Veering away from the traditional apple tarte tatin, Short used pears. The fruit should be bathed in a sticky, sweet, dark caramel and buried under a blanket of puff pastry. Short’s caramel was way too pale, which left the tart looking a little wan. But maybe I’m just nit-picking, and for Short time was running out.

A big frustration of the class was the camera angle, I was hoping for the focus to be on the food preparation rather than the demonstrator, but this may be because hosting a cooking class via Zoom is something new to navigate.

All the food looked great, but I couldn’t help wondering about the taste. All of my live cookery demos ended in a tasting, where the participants piled their plates and shared their comments on the food, so this time I felt a little cheated.

Then again, this is the new normal of cookery classes, so I’d better get used to it.

Rating: 8/10

• Karen Short of By Worth of Mouth is hosting an array virtual cooking classes with different themes via Zoom. The cost is R150 per class. Visit bywordofmouth.co.za for more information.