Abu Dhabi: Day 2 Cooking Demonstrations

I began the day with 2 seperate kids cooking sessions. The first was a group of elementary schools students from the German School here in Abu Dhabi. The second was a group of children who are home schooled. Despite the fact that their ages ranged from 6-10, they were extremely enthusiastic and excited.  I used the opportunity to highlight some recipes from Calabria, Italy (my ancestral homeland) from my latest book, The Mediterranean Diabetes Cookbook. The kids and I made Calabrian Sesame Cookies, Strawberry Mascarpone Parfaits, Penne alla Norma and Peaches in Basil Yogurt Cream. Check out my Facebook page for a video.

Here I am with Valentin - the 10 year old author of Cooking is Cool, along with Chef Khaldoon and Asian culinary expert Mazher.

In the evening I had an adults class, and as you can see from the photo above - there were still many young people present.  The local population is made up of a majority of young people- and it's great to see so many of them interested in food, cooking, and books.  In this class we made Corsican Prawns with Chickpea Cream and an Apple, Date, and Phyllo Strudel.  I had fun meeting people at the booksigning afterwards.  I would like to extend a huge thank you to everyone who came to my events - especially the journalists who agreed to interview me until way past bedtime!