C U LT U R E
FOOD
THE FAR EAST CHEF
A Chinese upbringing inspired Lydia Downey – a chef tutor at Demuths Vegetarian Cookery School on Terrace Walk, Bath – to start cooking. Here she tells us about foodie superstitions and etiquette
PHOTO BY SAM SHORT AT SOUL MEDIA
I’m half Chinese and I love Eastern food... I teach these dishes in my classes at Demuths. Most of the tutors there have mixed backgrounds or have travelled extensively bringing a wide variety of food influences into our recipes.
We were the first pizza restaurant in Bath to open with a wood-fired oven… We feed the fire with wood from Lord Bath’s Longleat estate. Eating pizza in an authentic pizzeria is how friends enjoy evenings in Italy and this is what we aim to achieve here in Bath.
Above: Katherine Faraway delivers her Californian-style cakes to the city’s cafés in a pram; below: Lydia Downey teaches Far East foodie courses at Demuths Vegetarian Cookery School; opposite page, top to bottom: the owner of Yak Yeti Yak, Sera Gurung, used to be a jungle guide in Nepal; head chef Dani Vachum at Yum Yum Thai
Hailing from San Francisco, Katherine Faraway spends her days baking goodies at her home in Camden for businesses including The Foodie Bugle on Abbey Street. Here she tells us more I grew up near San Francisco which has a long tradition of sourdough bread-baking dating back to the California Gold Rush… I started making my own sourdough in the early 90s; my current starter is four years old. One of my inspirations is my mother who’s a fantastic baker; we always had homemade cookies, cakes, brownies and bread in our house. I bake in my home and deliver them to The Foodie Bugle tearoom in a pram… Half the things I bake in Bath are American recipes – think snickerdoodles, and treacle ginger, peanut butter, and chocolate chip cookies. If a Victoria Sponge is classically English, the American equivalent is a 1-2-3-4 cake… It’s like the Victoria Sponge but it’s filled with icing instead of jam. And Devil’s Food cake, a rich chocolate layer cake, is beloved by Americans. 30 I BATH LIFE I www.mediaclash.co.uk
www.demuths.co.uk
THE THAI TRAVELLER
Lee Centamore runs Yum Yum Thai on Kingsmead Square, Bath, with his wife Sunan. Here he tells us why living in Thailand inspired him to bring the flavours back to the UK
www.joyarestaurant.co.uk and www.realitalianpizza.co.uk
THE CALIFORNIAN BAKER
As for authentic customs and etiquette… Chinese people will welcome you by offering you food, and refusing this is considered rude. Etiquette is important, too – you only take food from the part of the plate right in front of you, even if you desperately want something on the other side. Even the way you place your chopsticks is important as pointing them in the wrong direction can offend.
CHINESE PEOPLE CAN BE VERY
SUPERSTITIOUS. THE NUMBER FOUR IS EXTREMELY UNLUCKY, SO YOU SHOULD
NEVER SERVE PORTIONS IN FOURS
PHOTO BY ROB WICKS OF EAT PICTURES
Taste ‘Southern Italian’ at Joya, and woodfired pizza at The Real Italian Pizza Co… It’s the type that’s enjoyed all over Italy rather than the Naples-style pizza. Many of the staff members are my extended family.
Chinese people can be very superstitious... In China, ‘longevity’ noodles are made especially long for ‘long life’, dim sum dumplings may be shaped like money bags to symbolise wealth, and oranges are lucky because their colour symbolises gold. The number four is extremely unlucky as it signifies death, so you should never serve portions in fours, whereas the number eight is very lucky.