Wolverhampton Vegan Festival - Part 2

Yesterday I wrote about the goodies we had bought at the Wolverhampton Vegan Festival and today I'm going to tell you about the cookery class we attended and meeting Vanessa of Essential Vegan.

After buying our lunch from Rainforest Kitchen we went and sat down to watch a cookery class entitled Tofu Masterclass with Vanessa Almeida of Essential Vegan.

Vanessa shared her tips by cooking two different dishes which included '"mouth-watering mince meat made from defrosted tofu" and "marinated tofu steak". My friend and I had front row seats and we watched Vanessa transform a block of tofu into two healthy vegan meals.

Unfortunately the set up wasn't high tech and it needed Vanessa's husband, Neni, to follow her around with a microphone so we could hear what she said. 

Vanessa didn't let this bother her though and even threw in a few jokes about it. It must be hard to show an audience how to cook when you are not in your own kitchen. Especially when the cooking rings don't get as hot as you would like them too.

Is it 'PA-prick-a' or 'pa-preeka'? 

Vanessa, encouraged the audience to ask questions throughout her show . . . . . .

. . . . . and gave tips

Even when the microphone stopped working, Vanessa carried on with the show................

Vanessa was disappointed not to hear a bigger sizzle when she tipped the tofu mince into a pan.

The show was a success, even with the technical hitches, both Vanessa and Neni did well.

The audience got to try the two recipes Vanessa created, both from her new cookbook "essential vegan". I enjoyed the tofu steak and I make something very similar myself at home as I guess most vegans do. There was however many non-vegans in the audience who loved this dish as there was a lot of 'oo-ing' and 'ah-ing' going on.  I wasn't that overwhelmed by the tofu mince though, but maybe that's because the dish had pineapple in. I'm not a fan of fruit in savoury meals at all, although my friend is, and she thought the dish would stand up to a few different fruits.

After the show we got chatting to Vanessa, who is lovely, and she signed her recipe book, which we had bought at the show, of which £2 goes to animal equality. I asked Vanessa if I could publish the photo's I had taken on my blog and she kindly agreed. She also asked if I would review some of her recipes and give her some feedback, so watch this space over the next few weeks. I wish Vanessa every success with her beautifully designed recipe book and please take a look over at her website, where you can buy a copy of her book.