Friday’s. They really creep up on us, don’t they? We ain’t complainin’ though… 😉

Although New Year celebrations feel like an absolute eternity ago, January seems to be speeding past! Last week we threw a mighty fine selection of classes for you lot to feast your tummies on and this week we’ve done the exact same. From Macaron to Mexican we’ve got you covered. It’s also National Popcorn Day today and in case you guys didn’t already know, we have a dreamy Salted Toffee Popcorn Recipe on the blog. When we say dreamy, we mean dreamy…😍 Crunchy little kernels of luxuriously sweet and buttery HEAVEN! What else could you possibly want on a Friday evening? Maybe a glass of vino perhaps…

Monday was officially #BlueMonday 😖 It’s supposedly the most depressing day of the year. Meh, we don’t do depressing, so although the weather was far from blue, we kick-started the week in the right way…  with hot tea! We had the lovely Dan from Putney Social pop in for a cuppa and chat about some exciting meet-up ideas to lighten the mood. It worked! ☕️ Keep an eye out on their Facebook page this year as we may be announcing an exciting little get-together, Avenue style! Our classes are listed on their handy little online calendar, so if you’ve got a minute, check it out. With it being #BlueMonday we wanted to do everything we possibly could to turn those frowns, upside down. ☺️ So, to help those blues, we posted a fab little recipe on the blog courtesy of Eloise, our new Clean Eats chef! We met up with Eloise last week to discuss the class in more depth and find out where her love for food began. 💕 You can read all about it in our recent blog post where our 10 min interview is shared alongside the delicious and extremely moreish recipe, Choco-Chia Pud Pots.  They are to die for 😍

We’d really been looking forward to Tuesday as it meant our favourite Macaron Class would commence! The boozy bonanza started at 7 pm so we had the majority of the day to prepare our sweet tooth. It was a busy one, so we needed to be sure we were on top Macaron stealing form. Only kidding… leftovers will do, I guess. Talking of leftovers, we had Umbrella Training in the Kitchen on Tuesday whipping up some pie ‘n pasties. Lunch = sorted. Pwopa hearty food to help us battle classic English weather! Thanks, guys! Although temperatures were pretty low, morale was high and the winter sun was beginning to creep through. After a long day twiddling our thumbs waiting for 7 pm, the sun went down and the kitchen began to fill with eager attendees. Rich taught everyone the tricks of the trade and the team created some gorgeous looking Macarons! Pink, yellow, green to multi-coloured, they looked and tasted absolutely divine. A lovely evening with lovely company, cheers! 🍸

We waved hello to Wednesday with not a Macaron in site – too good to share I expect 😢! Although still a bit nippy, the sun was out and we were more than happy to see her. We were busy little bees the majority of Wednesday organising more Sushi Demos with WeWork! We threw a mini desktop Sushi Demo at Aldgate East WeWork last year and from word of mouth plus high demand, we’ve decided to organise a few more! For those of you that haven’t tried Rich’s infamous Sushi rolls… sucks to be you. Although, you can always book onto one of our Sushi Workshops I guess – not to mention our Sushi in The City Class! On Wednesday we had our new and popular Dinner-in-a-Dash Class! The class began at 7pm sharp and the menu was quick, easy and divine. We had our favourite and long-term photographer, Niki, come in to take some gorg snaps. It was a great evening.  Thanks, Niki!

Thursday was an exciting day for us! We met with Will, a representative of Vegan Food and Living Magazine and chatted about some great ways we can potentially work together and introduce more of the Vegan community to The Avenue this year! If you don’t know who they are, check them out! Will kindly gave us some mags to browse through and some of the recipes in this months issue are truly to die for! Of course, we treated Will to some of our signature brownies in return. They went down an absolute treat, and not just for Will! Cheers Diana! 😙 Once again, working at a cookery school has it #Perks. Especially at The Avenue! Why not check out one of our very own Vegan Recipes? Whether you’re a Vegan yourself or just fancy trying something a little different, we’ve got a great selection. One of which is our fab Chilli and Guacamole Recipe! Give it a go and let us know how you get on. Speaking of Guac, that brings us on to today… Friday baby!

Yasssss it’s the weekend! This evening we’re hosting our Mexican Street Food Cooking Class! Everything is set and we are raring to go. Once again the menu is a showstopper! Fish Tacos, Chicken Burritos, Pico de Gallo and Churros. We’ll give you a min to take that all in.

Ok ok, the minute is over guys. Digest the food envy and keep reading as we still have more to tell you.

With tonight’s class set and ready to rock’n’roll, let’s talk about this weekend! Just to make Friday a little more special, Clarence Court arrived on our doorstep! Beautiful. These eggs are just waiting to be cracked! Sunday Brunch Club anyone? That’s right people. Brunch club is back and it’s completely booked up! DON’T PANIC! 25th of Feb is our next brilliantly brunch date, so be quick to book as it’s a popular one. PANIC BACK ON 😱Tomorrow we have bride-to-be Phoebe in for her Hen Party! They’ll be cookin’ up some yummy Butternut Squash and Thyme Ravioli. Jealous! If you fancy booking a Hen party with us, get in touch! As you know, we throw one hell of a party.

So hey, what a week. Ladies and gents, we’d just like remind you all that Valentine’s day is only around the corner! Whether it’s your best pal, Mum or Dad or significant other, come and spend the evening drinking and dining with us! 🙋🏼 We’ve gone all out this year and have a spectacular selection of Valentines Classes for you to choose from, whether for Valentine’s evening or the weekend after. Including a couple of Vegan Classes and our Cooking with Cupid in The City!

As promised, here are a few extraordinary pics Soph and Shanga took at the Fat Duck last weekend. With an Avenue Touch…

Hope you aren’t too jealous of all our food antics – come join us for some of them when you can!

Have a lovely weekend everyone and we’ll speak next week!

Lots of love,

The Avenue x