Spanish Tapas, Sangria & Salsa Evening at Tennent’s Training Academy, Glasgow

• A fun filled evening of food and dancing at two amazing venues
• Learn the tricks to host the perfect sangria and tapas evening for your friends
• Try your hand (and feet) at some Salsa dancing!

Upon arriving at the state of the art ‘Tennent’s Training Academy’, we were greeted by the friendly staff and offered a welcome drink and a seat in their waiting area. As the rest of our ‘class’ arrived we had the opportunity to introduce ourselves and get to know a bit about the other participants.

We were then whisked off to the kitchens where we would be preparing our meals. The facilities were kitted out with everything we would need and there was lively Spanish music playing in the background. We were shown to our seats (on a big round table) and given a brief over view of the evening.

It’s a really relaxed atmosphere and everyone was very friendly adding to the fun and making it less of a classroom environment. We were initially shown a recipe for traditional red sangria, but also introduced to a “Blanco” version made using white wine, pears, apples, mint, and Bacardi. The Mixologist also suggested a Rosé version with rose petals and berries. Sangria in hand it was time to make our first dishes!

As both Kim and I are novices in the kitchen, it was a bit daunting cooking our own meal in a professional kitchen. The Chef demonstrating was very patient and happy to answer any questions. We made 8 dishes in total including chorizo in red wine, Gambas al Pil-Pil (King Prawns in Garlic and Chilli) and Tortilla Espanola (Spanish Omelette). The chef would first demonstrate how to make 2 or 3 of the dishes and then we would go to our stations and proceed to do the same all under his expert tuition. Everyone receives a booklet with all the ingredients and recipes inside so we could replicate the evening at home!

We then sat down and enjoyed this delicious food, it was great to try our culinary creations – they tasted even better because we had cooked them!

Dinner complete, our taxi arrived to take us to Arta for the salsa dancing element of our experience. Arta has a real Mediterranean feel and was the perfect place to learn some new moves. The other salsa dancers were happy to show us a few steps and once we had mastered the basics we were all up dancing until we bid farewell to our fellow experience goers!