Pages

Friday, November 23, 2012

Fresh Flavours with Anna Olson @ KL

Anna Olson is definitely one of my favorite chefs to watch on Asian Food Channel. I was so happy when I got the chance to meet her in person yesterday during her cooking demo in Berjaya University College of Hospitality - she is so witty and charming. This Canadian celebrity chef is in Malaysia from 22 to 23 November 2012 as part of her "Fresh Flavours with Anna Olson" tour. 




Anna Olson is a professionally trained pastry chef with over fifteen years of experience in the culinary field. She shares her talents with the world through award-winning cookbooks, opening culinary businesses and starring in television shows such as Bake with Anna Olson, Sugar and Fresh with Anna Olson, all of which air on the Asian Food Channel. Bake with Anna Olson recently premiered on Asian Food Channel on 16 October 2012 at 9pm.

She began her career as a pastry chef at a premier winery restaurant located in the midst of prime Niagara farm and wine country named, ‘Inn on the Twenty’. It was here where she met her husband, Michael Olson.

Anna has also published several successful cookbooks. Currently, she has six cookbook publications under her belt, with her most recent release titled, Fresh with Anna Olson. Using food as her creative medium, Anna likes to work backwards, starting with ingredients that sound delicious to create components within the recipe body to get a delicious end result.




Will Quah, MC for the afternoon


During the cooking demo, Chef Anna shows us how to make two dishes - a savoury tourtière and a sweet pumpkin creme brulee tart. Tourtière is a French-Canadian classic dish originating from Quebec, commonly served during Christmas time, and is usually made with ground veal, beef or pork. It is quite similar to the British's steak and kidney pie, however the addition of all spice powder is what makes it unique.

Chef Anna Olson with her tourtière


Next, she showed us how to make pumpkin creme brulee tarts, which will be perfect for Thanksgiving. She makes a Pate Sablee dough and pours over a creamy filling of pumpkin puree, cream cheese and egg yolks. A tip she gave us to make the dough more delicate and tender is to add a hard boiled egg yolk when making the dough. The tarts were really delicious. I think I will attempt this at home next week when I have time, I think my family will like it very much since they love pumpkin.



Chef Anna Olson with her two delectable bakes

Tourtière


Mini tourtière samplers - with the letter "A" for Anna - how cute!


Pumpkin creme brulee tarts



A photo with "poster" Anna 

And ooooh, a photo with Anna Olson herself :)

 And a photo with Eunice :) Love the tiramisu background - definitely apt for us foodies!

Will share the recipes for both the tourtière and pumpkin creme brulee tarts soon.

Thanks to AGC and Asian Food Channel for the invite and giving me the chance to meet the wonderful Anna Olson in person.

30 comments:

  1. Yen, you are super fast! It was great seeing you and yours this afternoon. We must go makan again someday soon.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. See you again next week! Catch up more then :)

      Delete
  2. SHO FAST!! I DONT EVEN HAVE TIME TO SLEEP LATELY...;P
    U look stunningly pretty today btw.~ ^^

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Aiyoyo, you shouldn't neglect your sleep. Anyway it was nice meeting you yesterday too, both you and your mummy look pretty and young :)

      Delete
  3. She's so pretty...not like on TV. LOL!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I like her and her cooking... simple and easy to make... I m sure delicious as well! I would love to have her Pumpkin Creme Brulee recipe pls... cos I love pumpkin pies..

    I agree with Eunice.. I think you & Eunice looked really pretty in the picture :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah I love watching her shows too, they are always interesting. I learnt quite a few things just by watching her cooking demo yesterday too.

      I will share the recipe for the pumpkin creme brulee soon, am gona try and attempt it.

      And also THX for the compliment :)

      Delete
  5. That is what I love to go if I have the time.. all these drooling sumptuous food!! :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Replies
    1. Looks like she's very lovable and popular in Malaysia!

      Delete
  7. One of the reasons I glue to AFC is to watch her show.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yah, I like to watch her shows too, very entertaining.

      Delete
  8. Pumpkin creme brulee tarts sound good! :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Ahh...so nice to meet her in person. I only met her on Astro... :-p
    Last time she only do desserts...now she masak masak as well... ^^

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah happy that I got the chance to meet her in person! And take photo with her too :)

      Delete
  10. pumpkin creme brulee tarts! a creative recipe that's perfect for this thanksgiving week! :D

    ReplyDelete
  11. I like to watch her show too. You are lucky to be able to see her in person.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yea, I enjoyed her cooking demo very much. She's so witty and makes us all laugh!

      Delete
  12. Adding hard boiled egg yolk to the pastry base is something I've never heard of, but definitely willing to try! Been wanting to see a Creme Brulee tart's recipe for ages, can't wait for your next post!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Must be exciting to be able to meet up with your fav chef in person! I like the pumpkin creme brulee tart!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Hi Yen, it must be a really exciting and fruitful experience. Envy you all - attending such events and eating and tasting good food every other day!

    ReplyDelete
  15. I love watching Anna Olson's cooking and baking shows! I'm a fan of hers too, how cool to be able to meet her in person! Her books are pretty expensive! Would love to get one of her books, I am eyeing "Back To Baking" for quite sometime now!

    ReplyDelete

Please drop any comments or questions you may have here. Thank you so much for reading!