Bali - Cooking with Heinz

Cookery classes have been some of the highlights of our South East Asian travels and today’s course with Heinz Von Holzen at Bumbu Bali definitely lived up to our expectations.

We started our course with a stop at the local market, where Heinz very clearly introduced local fruit, rice and other produce as well as the important role of the market in daily Indonesian life.All of this was explained over a delicious cup of coffee, typical Balinese breakfast foods and lots of quick fire questions which introduced us to the theme of the day: questioning what you know about food and challenging yourself to do things better in the kitchen.

After a tour of the market looking at freshly slaughtered meat (still warm!) and freshly picked veg, we headed off to the fish market, where Heinz explained that the overfishing of the waters in Jimbaran Bay has led to a huge shortage of fish. The fish is therefore caught elsewhere then transported in water and ice (with a touch of formaldehyde to keep it looking fresh!). The fish was a pretty sorry sight and nowhere near as organised as what we had seen in Tokyo.

After a fantastic breakfast at Bumbu Bali, we started cooking. It was an incredible experience to watch experts at work in the kitchen and although there was to be no hands on prep work for us, it was clear that behind the scenes, lots of people were working hard to make our experience magical.

As in most South East Asian cuisine, spice paste is the key so we all enjoyed creating and watching each other blend the individual components together to create a harmonious spicy delight.

Then it was time to create over 20 dishes before sitting down and eating! There were so many wonderful dishes that it is hard to pick a few stand out ones. 

I particularly enjoyed the sate skewers. The marinated fish, chicken pork and beef needed no peanut sauce, delicious with just their own marinade.  The chicken cooked two ways was so juicy, flavoursome and very Moreish! Another exceptional dish was a simple combination of corn, coconut, salt and sugar drizzled with coconut cream. Anthony really liked the sweet soy sauce pork, a sticky sweet tangy concoction that reminded us of dishes in Japan and of course the fragrant yellow rice.

Reading though my notes, it is hard to sum up the experience and explain how much I have enjoyed today. I feel as though I met someone who really gave me a push on my foodie journey, forcing me to think carefully about what I buy at home and to reconsider some of my previous ideas about food. I never would have believed that battered bananas put into cold oil would be so crisp and not oily when cooked! Heinz was a colourful character who kept us all on our toes by demanding answers to his questions, yet ready to answer any questions and constantly flagging up his food heroes (Harold Mcgee and Heston Blumenthal) and , after today’s experience, I am off to Amazon to order their books.