It is the throwaway remarks rather than the masterclass itself that makes an hour or two spent in Anthony Worrall Thompson’s company memorable, and the audience earlier today, here at the World Gourmet Summit in Singapore, weren’t complaining. Time and again the cookery demonstration took a back seat as he gave his opinion on all matters culinary, by way of anecdote, tale and joke. Somehow at the end of it all he managed to produce cauliflower and courgette fritters, fish fingers, stuffed aubergine and, quirky to the end, ‘prawn lollipops’.

Anthony Worrall Thompson and his Irish wife, Jacinta.

He has a secret weapon, of course, in the form of his Irish wife, Jacinta, and although she and I had never met before we quickly established that we grew up barely a stone’s throw from one another. She is a constant presence at his side, lending timely assistance thanks to the gift of telepathic anticipation. The ‘lollipops’ started with the prawns being threaded onto bamboo skewers and then fried in oil. They were then dipped into a garlic mayonnaise enlivened with saffron before being coated with popcorn. Popcorn? Yes, popcorn.

This had been ‘popped’ earlier and then chopped in a food processor until it was fine, though not floury. Added to it were chives, garlic, coriander and sumac. The prawns were then coated with as much of this mixture as possible, courtesy of the garlic mayonnaise. And while all this was going on Worrall Thompson was warning his audience of the fire hazards associated with open chip pans and advising them on the wisdom of investing in a proper deep fat fryer: “It’s so much cheaper than burning your house down.”

Now off to taste a ‘round dozen’ of Aussie Shiraz with James Halliday...

See: www.worldgourmetsummit.com

Tags: Anthony Worrall Thompson, Masterclass