Working at Whipped Up is pretty fun, if you don’t mind me tooting my own horn about the little business I created. But by nature of the business, the team don’t get to see eachother face to face very often, which sucks because we actually enjoy eachothers company immensely!
We’ve always been fond of a team dinner or other social outing, but it took FAR too long for us to find a suitable commercial space to rent so we could do what we actually love doing together: cook for one another!
We booked the stunning kitchen at Relish Mama, in Cheltenham, and spent a rainy April morning sharing tips and tricks across a wide variety of dishes that we then sat down to share over a glass of water (alas, we all had clients to get to afterwards, so wine was off the menu!).
Attila had just been released from covid isolation, so he sat at the far end of the long table, just to keep us all that extra bit safe (we take covid VERY seriously here at Whipped Up!), but was definitely excited to eat something other than soup, which had been almost his entire diet for the last week.
Julia whipped up soft fried pork buns, which everyone was eager to have a go at rolling up. They were filled with pork mince and various Asian greens and we absolutely made the dough from scratch! Julia’s dumplings and fried buns are very popular among clients and I think you can totally tell why!
Speaking of doughs from scratch… Ines and I also showed up with dough-based recipes. Ines made empanadas, a delicate, savoury pastry from her homeland of Argentina – she whipped up two fillings, a chicken one and a cheesy corn one. The dough recipe Ines used was a vegan one she worked hard to create, as it’s very difficult to find a vegan empanada dough commercially available.
Pizza dough is a common request from clients, so I showed off my perfect at-home pizza dough recipe and topped it off with some pretty bougie ingredients – broccolini, lemon zest, chilli and basil! It was perfect for munching on while we finished off all of the other recipes.
Brooke is our most technically skilled chef, so I asked her to show everyone how to butcher and debone a chook. She did two. She spatchcocked one for her own recipe, adding a Middle Eastern dry rub and then roasting it before showing us how to break it down for serving. She also found time to whip up a few sides, including a delicious sumac yoghurt dip and a broadbean smash!
The second of Brooke’s chooks was handed off to Kat. This one was broken down entirely and cooked with pork belly for several hours with soy sauce, vinegar, bay leaves and peppercorns to become the national dish of the Phillipines: adobo. Kat’s adobo is legendary among clients and we were all so excited to finally get a taste – it did not disappoint!
At the end of all our hard work, we all sat down and enjoyed our feast before fighting over the leftovers to take home (but of course we did, we wouldn’t be true Whipped Up employees if we didn’t!)
It was a really special day in the kitchen and we have decided to make it a twice a year tradition, so watch this space as it will be all different staff who get to show off their skills at the next Whipped Up team cook off!
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