induction cooktop and it worked really well. The speed is very fast as there is direct heat transfer. One issue that we did have is if you splash water on it by accident, it stops as it loses the contact with the pan. You can wipe it off and the unit will start up again. It is super sexy to have induction cooktops as the slick black glass does make your kitchen look super streamline. The bosch staff did say that induction tops aren't the best for Asian cooking as you don't get that strong flame to give it that "wok breath" that Asian stir fries tend to require.

Ian cooked up some John Dory fillet using a standard gas flame burner and the fish were really good. Perfectly cooked with a really crispy skin. Served with a cauliflower puree and braised witlof, it was a great starting dish.

The best dish of the night for me was the Crab Linguini Pasta. The flavours were amazing. There weren't many ingredients but somehow the flavour was just so good. The pasta was made in a Bosch machine and then cooked over a gas burner. The pasta really had a great bite to it and it did look easy to make, but it helps to have a master chef helping out.

The Bosch ovens were used to make the Beef Wellingtons that we had. The ovens came in so many different configurations it'll take you 30 minutes to learn about them all. And learn I did as I'm really intrigued about them. The most interesting ones were the self cleaning pyrolytic ovens. Apparently they go up to 500C and burn off all the oils and you just have to wipe them down. That sounds good in theory but I need to see it before I convinced. The standard oven we used to bake the Beef Wellingtons worked well and the meat was nicely cooked with the brioche outer well cooked.

The last dish was a Trifle using a polenta cake cooked in the ovens. There was also ricotta and olive oil added. It sounds really weird but did taste good.

It was a really fun night and we got to try out a few Bosch appliances to cook and eat some delicious food. Overall I liked the appliances and do think they look great in any kitchen. Price wise, they do cost a bit more than your average brand I believe. It's worth checking out the Experience Centre if you're interested in anything as all the appliances work there and you can try them out yourself and ask the consultants any questions you have.

I attended the Bosch Cook Off courtesy of Bosch.