CELEBRATING 1 MILLION SALES WITH ROBERT WELCH

You really don’t know how blunt your knives are until you use sharp ones, do you?

Honestly. I spend most of my time in the kitchen hacking away at things and it's not until you use a decent set that you realise just how bad yours are.

Why am I telling you about knives you wonder?

Well to celebrate the one millionth sale of their iconic signature knife range, Robert Welch invited a group of us food bloggers down for a masterclass with private chef Georgina Davies and to try out the range.

You’ll probably know a Robert Welch knife if you see one.

They’ve got an iconic black handle (ergonomically designed don't you know) with stainless steel blades and you often find themselves amongst the Crystal and KitchenAids on every couple's wedding present list.

Each knife is designed and crafted for a certain purpose and this year Robert Welch has partnered with private chef Georgina Davies to showcase the different skills for each.

Rupert Welch, the company's MD, gave us an introduction to the brand's history and we were taken on a whistle-stop tour of the knife making process - from its inception as a piece of stainless steel, through to the final product which we would be testing out on the day.

Next Georgina talked us through one of the recipes which she'd created for Robert Welch and we were tasked with recreating it.

Now on paper, I should hate this dish. Raw Fennel, Radish and Fig Noodle Salad.

I don’t like fennel. I don’t radishes and the term 'raw' often makes me run a mile - or at least I thought it did…because this was actually really rather lovely.

Fresh, crunchy and light but also incredibly satisfying - and any dish which can change my mind on an ingredient is a winner in my book.

First we had to prepare our noodles, mixing with a little sesame oil to keep them fresh and workable....

Then came the chopping using our Robert Welch knives. Thinly slicing fennel, courgette and some radishes for a pop of pink...

and then mixing it all through with some fresh mixed leaves to build up the salad.

For the dressing, we created a salsa verde with garlic, mint, coriander, djon mustard, pepper, salt and a good plug of olive oil and finished the whole dish with ripe and juicy figs, sliced into quarters.

We were then sent back to our work stations in pairs (I was with one my favourite blogging friends Binny) to create the dish for ourselves, under MasterChef style conditions...

This was the perfect opportunity for us to test out the knives in a practical setting.

I am not kidding you when I say these are sharp.

Have you ever tried cutting through a lemon? Of course you have - well in my house-hold I have to hack if I want to get through a lemon but these literally slice through the skin like butter.

So after frantically chopping, arranging and saucing my way though the dish (being careful not to lob off my fingers) we lined up our dishes for judging and *drumroll*......