Ever fancied sitting down to dinner with renowned French chef Damien Pignolet? Perhaps in a little bistro on the banks of the Seine in Paris, listening to a little Edith Piaf, discussing whether you'll next head to the Cote d'Azur or Lyon. Or maybe that's just my pipe dream.
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So here's the next best thing. Purchase a recipe kit from Be Inspired: Food-Wine-Travel and enjoy a month's worth of bistro classics from Pignolet - just in time for Bastille Day on July 14.
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Roberta Muir is the founder of Be Inspired. She's always had a passion for sharing her love of food and travel. As well as co-authoring several cookbooks, including one of my all-time favourites, Wild Weed Pie with Janni Kyritsis, she ran the cooking school at the Sydney Fish Market for 25 years.
"I really loved meeting the passionate home cooks who attended our classes and helping to inspire their food and wine journey," says Muir.
"They'd often email me asking for recipe, restaurant or wine suggestions and tips on what and where to eat while travelling, so I started the website and weekly e-newsletter to share my food-fuelled experiences."
During COVID lockdown, the team at the seafood school started the SSS@home virtual cooking classes, delivering ingredients and recipes to inspire home cooks, often led by some of Australia's best chefs.
"In 2021, as our world started to return to normal, I realised what I love doing most is connecting passionate home cooks with these chefs and producers to inspire their culinary adventures," Muir said.
"I have the best fun cooking with my chef friends and, over the years I've learnt to translate their professional 'chef speak' into 'home cook speak'."
The kits include the ingredients and instructions (and fun extras such as links to Spotify playlists) for four generous two-course meals (for two, although if you need to feed more you can expand the quantities). At $296 for this kit, it equates to only $37pp for each two-course meal, representing extraordinary value.
In this French kit, meals include such classics as duck l'orange, tarte tatin, vichyssoise and crepes Suzette among others.
"Be Inspired makes it easy for home cooks to confidently experiment with new ingredients and cuisines in their own kitchens at their own pace, inspired by Australia's top chefs and producers," says Muir.
"I believe food is always a great way to experience other cultures, whether it's what we eat when we are travelling, reading about different cultures' foodways, cooking different cuisines at home, or visiting foreign restaurants in our home city," she says.
"I love the fact that our kits immerse our cooks in a different foreign cuisine each month, including all the background food, wine and travel info in our eMagazine - it's like a vicarious world tour!"
Orders close for the French kit on June 26 and can be delivered across the Canberra region and the Southern Highlands.
- For more information and orders, head to be-inspired-food-wine-travel.com
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