Cooking Courses in Britain
Food for Thought: Channel your inner gastronome on a British cooking course
Daniel Allen
Fish and chips, baked beans, black pudding, jam roly poly. These iconic British dishes may be the ultimate in comfort food, but they're hardly the sophisticated fare of Michelin-star chefs.
Yet British cuisine has come a long way since the days of the Happy Eater and novelty TV dinners. Despite its enduring reputation, visitors to the British Isles will soon discover this archipelago is no longer the culinary desert it once was.
As more and more people learn to enjoy the delights of good, healthy food, so Britain has become home to many of the world's greatest chefs and finest restaurants. And with the TV awash with cookery programmes, an ever-growing number of British people are now looking to improve their culinary skills. With cookery schools cropping up like mushrooms - many in idyllic locations - there's never been a better time to take a lesson in progressive British cuisine.
Here's a selection of some of Britain's finest instructional kitchens.
The Bertinet Kitchen, Bath
Founded in 2005 and run by French chef and baker Richard Bertinet, the Bertinet Kitchen cookery school in Bath offers a range of courses for gastronomes of all abilities.
Originally training as a baker in the northwest of France, Bertinet has lived in England since 1988 and is now very much an Anglophile. An impressive roll call of guest chefs regularly drop in to take classes, including Angela Hartnett, Clare Smyth, Mark Hix, Atul Kochhar and Michael Caines.
The school offers a wide range of scheduled classes, ranging in length from one day to one week. These include bread making, pastry, patisserie, cakes and sugar craft, classes focusing on a range of regional and world cusines, and skills-based classes on knife work, saucing, pasta making or patisserie skills like chocolate and sugar work. The majority of classes are hands-on and usually include lunch with wine at the end.
- thebertinetkitchen.com
Curry Cuisine Cookery School, Wakefield
What would contemporary British cuisine be without curry? A finalist in the British Cookery School Awards, the Curry Cuisine Cookery School was established by passionate home cook Prett Tejura in 2007.
Inspired by her Indian heritage and encouraged by her mother - who successfully imparted the secrets of her own culinary expertise - Tejura and her courses now win rave reviews all round, making this corner of West Yorkshire the perfect place to learn about the finer side of Gujarati cuisine.
The Curry Cuisine Cookery School began with highly personalised cookery classes, with one-to-one lessons at Prett's own home. It now offers a full range of courses, ranging from demonstrations and taster evenings to Curry Clubs and Indian Cookery Masterclasses. Tejura also makes her own handcrafted chutneys, spice mixes, dessert sauces and spice infused jams. All her masterclasses cover essential herbs and spices, masala sauce or paste, side dishes and Indian breads.
- currycuisinecookeryschool.co.uk
River Cottage, Devon
Whether you're an amateur foodie, culinary aficionado or budding smallholder, there's a course to suit you at Hugh Fearnley-Whitingstall's bucolic River Cottage, which is based on a 65-acre organic farm in Devon.
All classes are hosted by a team of experts and authors, with a firm focus on local, seasonal produce (cultivated and wild). Courses run for either one, two or four days and include smoked and cured meats, All about Chickens, Booze and Beekeeping, Walk on the Wild Side foraging and cheese making. There's even a gluten-free course and one for feeding small children. Prices start from around £180.
- rivercottage.net
Ashburton Cookery School, Devon
Founded in 1992 by Stella West-Harling, this family run cookery school situated on the edge of Dartmoor offers popular cookery courses from the heart of beautiful Devon.
An early champion of organic food, West-Harling's small vegetarian cookery classes were an overnight sensation, and her one kitchen-operation has steadily evolved into one of Britain's top cookery schools, training up to 60 students a day, seven days a week. Today classes offered range from macarons and Thai food right through to game and professional culinary diplomas.
Accommodation is provided locally for participants and any accompanying non-participating partners.
- ashburtoncookeryschool.co.uk
The Orchards School of Cookery, Worcestershire
Run by two sisters, Lucy and Isabel Bomford, this award-winning cookery school is the perfect place for budding cooks to pick up practical skills. Courses are hands-on, lots of fun, and finish each day with a dinner party.
Situated in Evesham, the school is based in a Georgian style farmhouse on the family farm near the picturesque town of Stratford-upon-Avon. One and two-day courses cost between £165 and £295, with an emphasis on no-stress, dinner party food. Students can stay in one of three cottages adjoining the school for £40 per person, bed and breakfast.
- orchardscookery.co.uk
Edinburgh New Town Cookery School
One of Britain's slickest and most sophisticated cooking schools, the Edinburgh New Town Cookery School (ENTCS) takes up five floors of a Queen Street town house in the city centre of Edinburgh.
The school is owned and run by Fiona Burrell, a former principal of the Leith's School of Food and Wine in London. Spaced over five floors, it boasts top notch facilities and a demonstration theatre that can accommodate 50 people.
Lessons come in all shapes and sizes, from children's cupcake decorating classes to the six-month practical diploma for aspiring professional cooks. A wine school is run by Tom Bruce Gardyne and is made up of various evening tastings, or a longer, four-week course.
- entcs.co.uk
The Chef's Room, Blaenavon, Wales
Based out of a modern kitchen in the World Heritage listed town of Blaenavon in southeast Wales, the Chef's Room abuts the legendary local fishmongers and food shop, Vin Sullivan's.
It is here that experienced food writer and teacher Lindy Wildsmith - together with well known consultant chef Franco Taruschio and a roll call of well known guest chefs - hosts a varied program of cookery lessons.
Topics covered range from popular seasonal Italian classes right through to courses on basic fish and seafood skills, with seafood a particular speciality. Winner of the Best Cookery School in Wales Award in 2012.
- thechefsroom.co.uk