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	<title><![CDATA[Kalla Wood]]></title>
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		<title><![CDATA[Eve Magazine - How Cooking Saved Me]]></title>
		<description><![CDATA[  Gordon Ramsay&rsquo;s better known for his ferocity than his abilities as a therapist, but for budding chef Joudie Kalla, 30, a stint in one of his kitchens turned her life around  
      
  Hold the double espresso. Working in a professional kitchen alongside the likes of Gordon Ramsay may not be a calming, Zen-like experience, but it sure gets the day off to a buzzing start.  
    Surrounded by steam, the clatter of stainless steel, multicoloured fresh veg and an even fresher supply of F-words, the adrenalin rush of a professional kitchen became a life-saver for Londoner Joudie Kalla.  
  &lsquo;I desperately needed that wake-up call,&rsquo; she says. &lsquo;I&rsquo;ve been a rebel since I was little; I was expelled from school for persistent rule-breaking. After university, I moved back in with my parents and drifted through mind-numbing data-entry and retail jobs. I soon sank into depression, triggered by my aimlessness.&rsquo; Joudie found herself cooking to cure her blues and insomnia. &lsquo;My dad would find me making hearty soups and soothing curries at 3am. It was a welcome distraction; I went into a happy trance at the stove.&rsquo; After taking a one-year professional cooking course, Joudie landed a job at   Pengelley&rsquo;s  , part of the Ramsay empire. &lsquo;It was just the shock treatment I needed.  
  &nbsp;My rebellious streak bowed to the discipline of the kitchen.The strict hierarchical structure, donning chef&rsquo;s whites and shouting &ldquo;Yes Chef!&rdquo; when an order came through was almost military- it blasted away my depression&rsquo;. Three years on, Joudie is a glowing success in her own right, catering for clients including Christian Louboutin, as well as running fun-filled children&rsquo;s cookery parties/  
  So cooking started out as a kind of therapy?  
  &lsquo;Yes, after my midnight vigils at the stove, I signed up for a cheffing course when I was 24. Learning to make the perfect chocolate mousse was better than any prescription drug I was on &ndash; my doctor had given me anti depressants, but they only made me feel worse. I then went on to train at Carluccios until hitting the jackpot with a trial shift at Pengelley&rsquo;s.  
  How did you the impress the chefs?  
  &lsquo;They put me to work making spring rolls, but within an hour I had sliced off the top of my finger and ended up in A&amp;E. Not one to give up, I came back from hospital and carried on working until midnight. Ian Pengelley liked my determination.&rsquo;  How true are the rumours about professional kitchens being gruelling?  &lsquo;Completely &ndash; tempers are as hot as the food. At Pengelley&rsquo;s we cooked Thai-Chinese style fusion food, and I learnt so much about beautiful presentation and subtle flavours. But my job was exhausting and I lost loads of weight; you don&rsquo;t feel like eating much when you have been removing ducks&rsquo; heads all morning.&rsquo;  
  Where did you go after leaving Pengelley&rsquo;s?  
  In 2005 I went to work at Papillon, a lovely southern French Bistro in Chelsea. We were a small tight knit team. My head Chef David Duverger was a great inspiration, and is still my mentor, helping me with recipes and getting hold of hard to find ingredients.&rsquo;  
  What is the toughest lesson you learnt?  
  &lsquo;Never to put up with bad treatment. At a different restaurant, I once worked with a chef who was horribly misogynistic, He didn&rsquo;t think women should be in the professional kitchens and would make his disgust clear by screaming orders in my face. One day the bad feeling between us bubbled over. He threw a hot duck at me dripping in boiling fat, it burnt my hand and I started sobbing from the pain. He was sacked. But I still couldn&rsquo;t be persuaded to stay.&rsquo;  
  How did you come to set up on your own?  
  &lsquo;A friend asked me to cater for her 40th birthday party and I leapt at the chance. The party had a black and white 1940&rsquo;s theme, so I did a menu with black cod and miso on jasmine rice, cauliflower risotto, sushi and spring rolls. Everything was served on black and white dishes. It was a great success, and gave me the contacts I needed to kick start a series of cookery classes. I decided to hold the classes at my home at first to keep costs down.&rsquo;  
  How did you get customers?  
  &lsquo;Through word of mouth recommendations. I&rsquo;m always busy with functions, from intimate dinners to cocktail parties. I think it helps that I don&rsquo;t turn people down who are on smaller budgets; we just tailor menus to fit.&rsquo;  
  What are the highs?  
  &lsquo;I love doing children&rsquo;s parties and I&rsquo;m never happier then when in a church hall handing out cookie cutters, aprons and hats to a gaggle of excited children. We cook crab cakes and chicken noodles together, or go for a pure sugar hit with muffins and cupcakes. Their enthusiasm is infectious &ndash; we end up dancing while we work!   I also recently did a party for Christian Louboutin in London, where I made biscuits and iced muffins with little shoes on them, complete with the trademark red soles, of course. That was great girly fun!  
  And the lows?  
  &lsquo;Conquering people&rsquo;s perceptions that men are better cooks. When I do parties, many guests are surprised that it&rsquo;s me in the kitchen rather than a man.  
  How&rsquo;s your work/ family balance?  
  &lsquo;Perfectly aligned! When I worked in restaurants I didn&rsquo;t really have a life, but now I can choose my own hours. It&rsquo;s mostly evening and weekend work, but because I&rsquo;m in charge I don&rsquo;t take on the crippling shifts you have to do in the restaurants. Many people are surprised that I still cook for pleasure inviting friends over for late night curries. I&rsquo;m also obsessed with cookery programmes.&rsquo;  
  What are your cooking secrets?  
  &lsquo;Presentation is very important for party food. Primp and preen your dishes to really knock peoples socks off &ndash; you eat with your eyes first and then your taste buds. Also you don&rsquo;t have to be a Michelin star chef to be a great cook. Mum in a hurry can cook fresh chicken breasts, rice and salad just as quickly as waffles and beans. Ditch readymade sauces; mix garlic, oil fresh tomatoes with a little sugar and chilli for an amazing effect. And use thyme &ndash; I think it&rsquo;s better than basil.&rsquo;  
  Any surprising ingredients you use?  
  &lsquo;Substitute cream in dishes with yoghurt- great for the waistline and just as tasty. Put hummus in a salad dressing. Experiment with fruit; lobster with grapefruit and orange is sensational, as is duck with roasted fresh figs.&rsquo;  
  What&rsquo;s your perfect comfort food?  
  &lsquo;A bowl of rice. I use pudding rice, cover it with water, a tea towel and cook for 15 minutes with the lid firmly closed. I then serve it with some slivers of grilled chicken or a veggie curry.&rsquo;  
  And your plans for the future?  
  &lsquo;To keep dreaming up new party food ideas and help the next generation understand that healthy food is tastier. I got a letter form a little girl whose party I organised. She said, &ldquo;I loved it so much I wanted to rewind the whole day&rdquo;. That gave me an unbeatable glow. I think we should be getting kids into the kitchen, rather than just banning turkey twizzlers from their plates. If they&rsquo;ve had a ball cooking food, they are more likely to eat it, even if it&rsquo;s green.&rsquo;  
  &nbsp;  ]]></description>
		<pubDate>Tue, 16 Sep 2008 07:13:29 +0000</pubDate>
		<link>http://www.kallawood.com/press/eve-magazine-how-cooking-saved-me/</link>
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		<title><![CDATA[Viva Magazine - Cooked to perfection]]></title>
		<description><![CDATA[  Joudie Kalla is one smart cookie. In a world full of women (and men) who drudge aimlessly from day to day, tuck in &lsquo;blah&rsquo; mind numbing careers because they aren&rsquo;t sure what they want &ndash; or aren&rsquo;t sure they can do it- people like Joudie prove that it doesn&rsquo;t have to be that way. A successful 30 year old who realised he talent and wasn&rsquo;t afraid to use it, she&rsquo;s walking talking proof that you can have your cake and eat it, too.  
      
    Born and raised in London to first generation Palestinian parents, Joudie left her job at an art gallery because it was &ldquo;just so boring&rdquo;. I knew straight away that I could not do it any longer. As cooking was always a release for her &ndash; her father would often wake to find a disgruntled Joudie slaving over a bubbling stew or baking cakes at 3am &ndash; she decided to enrol in a yearlong chef training course, just for fun. &ldquo;Training to be a chef was just an escape, something I did to pass the time, &ldquo;explains Joudie. &ldquo;But it consumed me completely&rdquo;.  
  After landing jobs in some of London&rsquo;s top restaurants, including pengelley&rsquo;s, owned by the infamous Gordon Ramsay, she finally realised her calling. Today, she has a glam, burgeoning career as one of the UK&rsquo;s top caterers, with bookings way into 2009. Though still a relatively new endeavour, JKCatering has already branched out into other areas &ndash; Kallawood handles corporate clients, while My Sweetest Things allows children to be chefs for the day. But despite her runaway success, noting was handed to Joudie on a silver platter.  
  &ldquo;When I started out, people thought I was dumb because I cooked for a living, not understanding that I had a masters degree in architecture and design and that I am fluent in 3 languages, &ldquo; says Joudie, a smile on her pretty face. &ldquo;Soon I realised that those who judged me were the ones that were unhappy with their lives. They just want you to be sad and question what you are doing. This drove me more, and now I don&rsquo;t think I am doing too badly.&rdquo;  
  Not doing too badly might just be the understatement of the year, considering the fact that Ms Joudie has been covered by at least 6 different publications abroad(VIVA will be the 7  th  ), not to mention TV proposals up the wazoo. Clearly the world seems to like what she&rsquo;s cooking up!  
  &ldquo;My work life is good&rdquo;, she grins. !And to think that I had been depressed for about 3 years before I started , ready to lose all hope in life.....Cooking saved me, and it gave me a new direction.&rdquo;  
  Inspired, we sat down with the glamorous and talented Joudie to talk hot kitchens, comfort food and how to get your hands on some of that cake, too.  
    What role did food play in your upbringing?    
  My earliest food memory would probably be more the smell then the taste, as something was always being cooked by my wonderful mother. Everything from malfouf and mloukhia, to roast chicken and her famous rice, which is like cake to me. It&rsquo;s so good.  
  We always had dinner together. And it was something different every night, which is amazing considering there so many of us. My Mother managed to satisfy all of our tastes and demands, which is probably why I&rsquo;m good at multi tasking in the kitchen.    
    Do you enjoy eating as much as you love cooking?    
  Of course, who doesn&rsquo;t? But when I was working in restaurants starting at 7am and not going home till 2am, the last thing I wanted to do was eat! I lost about 15 kilos through the years, which was great, but obviously not very healthy.  
    Can anyone cook, or do you have to love it for the food to come out tasty?    
  Anyone can cook, but I definitely believe that you have to have passion for it or at least some kind of connection to it. For example I&rsquo;ve cooked when I was angry, and the food turns out rubbish even though I know what I am doing. I take it out on the food and it could be something I&rsquo;ve done 100 times, but it still won&rsquo;t work.  
    Is it important to do what you love?    
  I think it is very important to do something you love, because you will be so much better at it than at something you don&rsquo;t enjoy. I personally don&rsquo;t believe that people are really good at things that they don&rsquo;t enjoy. Anyone can do any job, but the people who excel in their field are the ones who have a passion for what they do.  
    Were you nervous about leaving a solid career to pursue your own business?    
  Leaving professional kitchen, with the heat, the excitement and rush was very hard, but being a chef and catering was a move I had become ready for due to the demanding hours. Of course I had moments when I thought I was crazy to leave, but you have to try. Thank fully, I started with some wonderful clients who have been a great support throughout the past two years, and without them it would have been a struggle. I was worried about failing. But I was more worried that if I didn&rsquo;t give it a go, I would regret it forever!  
    What got you through all those gruelling hours starting out?    
  That I always knew I had mloukhia in the fridge! Seriously my nightly ritual was to drink a cup of hot mloukhia before bed, and it would put me to sleep. Also very understanding friends who always came to see me at work or have dinner where I was just to say &lsquo;hi&rsquo;. You need to have a foot in the outside world somehow, and my family always came to the restaurants that I worked in, which was so nice!  
    What are some lessons you&rsquo;ve learnt in the kitchen and out?    
  In the kitchen I learnt about discipline, time management and knowing that you are only as good as you allow yourself to be. I learnt to be confident in moments of complete despair, and that you life does not depend on anything... Outside the kitchen, I learnt that you can be much more confident when you are happy at work. I learnt how to sell my talent to people, so I could start my business; I learnt to be patient. Everything comes to those who believe in themselves, and who have had good training.  
    When you create dishes for clients, is it more what they want, or what you want to experiment with?    
  Some clients are very demanding and know what they want, while others like to leave it in my hands. It&rsquo;s up to the individual: they are paying for a service, so they should get what they want. But I always proffer ideas on what I think would be suitable for their event.  
    Does your menu include Middle Eastern dishes?      
  Actually my non Middle Eastern clients are the ones who request Middle Eastern food most! The most successful dishes are masakhan, ma&rsquo;loubeh and sayyadiyeh. These always go well because of their texture, taste and aroma.  
    If you had to choose, would it be salty or sweet?    
  I&rsquo;m a Libra, so I can never make a decision. It has to be something sweet followed immediately by something salty but never one without the other.  
    What&rsquo;s your favourite dish to make?    
  Linguine with garlic chilli prawns, and chocolate fondant. Mloukhia first for comfort food though.  
    What&rsquo;s you favourite dish to eat?    
  The above. Whatever I clove to make, I love to eat.  
    Is Gordon Ramsay as scary as he appears on TV?    
  To be honest with you, I never met him. I worked for his company, but from the attitude of his chefs in general, they have followed in his footsteps. I think he&rsquo;s a wonderful chef, and talented beyond a doubt. But working in an environment of fear is never good. Respect is way more important. Still, working under those circumstances was a great experience, as it helped me build my tolerance and know my limits.  
    Why do you think most of the worlds chefs are men?    
  It&rsquo;s not something that most women wasn&rsquo;t to admit, but men are stronger than women and can endure much more strenuous work hours and heat. But women are stepping up more and more. I think the work atmosphere changes tremendously when women are involved. Most chefs say that they prefer it when there is a woman in the kitchen as it is less hostile. So at least they see some good in us being there!  
    Do you ever think about opening your own restaurant?    
  No, because it literally takes over your life. I have seen it happen to many friends. If I did open one, it would have to be some kind of bistro/fine dining restaurant. I&rsquo;d want it to be special enough for people to come and celebrate something, but casual enough to be a hotspot that people would return over and over again. The food would be seasonal and constantly changing, because nothing is more mind numbing that repetition.  ]]></description>
		<pubDate>Tue, 16 Sep 2008 07:12:10 +0000</pubDate>
		<link>http://www.kallawood.com/press/viva-magazine-cooked-to-perfection/</link>
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		<title><![CDATA[Company Magazine - Pimp My Plate]]></title>
		<description><![CDATA[  Chicken and salad together in the same sentence can sound pretty boring, but who said that it has to be a traditional idea of salad with lettuce tomatoes and olives with a vinaigrette dressing.  
      
  There are so many options and the way I would suggest to pimp my chicken salad is to think outside the box a little.  
  Take 2 organic free range chicken breasts, season and add a little olive oil and griddle them till they are scored. Take one tin of chickpeas and boil them gently for five minutes and drain. Take 2 Tablespoons of Greek yoghurt and some cumin (1teaspoon), paprika (1 teaspoon) for colour and depth and chiffonade some fresh mint and parsley. Add a squeeze of lime and 1 tablespoon of olive oil and mix altogether with the chickpeas.  
  Shred the chicken and serve on top of the chickpea mix.  
  This is a healthy and nutritious way of changing the way we eat, by adding flavours and ingredients that are readily available. Enjoy!  ]]></description>
		<pubDate>Tue, 16 Sep 2008 07:10:24 +0000</pubDate>
		<link>http://www.kallawood.com/press/company-magazine-pimp-my-plate/</link>
		<guid>http://www.kallawood.com/press/company-magazine-pimp-my-plate/</guid>
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		<title><![CDATA[Harrods Magazine]]></title>
		<description><![CDATA[  Joudie Kalla (  www.jkcatering.co.uk  ) worked under Gordon Ramsay at pengelley&rsquo;s, then Daphnes and Papillon. She is competent and utterly obliging; she also offers private catering for children if you have small mouths to feed.    
      ]]></description>
		<pubDate>Tue, 16 Sep 2008 07:09:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<link>http://www.kallawood.com/press/harrods-magazine/</link>
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		<title><![CDATA[Tatler  - Kids corner]]></title>
		<description><![CDATA[  I set up my sweetest things, a children&rsquo;s cookery school, because my nephews and nieces really wanted to be a part of what I was doing. With their help, I learned how to coax children into eating things they usually wouldn&rsquo;t, and found if they made everything themselves they would have no problem eating it. Children need to be more proactive in the kitchen and get away from television and computer games. It is really important that they get to know what effort is out into their food, as well as learning how to enjoy it.  
      
    Children who come to my classes are generally apprehensive at first, but after about fifteen minutes they tend to warm up to me and the idea of being in a kitchen. Dealing with children is all about confidence. If you are confident in yourself then the children can see it. Children work better in groups, and can easily turn a situation and take advantage of it. As for precautions in the kitchen, I always make sure that they do not touch any of the knives, or come anywhere near the oven or the hobs. They are there to have fun, and it is imperative to maintain that focus.  
  When it comes to easy dishes that children like to eat, if you make something that looks good, then children will go for it. I gave my two year old niece sushi and she loved it. From that day on, we made it a ritual to go for sushi at least once a week, and she loves all the fish and rice, with soya sauce and edamame beans (or &lsquo;mame&rsquo; beans as she likes to call them). If you are squeamish about food then children will pick up on it, so I think it is important to be open when it comes trying new things.  
  My most rewarding experience, apart from my niece naming me &lsquo;Yes Chef&rsquo;, is the first time I threw a children&rsquo;s party, for a group of eight year old girls. After the party was over I got a letter from the birthday girl&rsquo;s mother saying that her daughter wished she could rewind the whole day over and over again. It meant a lot to me, as children are often your toughest critics.  ]]></description>
		<pubDate>Tue, 16 Sep 2008 07:08:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<link>http://www.kallawood.com/press/tatler-kids-corner/</link>
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