Here we go with the Chocolate Pizza recipe:

CHOCOLATE BRIOCHE:
300g Strong Flour
15g Yeast, fresh
30g Sugar, white
6g Salt
3 Eggs, free range, large
135g Butter, unsalted, soft
20g Cocoa Powder

TOPPING:
2 Bananas, chopped
150g Pecans, chopped
150g Brown sugar, soft
100g Butter, unsalted, cut into cubes
15g cocoa powder
200ml Double cream
200g milk chocolate, droplets or small pieces
200g dark chocolate, droplets or small pieces

For the Brioche:
Mix all the ingredients except Butter in small machine with dough hook for 5 minutes on low speed
Add Butter, mix with higher speed until sides of bowl become clean and no dough sticks anymore
This can be done obviously by hand with initially a softer kneading and then with more force to get the same smooth, non sticking dough

For the Topping:
Roll out the dough to a round base, let this base now rest for 30 minutes covered loosely with Clingfilm by room temperature.
Sprinkle with cocoa, then sugar and then the butter
Top with the chopped bananas or slices if you prefer
Bake at 200 C for 15 minutes
Remove from oven, sprinkle with nuts and drizzle with double cream. Bake again for 5 minutes.
Sprinkle now with the chocolate droplets or pieces and just quickly melt them in the oven for another 2 min.
Serve still slightly warm

On May 31 we have the Chocolate Masterclass with …Melt… followed by Chocolate Martini making with our bartender Joel. Dont miss it and book your space now!

JUNE HIGHLIGHTS

June 6 / 11.30 - 2.00pm: Antiques Road Show’s John C. Benjamin is an independent jewelery ad visor, valuer and lecturer specializing in the renaissance, 18th and 19th century periods. He’ll be giving a talk on diamonds, which will then be followed by light lunch. For those interested, a complimentary John will also be giving complementary jewellery valuations. (RESERVATION ONLY)

June 14 /3pm: Artisianal Bread making with our house baker. £15.00

June 20 / 12.00 - 2.30pm: Wonderfoods - rainbow on your plate with Natalie Savona, the Kitchen Shrink. Natalie is one of Britain’s foremost nutritionists with a strong presence across all media as an author, columnist in Cosmopolitan, television presenter and regularly-quoted expert in the national press. And this one is about how to get the perfect healthy yet tasty combination on the plate.

Reservations are required for all events.

For those of you who are still reeling from Hugh Grant’s recent bean salad-toss-tantrum towards a photographer outside his Chelsea home - may you gain some solice from the rumor that HG’s weapon of choice just may have come from one of his favorite local suppliers…Luigi’s Delicatessen.

Luigi’s one-stop shop has been open for business and serving the local community of Chelsea for the past 34 years - offering fresh cheeses, pastas and sauces of every type and brand, the finest of olive oils from Italy and Spain, and an extensive wine selection (90% of their products are imported from Italy - the remaining 10% are Spanish delicacies).

Whether you are entertaining last minute - or simply cannot decide what to feed your family for din-din, Luigi’s offers an outstanding selection of dishes cooked on the premises by a friendly staff who somehow seem to know all their customers by name.

Luigi’s daily specials are a revolving variation of: homemade lasagna, risottos, roasted and stuffed chickens, meatballs, and soups. Each dish du jour is determined by the fresh produce of that season, and is accompanied by a robust salad and vegetables. Note…Luigi’s regular customers claim the Gazpacho is “world class!”

Here’s a tip - want to prepare a quick meal but make it look like you slaved the entire afternoon? Try Luigi’s breaded veal Milanese. Simply fry each patty on both sides in a little olive oil, served on a bed of rucola salad and a wedge of fresh lemon, and viola!!

For me, what sets Luigi’s apart from other delicatessens is its old world charm. The friendly service and clientele chitchat in their native tongue (Italian, Spanish or Portuguese) is just the icing on the cake.

So, next time you dread slogging your bum to the local M&S for another qwikie dinner fix and are feelin’ like a little Italiano, wend your way to Fulham Road and try one of Luigi’s daily offerings and tell Hugh I’ve been meaning to get back to him - then DUCK!!

Sarah Siese is celebrating the launch of her second book “Heaven on Earth KIDS” at Cookbook Cafe on Tuesday 8th May 2007

Following the success of Heaven on Earth, A calendar guide to hotels around the world, Sarah Siese is launching the second in the series: Heaven on Earth Kids!

Looking for the perfect family holiday is seldom an easy task, which is why this definitive guide to what’s on offer for children in hotels around the world is set to be another bestseller.

Parents want luxury, the kids want fun. But there’s no longer any need to ’surrender’ a week for your kids; you just need to know where to choose. A unique compilation of children friendly hotels, “Heaven on Earth Kids” features 70 tried and tested hotels in 40 countries around the world (for any time of year), packed with detailed descriptions of all the activities, menus, clubs and general comments on the ‘happiness factor’ as reported by the author’s children.

Sarah Siese is married with three daughters, aged 11, 9 and 7. After graduating from Westminster College London in Hotel Management, Sarah has had a varied career that has included working in a French hotel, time in the city as a management consultant, and becoming an accredited life coach! Today, she is MD of St. Christopher’s Publishing, a boutique publishing house with the Heaven on Earth series and other titles to follow next year, and writes regularly for various magazines and Guardian on-line.

What a great tool, Yahoo has added (since quite a while) a platform where events of whichever nature can be shared, so if you want to start a local group of some sort of activists, or start a neighborhood meet up group, or see what’s happening at Cookbook Cafe, “upcoming” is the answer…I will put all future events on to upcoming and you can find it here http://upcoming.yahoo.com/

Hi everyone. Here’s a list of some of the events which are coming up this month at Cookbook Cafe. Drop us an email if you’d like to join or give Roberto and his team a buzz. If times and dates don’t suit you, let us know and we can create something tailored just for you and your friends.

MAY HIGHLIGHTS
May 11 & 12: Some of our chefs are out to Henley for a food festival. If you are nearby, taste Chef Michel’s slow cooked Shepherds Pie with Espuma of potatoes…an interesting combination of texture and flavours.

May 22 / 12.00 - 2.30pm / £15.00: Once more we are doing the Austrian classic, world famous Wiener Schnitzel. Pop in for a bite anytime between 12:00 and 2.30 pm, and we will show you the secrets to making the crispiest and tastiest Wiener Schnitzel. (For those who don’t know, a Wiener Schnitzle is a thinly pounded veal escallop, bread crumbed and pan fried in butter until crispy and golden brown)

May 31 / 06.30pm / £20.00: Chocolate Master Class with Keith Hurdman from …Melt… in Notting Hill. Starts at 06.30 pm and will last about 60-90 minutes. It includes, of course, a few glasses of bubbles upon arrival to get you all relaxed and chilled out. Keith will do an intro on what chocolate is all about, where it’s from, and we can then taste some different origin chocolates. After that, its all hands on deck as everyone will have a chance to fill, roll and prepare their own truffle chocolates which will go in a souvenir box to take home. To finish off the evening, Joel, our Bartender, will be doing a Master Class on his specialized Chocolate Martini, which should end the night on a high! (I am not a great fan of Chocolate Martinis, but this one is just so yummy - it’s a must know for any party)
JUNE HIGHLIGHTS

June 6 / 11.30 - 2.00pm: Antiques Road Show’s John C. Benjamin is an independent jewellery ad visor, valuer and lecturer specializing in the renaissance, 18th and 19th century periods. He’ll be giving a talk on diamonds, which will then be followed by light lunch. For those interested, a complimentary John will also be giving complementary jewellery valuations. (RESERVATION ONLY)

June 20 / 12.00 - 2.30pm: Wonderfoods - rainbow on your plate with Natalie Savona, the Kitchen Shrink. Natalie is one of Britain’s foremost nutritionists with a strong presence across all media as an author, columnist in Cosmopolitan, television presenter and regularly-quoted expert in the national press. And this one is about how to get the perfect healthy yet tasty combination on the plate…

Make sure to book your space for the events!

…my fridge was in need of a major top-off, hence an extensive shopping day was on my list of things-to-do. I love Selfridges food hall as it is a one-stop shop for all your cooking needs! If you are anything like me and love to explore and expand your culinary skills, then Selfridges food hall is the place for you, where you are able to locate all those difficult continental ingredients you will never find in your local Sainsbury’s.

I decided on veal scaloppini for dinner with a lemon sauce. I pounded out the veal until it was paper thin, then pan fried it in a little butter and olive oil to give them a nice golden colour. The sauce for the veal was a lemon sauce prepared with un-waxed lemons and served with a side of fresh taglierini.

The secret lies in the sauce: the freshness, acidity and deep flavour of the lemons are in perfect harmony with the fresh made veal stock and cream sauce - light and balanced. To prepare the lemon sauce cut the lemons into wedges and remove the seeds, then pan-fry them in olive oil with a large piece of fresh new season garlic. Add a few sage leaves, a tiny sprig of rosemary, a pinch of salt, sugar and pepper. The lemons and juice will begin to caramelize forming a thick syrup-like liquid. Add a bit of water and simmer until the lemon rind is completely soft and ready to eat.

After the scaloppini are pan fried, set them aside in a baking dish, then deglaze the pan with some white wine. Reduce the heat and add the lemons, juice, veal stock, and a dash of cream. Finally, season with some chopped flat parsley. Spoon this mixture over the scaloppini and place the pan in the oven for a few minutes to allow the meat to absorb the flavors. Serve with fresh cooked taglierini or pappardelle (I suggest trying Cipriani’s pasta which is as close to home-made, if not better, and can be purchased at Luigi’s on Fulham Road. It costs about GBP4.50 a box but is worth every pence). Eat and enjoy this outstanding dish!

I have made this dish before but never with the slow cooked lemons and concentrated juice which really makes an incredible difference.