Marks and Spencer’s Sandwich platter. Kettle Chips. Bowl of grapes.
We’ve all been there.
You’re off to spend a day on ‘personal development’; maybe you are refining a skill, ticking off that certain something on your ‘Bucket List’, or simply volunteered yourself for a course to get out of work? Whatever it is that you are learning, there is one thing for certain: The predictable, half-arsed lunch.
Training programmes are notorious for over-chilled sandwiches with the same old fillings (BLT and Tuna Sweetcorn are the usual suspects), that were clearly an after-thought to the programme. When you crave good quality food as I do, there is nothing more demotivating than forcing down a dry sandwich whilst trying to focus on how to improve oneself.
So you can imagine my absolute delight when I attended a course run by the ‘so-hot-right-now’ Decoded, where the lunch was fit for a Queen! Co-founded by the inspiring Kathryn Parsons, Decoded is a super friendly team of computer nerds and facilitators who make coding easy, accessible and…even fun! As a total novice on arrival, I came away talking in acronyms – CSS, HTML, API rolling off my tongue like a total show-off.
But what really sent my tongue wagging – and the whole point of this post! – was the food! Oh yes.
Unlike other courses, Decoded has their own resident chef to prepare their lunchtime ‘Brain Food’.
This was a protein-heavy, omega 3-rich feast of a lunch. Tomas, their charming Swedish chef, presented us with his own smoked salmon – cured for 48 hours – which was the juiciest, luscious piece of fish I ever did eat.
Open sandwiches of beetroot and meatballs, egg mayonnaise with prawns were smothered generously over Swedish rye bread …
This was the whole 9 yards. Colour and freshness was in every bite.
Rather that feeling lethargic or counting the hours until ‘hometime’, this fabulous spread perked us up and kept us going for the rest of the afternoon.
I was well impressed.
All the food was prepared by the super talented Chef Tomas @SwedishChef_Co . His style comes across as bold but elegant. Nothing was fussy. Everything was refined. Every ingredient sang.
Previously at One Alfred Place, and now with his own kitchen studio in East London, we shall expect great things to come from Tomas who plans to have his own restaurant one day. He is most inspired by simple, clean cooking styles, such as at St John’s. And it shows.
I know you are not supposed to judge a course by the food that is served there, but when it is as good as the course itself, then why not?
Details
Decoded HQ, 20 Underwood Row, London, N1 7LQ. 020 3583 0972.
As a blogger who is active on social media, I found it so helpful to understand the behind-the-scenes coding that ran behind my blog and its networks. I highly recommend attending a course at Decoded; we live in such a fast-changing digital world, that if we don’t get up to speed with the digital language quick, we might just risk being left behind!
Bonnie Bites 