BY SIMONE MEDONOS
Michelle Pearson is a soulful songstress. [star rating =5/5]
This is our charming host Michelle Pearson’s first foray to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe after sell out seasons at Adelaide’s Fringe Festival and the Melbourne Fringe. Michelle is a lover of food and music and combines her two passions into a perfectly flowing cabaret show where she intertwines cooking three courses of comfort food with endearing life stories and magnificent singing.
Michelle tells of growing up in a Lebanese family, who cooked a very regimented weekly menu of non-Lebanese food, which resulted in Michelle becoming quite a picky child with a definite fear of fruit and savoury dining combinations.
Michelle’s musical storytelling ranges from our favourite – the one about the teenage boyfriend and the chicken, to her ‘I go back to bread’, a take on an Amy Winehouse hit.
Having overcome her fear of fruit and savoury combinations Michelle and her kitchen team serve up comfort food at its best; haloumi and peach on rocket with a maple syrup drizzle, pasta with bacon, tomatoes and cheesy breadcrumbs and for dessert, almond flour sticky date pudding with sour cream; all the while being careful to accommodate any dietary requirements.
Comfort Food Cabaret offers a truly unique and delicious experience that you won’t get anywhere else at the Fringe. Michelle has a simply beautiful voice and a talent for cooking; essentially a hostess with the mostess.
She is well supported by a team of cooks and her talented maestro, Aaron.
The cookery school have a great set up for the food element but the venue lacks atmosphere and was a little precious about it’s already stained carpet – so they wouldn’t sell red wine. Let’s hope Michelle Pearson returns in 2019 to an atmospheric restaurant in the heart of Edinburgh. She’s sure to be a sell out.
