Chef Amer, Chef Fatima Ghani and whole lotta stuff!

Salam and hi,

 Chef Amer was at The Dessert Table last week for a private class on Commercial Cookies on the 10th April. Yup! Cookies people. Ramadhan is coming soon followed by Eid ul Fitr or Hari Raya Aidil Fitri. So cookie making business women are busy looking for new hit recipes to use for this coming festive season. I uploaded some photos from our recent class.  As usual the class was a havoc!

Looking intently at our notes. Chef told us we should draw the cookie shapes on the top side of our recipe note. hahahaha... because nobody did and were soon asking him, Chef, bentuk ni biskut apa? LOL! Dah kena leter...

Choco Oaties, addictive! A definite hit with kids and adults alike!

Haippp!! Hot from the oven... MasyaAllah..if only you could smell the delicious aroma from TDT..

Chef's assistant yg sangat rajin tuh..

Can't remember the name but absolutely delicious

Hahahaha...lost somewhere in those commotion..so taking a breather on the mixer..

Hot from the oven

Tandanya sedap coz kids don't lie...

Next month, on 5-6th May, I've invited Chef Amer again to be with us. This time for basic class in Cake Baking & Cake Decorating 5-6 May. Details are provided in the poster below. Make sure you don't miss this class as it's gonna be loaded with delicious cakes and fun stuff. And Chef Amer is so NOT stingy with tips and lessons learnt. Call me soon as you read this  coz places are limited.  

AND my mentor Chef Fatimah Ghani from Melbourne is going to drop by TDT on her way to London. And she's offering to do a 2-Day Intensive workshop with us..wohohohohoho! Definitely worth your money people!! Sign -up if you know what's good for you. She is one of the very few people I turn to for advise..And she gave me loads of good advise ok. I won't be doing what I'm doing now without encouragement from her.. So if you're looking for an advise on directions in your baking life, talk to her (Chef, don't marah me if your phone rang off the hook after this heheh).

Chef Fatimah was Malaysia's first cake decorator and was already doing sugarpaste decorating when others were still dablling in buttercream in the 80s and I was still wiping runny nose heheh...She appeared in several TV shows and magazine during those days. She also won several awards in Cake Decorating on the International scene, mainly in Australia, UK and Malaysia. I knew her when I went for Basic Cake Deco course at Taylor's College few years back and was soon begging her for private class. After 3 months of non-stop calls and emails, she relented :-) and so my serious journey into baking & decorating began. After that she left Taylors College and went to join her kids in Melbourne and taught pastries and cakes at a local Uni there. Late last year, December I think, she was summoned by the King of Swaziland to His Royal Palace to teach the Chefs there how to make delicious cakes and pastries, fit for a King (no pun intended).

Call me soon as you see this too! To good a chance to be missed. 013-3554399 today!

Chef Fatima's competition entry

Also, our Food Styling & Food Photography Class on the 28th April, we still have some seats left. Please do not let this wonderful class go by. Make the right decisions and come to all our wonderful class. Call me now, 013-355 4399.

Till I see you again, be good.

Love,
Farida Ismail

March 2012 Schedule

BASIC FOOD STYLING & FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP 4TH FEB 2012

Salam & Hi,

Our 2nd Basic Food Styling & Food Photography class on the 4th Feb was fabulous! The class was 80% hands-on and the rest are theories done briefly while exploring the functions of the participants DSLRs. I totally liked the format Pak Uda!

Thank you so much to Chef Ali Mohamad Nor (or better known as Pak Uda Ali among his many students) from Food'O'graphy for coming back again to teach this fantastic and informative class to us.

Another shot of the Blueberry Tart while doing the food styling prep

Pak Uda Ali guided the students through understanding their DSLRs. Some never ventured out of the Auto program button. After this no one should touch that button ever again okay!

Yani of Kitchen Guardian. Perfect pose for TDT's next class flyer.  Also thanks for helping with the prep a bit Yani! and as usual your macs are fantabulous and dangerous! I had it for breakfast laaaa...

The participants discussing among themselves. I wonder what it could've been :)...

Blueberry Tartlets Shot

Mini Cheesecake Shot! I forgot to put some cream on top, it would've looked ever better !

More photos and reviews on www.alimohamadnor.blogspot.com or google FOOD'O'GRAPHY.

Thanks to all that came for the class - Yani, Chef Amer, Diana, Eshah, Sham, Sheriza, Cikmin who came all the way from Bentong, Elizabeth - the travel photographer, Marliya and her daughter Ainaa - who bought another camera to come for the class. Wonderful and gorgeous people! It was wonderful meeting all of you. Hope you'll come back for more of our classes and workshops in the future ya...

Next class Update 18th FEB 2012 : 

Our Chocolate class will be replaced with Commercial Chocolate cakes Class also by Chef Amer. MARK the DATE ok!

PLEASE CHECK THE SMALL BOX ON THE TOP LEFT SIDE OF THIS BLOG FOR MORE INFO ON THIS EXCITING WORKSHOP.


Till then, take care...

Farida Ismail
The Dessert Table

HIGHLIGHTS OF CLASSES & WORKSHOPS IN JAN/FEB 2012

Salam &Hi,

We have lined up pretty exciting classes&  workshops for Jan & Feb 2012 at THE DESSERT TABLE. If you are interested in any of the classes please do not hesitate to call/sms me at 013-355 4399 or email me at farida71@yahoo.com for more details.

BASIC BLOGGING WORKSHOP - 11th Feb 2012

Date : 11th February 2012
Time : 9am - 4pm
Fees : RM380 (lunch not provided)
Requirements : Please bring your own laptop with broadbands in order to build the blogs on-site, guided by our instructor.

Details : Our Instructor will guide the participants through building their own blogs using the Wordpress engine. You'll learn the basics of blogging, graphical designs and a lot of other necessary skills for you to  have in order to optimize the usage and traffic into your blogs. More traffic means more business for you. So, why wait? REGISTER TODAY. We need a RM100 deposit to book your place. Only 10 participants for this workshop. Hurry!! 

FOOD STYLING & FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP - 4th Feb 2012

Table setting for the food photography

First batch of our Food Styling & Food Photography
Workshop with PAk Uda Ali

Our first workshop was a huge success. Now, due to popular demand, we are bringing this fantastic Workshop to you again. Make sure this time you register early...

Date : 4th Feb 2012
Time : 10am - 2pm
Fees : RM260 (lunch not provided)
Requirement : Please bring your own DSLR so you can manually set your camera setting to get the best shot for your photos.

Details : You'll be walked through the basics of food styling and its composition. Also the kind of props necessary for the shot to look professional. You'll also be taught on how to use your DSLRs especially to beginners who never use anything other than P or Auto. After this class, no more Auto mode okay...

DESSERT BAKING CLASSES

Personal/ private class
We have on-going Dessert Series Classes but if you would like to have a personal one-on-one or two to one with a friend, you are much welcome to enquire. Our Personal Class fee is RM180 per dessert with a minimum of 3 desserts perclass.

Group Classes
For a group of 3-5 pax, our Dessert Series Class will be RM150 per dessert with a minimum of 2 desserts per class.

OFFER
We'll be so happy if you would bring 4 of your friends with you to have classes with us that we are going to give you a DISCOUNT of 40% OFF your class fee! How about that? So apalagi, gather your friends and enjoy huge discounts off your class fees. But of course, this only applies to the ones who introduces okay...

Menus from our Dessert Class
* Pavlovas
* Red Velvet Cakes
* Carrot Cakes
* Fudgy Brownies
* Marbled Cheese & Chocolate Brownie
* Cakey Brownie with Marshmallow fluff toppings
* Hazelnut chocolate cake with Salted Caramel Cream top
* Blackforest Cakes
* Strawberry Cream Cake
* Moist Chocolate Cake
* Vanila Butter Cake with Italian Meringue Icing
* Chocolate Butter Cake with Chocolate toppings
More items will be added soon!

You can also order Desserts from the above menu. Call us for pricing!

We will also be adding Savoury Items like Chicken pies and whatnots to our class & order  menu soon!

Enjoy your weekend! Take care,

Farida Ismail

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2012!!

Assalamualaikum and a Big HAPPY NEW YEAR 2012 to you!!!

My oh my, how the days past us by. And it's already a brand new year today. 2011 had been good, very sweet for us and we're hoping and praying that 2012 has even more goodies in store for us.

How about you? I hope everything went well in 2011. Even if it didn't look too good, like I always tell my friends, someday, sometime from now, you'll be in a better place where you'll be saying the same thing I'm saying today - If the worst didn't happen, I won't be here, enjoying today. So I've learnt that nothing is bad or good, it's how you see it and go through it. So alhamdulillah for Allah's guidance.

Having said that, we've been busy closing the Year 2011 on a sweet note.

An Engagement cake for Hj Harun & Hjh Zah's daughter.

Engagement Cake

We also had our Dessert Class yesterday with Kella Zakaria. Hope you'll be making lots of these, Kella, and who knows where these sweet things might take you... We'll see you next month with other sweet things ok. For those who want to learn all these Dessert Cakes or Pastries, call 013-3554399 for inquiries or booking.

Our favorite Fudgy Brownie

Blueberry Pavlova

The Sexy Velvet

We told you something was going to happen on Wednesday yeah..

Well, we had Karangkraf shooting our pastries for their RASA Magazine ;)). They wanted 15 types of pastries themed Herbs & Spices to be featured for their March 2012 issue. So here are some them  photo that I manage to snap before the food vanished into thin air, ahaksss! We made, among others,  Rustic Chicken Pie, Rustic Apple Pie, Vegetarian Bruschetta, Sausage Rolls, Onion Buns, Ginger Cake, Prune Cake with Caramel Sauce and lots more. If you want the recipes for our pastries, wait for RASA March 2012. You can try them and enjoy them with your families.

To my dear friends and family who dropped by to show us your support, love you all!!

Karangkraf photographer, taking photos of our pastries for RASA issue March 2012. 

Our Rustic Chicken Pie, a delicious hit!

Styling the quiche with props for the magazine shoot.

Lemon & Blackpepper Macs by Yani

Mocha Macs with Cinnamon filling by our fav mac vendor - Yani of Kitchen Guardian

Beef Pie

Black pepper Cheese Sticks

Our rustic Apple Pie

Onion & Cheese Quiche

Sausage Rolls via Instagram

I have loads to do rolling into 2012. Do drop by THE DESSERT TABLE. We are opened everyday except Sundays and Public Holidays.

Here's what's in store for Jan/Feb 2012 :

BAKING & DECORATING CLASSES
* Basic class: Cupcake - Bake and Decorate your very own cuppies!
* Basic Class : How to make Sponge & Genoise cakes from scratch. It's so easy!
*Basic Class : Delicious butter cakes. every baker worth their salt should have good butter cakes recipes up their sleeves.
* Fondant 101 : Learn how to cover your cake with fondant and then style them pretty!

* SPECIAL DESSERT WORKSHOP BY GUEST INSTRUCTOR :
 - Hot Desserts Workshop - learn how to make 4 types of hot pastries and style them on plates like the professionals do.
- Cold Dessert Workshop - learn how to make cold desserts and how to serve them on individual platings.

SKILL BUILDING WORKSHOPS  :
* Food Styling & Food Photography Workshop - our 1st workshop with Pak Uda Ali was a hit! So we will be having another one for those who had missed our 1st workshop. Make sure you don't miss it this time yeah  :)


* Food Blogging for Beginners - you'll learn to set up you own blog using Wordpress platform. Our guest Instructor will help you design your own pretty blogs and how to generate traffic into your blogs. Bakers, beginners or not, you need this tool for marketing your lovely home bakes.

Watch out for the dates of classes and workshops next week!

FOR MORE INFO/ INQUIRIES OR ORDERS PLEASE CALL 013-355 4399 OR EMAIL farida71@yahoo.com.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Love,
Farida Ismail

Food Styling & Photography with En. Ali Mohamad Nor @ The Dessert Table

Single serving Blackforest Cake, in the background I made strawberry trifle, also single serving.
I made 4 of these babies especially for our Food Styling & Food Photography Workshop today.

Sweet sweet Macs :) I love passionfruit macs.

Aloy busy tinkering with his DSLR. On  his left is the table set up for styling and photography.

Pak Uda Ali explaining about 45 degree angle shot  using the tripod

Trying to make it look sweet :)

Another angle to add interest.

A shot I took at the workshop today. 

Food Styling & Photography Workshop with Pak Uda Ali @ The Dessert Table 17/12/2011
Thank you all for coming!

Salam and hi,
MasyaAllah, what a great day we had! The workshop was fun and very-very informative and so good!! Just look at my photos today and the ones on the side of this wall..what big difference!!

Now I know more about lighting and how to adjust the camera manual, with actual know-how instead of just guessing :) The hands-on session was really good as everyone get to try taking shots of the desserts from different angles and view.

Hahahaha..it was fun when now and then you hear remarks like 'ooohhh.. that's what viewfinder is' or 'oohhhh...i never knew we could do that....' and many more...lovely..just lovely!!

I hope everyone went back a button wiser than before..LOL!!

Thanks to Pak Uda & his crew, Zalina from Seremban, Azmi from Singapore, Fuziah from Melaka, Linda from Ipoh, Cik Mas, Renu, Sapiyyah, Marlina, Enn, Roza, anak kak Nurul and Rozita (sorry didnt get their names), Aloy, and Hellen from Bali.

For those who had registered and some paid, we will be repeating this Basic Workshop, insyaAllah early next year. We hope to see you @ The Dessert Table, armed with your DSLR, ready to shoot on target LOL!!

Credit where they're due:
Props were prepared and set up by Pak Uda Ali and his crew
Those yummilicious macs were by Yani
The chocolates by Renu
Chocolate Tart by Mastura
& lastly those cute little Blackforest cakes and Strawberry Trifle in those long sexy stem glasses - those I made this morning.

Take care & have a great weekend!

Farida Ismail

FOOD STYLING & FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP - 17TH DEC 2011

Assalamulaikum wbth & Hi!!

This workshop is OVERBOOKED!  Registration for this workshop is officially CLOSED. If you would like to attend our next Food Styling & Food Photography Workshop which, insyaAllah will be held again early next year, please email me (farida71@yahoo.com) your interest and we'll contact you with details of next workshop.

Thank you to those who had confirmed their seats with us.

See ya!!

Farida Ismail

BASIC FOOD STYLING & FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP 17TH DEC 2011

Chef Ali Mohamad Noor or better known as Pak Uda Ali, at a Canon Pro Talk - Food Styling for Photography workshop

UPDATES: ONLY 3 MORE SEATS AVAILABLE! HURRY! Sign up TODAY!!

A gorgeous composition from Pak Uda Ali

Another example from From Food Styling & Food Photography class by Pak Uda Ali

Assalamualaikum and hi,

I've got good news for you!!! DSLR NEWBIES, DSLRS FANS, YOU CAN'T MISS THIS!!!!

InsyaAllah, during the Workshop, we are going to have DSLRs promotions going on!!! InsyaAllah, CANON will be making their presence @ The Dessert Table AND you'll be able to purchase Canon DSLRs and/or lenses, at student's offer price during our workshop on the 17th Dec, 2011. Discounts, insyaAllah, will be between RM200-RM300 on Canon products, which comes with 1+1 year Warranty on all Canon original products , only on the Workshop day . Alhamdulillah, thank you Pak Uda Ali for making this possible!!

We are bringing the world's best to you @ The Dessert Table and places are limited. We only have a few more places available so don't wait no more! CALL/SMS US TODAY AT 013-3554399 OR EMAIL farida71@yahoo.com to book your place. A non-refundable deposit of RM100 is required to secure your booking with us or you can pay the full amount of RM250. Maybank acc : 5624 7812 9617. Let us know of your payment and Please keep the bank-in/transfer receipts and mail it/MMS it/bring it to us on Workshop Day as proof of payment.

Details of workshop can also be found in previous post.

SEE YOU AT THE DESSERT TABLE!!

Love,

Farida Ismail

BASIC FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP

A sample of Chef Ali's work.

Chef Ali

PHOTO BELONGS TO CHEF ALI MOHAMAD NOOR

PHOTO BELONGS TO CHEF ALI MOHAMAD NOOR

YOU WANT YOUR CAKES/DESSERTS/FOOD TO LOOK LIKE THESE PHOTOS?? YES? THEN READ ON...

Good news for all Foodie Bloggers and all the Bakers and Cake Decorators out there!!! Let's do justice to our delicious food/cakes/pastries. No more dull and boring looking photos of our products!

InsyaAllah, The Dessert Table will be having a BASIC FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP with Chef Ali Mohamad Noor at our place!!

Date  : 17th December 2011

Time : 10am - 2pm

Fees  : RM250 per person

Venue : The Dessert Table

Max no. of persons per workshop : 15

* Refreshments and light snacks will be provided throughout the workshop. In the interest of time, lunch will be provided at the end of the workshop.


Introduction

The workshop will be conducted for 4 hours with elements of theory, demonstration and hands-on approached. Participants will be exposed to basic techniques of food photography using available lighting/natural lighting. The following elements will be focused throughout the workshop:

* Introduction to basic food photography

* Purpose of food photography

* Setting up for food photography

* Basic camera setting for food photography

* Concept, object, props and styling

* Angle of shoot in food photograph

Who should attend this workshop?

Beginner in photography and those who would like to explore the food photography are welcome. Food enthusiast that love to snap pictures of their creation and anyone that feel food can communicate are equally welcome. In short, those who knows and aspires to be like Mowie Kay of Mowielicious Should BE HERE!!

What to bring along?

Bring along your camera preferably a decent DSLR camera (including lenses 18 – 55mm, macro lens, will help to get the most from the workshop), laptop (be sure you have installed your camera software), a tripod (bring extra if you got any),

*EXTRA : IF YOU WANT TO PERSONALIZE YOUR SHOTS PLEASE BRING THESE ITEMS OTHERWISE WE WILL BE PROVIDING THEM AT OUR PLACE : plate (white fancy plate to present your food), food product (dessert, cakes, fruits etc), linen of any color (table cloth, table runner etc), black and white mounting board, and any props that you think appropriate. 

Anything else? ---- Off course pen, pencil, notebook and your good self (please come with an open mind and you will be enjoying the session with us)

What are expected from participants?

Understanding of camera is essential, especially on setting up the ISO, Aperture and Shutter Speed. 

Don't wait too long to make that decision folks! We have only 15 places available. Those without DSLR but only have a normal good compact are also welcome to join our workshop :)

A bit about Chef Ali Mohamad Noor : Chef Ali is a Chef by profession and currently is attach to UiTM's Culinary and Gastronomy Dept as a Senior Lecturer.

SMS me your details at 013-3554399 or leave me your comment or email me farida71@yahoo.com TODAY!