South Wales Cookery Demo

Last week’s adventures began with a long but stress-free journey from my home in Huddersfield to Vaughn’s Panastore in Haverfordwest. I arrived to find the shop already transformed from retail store to demonstration theatre with rows of chairs ready for the audience and a Panasonic fridge freezer switched on ready for use.

A small audience gathered for the demonstration which featured some seasonal dishes including salmon and asparagus quiche and rhubarb crème brulee. The staff at Vaughn’s were hanging on my every word – eager to learn more about the Panasonic combination ovens. However, they weren’t watching closely enough and failed to spot that I had left the cardboard packaging underneath the pizza! After sampling the dishes there was plenty of time to chat with the customers and tempt them to purchase three combination ovens, a breadmaker and a vacuum cleaner. One lady had to go home to feed her chickens and put them to bed but returned as promised the next day and I helped her to decide which Flatbed Combination oven would suit her best.

Vaughn’s again hosted the demonstration in the Panastore, Llanelli. An audience of 16 people enjoyed the demo and again took the opportunity to purchase from the shop. One lady came in before we had even started and decided on a Sensor microwave oven and the US style fridge freezer which I used during the demo tempted one couple to buy one. The clearing up was made easy as the washing-up fairies took away all the dirty pots and they were magically clean and sparkling ready for me to collect the next morning.

Our visit to Clifton Panastore was a return trip, the first demo there in November 2009 took place just after the shop opened. I recognised faces and talked to customers who had purchased their Combination ovens at the first demo and now wanted to ask questions about the best way to clean their oven or use it correctly. As usual we handed out the recipe sheets for the dishes I had prepared and my colleague, Graham, did his vacuum cleaner demo asking the audience not to tell his wife he can actually use one! The lady who purchased one of the new Flatbed Combination ovens was also the lucky winner of the raffle prize!

The South-West are well-supported with Cookery Demos this Spring with another two trips to come: Later in May we will visit Panastores in Exeter, Newton Abbott and Plymouth and again in June supporting Swansea, Dorchester and Salisbury.
See the calendar for dates and venues.

The Kitchen Team

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