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customs and Chinese health aspects and teach them simple but effective recipes that they can master at home quickly and easily. It’s also about giving people confidence in the kitchen - from preparing vegetables and making dim sum, to cooking up delicious, restaurant quality stir fries.’
to cook Sweet
Mandarin
On the day, our small but perfectly formed group covered all the essential basics of mandarin cooking, from soups and spring rolls, to making the perfect rice and noodles from scratch. We looked at core cooking techniques – including knife skills and even a little bit of wok flipping! – and then were pretty much straight into making traditional dishes like Chicken and Sweetcorn Soup, Firecracker ‘Kung Pao’ Chicken, Savoury Beef and Leek, and Stir Fried Vegetable Chow Mein. Lisa’s teaching style is friendly, engaging and very hands on, which is a great experience, especially if it’s your first time in a commercial kitchen and you’re a bit nervous! Between you and me, I’m not much of a cook - I don’t normally eat anything I can’t just boil, fry or shove on the grill/in the microwave - but I thoroughly enjoyed the course, as did Becky. We even went straight to a Chinese supermarket afterwards to buy all the ingredients we would need to recreate the dishes at home! I only hope they are as delicious when I make them as they were when I made them under Lisa’s expert tuition.
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f you’ve not been to Sweet Mandarin yet, you need to go. Tucked away on the Northern Quarter’s Copperas Street, this bijou little restaurant boasts some pretty big achievements. In 2009, their generations of customers voted them Gordon Ramsey’s ‘The F Word’ Best Local Chinese Restaurant in the UK, out of 10,000 competing restaurants. Sweet Mandarin is also the only Chinese restaurant in the UK to have been awarded an AA Rosette in
So what’s next for Sweet Mandarin? ‘There’s no point being in this industry if you don’t want to constantly strive to outdo yourself,’ says Lisa, ‘You have to keep getting better. And if you love food, it’s easy! Our next big thing is going to be the new range of dipping sauces that we are hoping to get out into the supermarkets very soon. They are made to our own special recipe, and have loads of uses – they are perfect hot or cold, can be used as dips or marinades, anything! So watch this space for the Sweet Mandarin brand!’
2011. They are also currently working with cheeky TV chef Jamie Oliver to help him test his new range of Chinese cooking equipment.
If you would like to book a table at Sweet Mandarin or if you would like to take your place on one of Lisa’s cookery courses, please call the restaurant direct on 0161 832 8848. Lessons are £100 each and you get to take home everything you make on the day. ‘To check the dates for the cookery school and the different programmes please visit http://www.sweetmandarin. com/school. Payment can be processed online and courses booked via email [please state your preferred date(s)]. Sweet Mandarin also provide Corporate Team Building events. You can find out more at the Sweet Mandarin website at www.sweetmandarin.com
Lisa Tse and sister Helen are third generation female Chinese restaurateurs, and learnt everything they know from their grandmother, Lily, who was the first Chinese woman to open a restaurant in Middleton, Manchester. Their focus is very much on traditional Chinese cooking - classic dishes with emphasis on flavour and freshness. They pride themselves on providing good service, a friendly, relaxing ambience, and most of all, good food. In fact, Lisa and Helen love their art so much that when they first opened Sweet Mandarin seven years ago, they even began running cookery classes for local schools and the classes became so popular that it wasn’t long before they were asked to run adult courses too. So myself and fellow Viva girl, Becky Legon, headed down to sample the Beginner’s Mandarin Cookery class to see what all the fuss was about.
Kung Hei Fat Choi (Happy Chinese New Year- wishing you a healthy and prosperous Year of the Dragon!) ‘ ■
‘People really enjoy our classes,’ says Lisa. ‘We only have 6-8 students per class, so it’s a fun, informal approach but filled with tips and step-by-step learning techniques. Our aim is to give all our students a solid foundation in Chinese cookery, Chinese
words: Ann Richardson
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