Lorraine Pascale: How To Be A Better Cook

Professional chef Lorraine Pascale is looking to help amateurs improve their kitchen skills. In each episode, she takes an inexperienced cook and helps build up their confidence so the rookie can make impressive meals for friends and family. The tasks Pascale tackles include teaching a 52-year-old builder — who has never cooked a meal before — to prepare a Mediterranean-inspired menu and helping a 26-year-old woman, who passes store-bought food off as her own, host a dinner party that features small plates. Pascale’s recipes are intended to be easy, but the lack of confidence her students have in the kitchen may make the simple dishes more difficult than they would otherwise be.

With plenty of deceptively easy recipes and fantastic tips, Lorraine Pascale shows people with no kitchen confidence how to pull off an impressive meal for friends and family.

**Please note: Not all recipes from this show are available to us

Episode 1

In this episode she’s helping 52-year-old builder Tony Sartori, who has never cooked a meal in his life, to master a delicious Mediterranean-inspired menu, including a grilled peach and burrata salad, crispy salmon with polenta chips and grilled asparagus, and a dessert with real wow factor.

• Crispy salmon, polenta chips and grilled asparagus
• Caramelised scallops on cauliflower purée with pancetta
• Grilled peach, burrata and basil salad with Dijon dressing
• Vanilla and yogurt panna cotta with pomegranate jelly

Episode 2

26-year-old Bryony admits to passing shop-bought food off as her own, but now she’s been tasked with hosting her best friend’s hen party. So Lorraine creates an inspiring canapé menu for her, including Thai Larb Gai, bite-sized chocolate Napoleons and delicate coconut meringues filled with ginger cream.

• White chocolate bite-sized ‘Napoleons’
• Coconut kisses with ginger filly Chantilly and a strawberry slice
• Cucumber and feta bites with dill and pomegranate
• Nice and spicy Thai minced chicken salad (Larb Gai)
• Chorizo and lemongrass pastry puff scrolls

Episode 3

Sonia Harwood is a mother-of-three and foster carer who’d love to create homemade family meals but ends up relying on frozen food. Lorraine shows her how easy cooking with fresh ingredients can be, including courgette fritters, a quick seafood linguine and an impressive baked ricotta cheesecake.

• Simple tortilla pizza bites
• Baked cheesecake with blackberries, blueberries and fig
• Baked courgette fritters with marinara sauce
• Quick linguine with prawns, clams, garlic and chilli

Episode 4

Neil Forster is an impatient cook who reaches for the takeaway menu rather than making food from scratch. Lorraine shows him recipes including asparagus and cream cheese puff pastry tarts, a quick way to do roast chicken and an irresistible summer fruits pudding with a neat shortcut.

• Asparagus and poached egg puff tarts with parmesan and basil
• Prawn, prosciutto and rosemary skewers
• Honey mustard and garlic spatchcock chicken with sweet potato and mint mash
• Madeira summer pudding with warm chocolate sauce

Episode 5

Student Travis Francis admits his mum does all the cooking, now he wants to cook for her. Lorraine creates a menu inspired by his family’s Caribbean roots, including a prawn, sweet potato and mango curry, a quick way to make bread, and some tempting chocolate and rum truffles.

• Caribbean toastie cups with avocado, mango and mint
• Mini spiced apple tarte tatin with vanilla frozen yoghurt
• Jamaican rum truffles
• Prawn, sweet potato and lime curry with chilli and black pepper roti bread

Episode 6

Sally lacks the confidence to cook for anyone except herself, but after turning 50 she decided that had to change. Lorraine helps her with a Chinese inspired menu, including sweet and sour ribs, chicken and cashew nut stir fry and a show stopping cake.