“No one is born a great cook, one learns by doing” - Julia Child
If you’ve ever experienced curiosity about how the delicious food on your plate came into creation, you’ve come to the right place.
Get your chef hat on and discover how to be better at cooking and how to recreate your favourite dishes from around the world.
Feel inspired by experts who are passionate about food, and find ways to get your family involved too (unless the idea of other people in your kitchen makes steam pour from your ears …)
Here are eight sensational cooking courses that will help you achieve all of the above, revolutionising the tasty cuisine coming out of your kitchen.
Padstow Seafood School
Riverside, Padstow
Fresh seafood cooked to perfection can be a joyous experience for your taste buds. But the skills required to cook this tricky ingredient so expertly can be difficult to build on your own. So, if it’s your goal to become a connoisseur of seafood, Rick Stein’s Padstow Seafood School could be your best stepping stone.
Discover how to marry tastes of the ocean with delectable flavour combinations while overlooking Cornwall’s stunning Camel Estuary. An exceptional array of wine is yours to enjoy, and you get to eat everything you cooked under expert tutelage.
Price: £95 for a half day. £1,690 for a four-day residential course.
Cordon Vert Cookery School
Parkdale, Dunham Road, Altrincham
Are you a recent vegetarian? Or has it been a lifestyle choice for years? Perhaps you’ve just decided to go vegan and feel a little overwhelmed by your new dietary restrictions. Cordon Vert Cookery School was created for people like you and has been around since 1982.
Recognised as the World’s top vegetarian cooking school, a course here will help you gain a greater understanding of vegetarian and vegan food (and gluten-free food if you fancy), giving you techniques and recipes to take away that will transform your at-home green menu.
Price: £195 for an evening class, £1678.70 for a Professional Diploma
School of Wok
61 Chandos Place, London
Learn how to cook Asian food so great you’ll never have to eat out to savour your favourite Thai, Chinese or Japanese dish again. Based in Covent Garden, the School of Wok draws its inspiration (and ingredients) from nearby China Town.
Explore the nearby markets and learn vital information about cooking with Asian food. The tutors here are known for being both patient and informative, and with the free-flowing wine and artisan beers, you’ll be cooking mouthwatering dishes in a deliciously relaxing environment.
Price: £95 for half a day. £750 for a five-day course.
Ballymaloe
Shanagarry, Co. Cork, Ireland
Eating what you cook from a course at Ballymaloe is closest to wild eating you can get (without the risk of snacking on poisonous berries!) Formed by celebrity chef Darina Allen and Rory O’Connell, the school uses the freshest of ingredients sourced from its one-hundred acre organic farm; it’s no surprise that Ballymaloe’s defining principle is sustainability.
So, if you’re looking to learn wholesome clean-eating recipes that endorse green living, this charming cooking school residing in wild Ireland will deliver in fantastic ways.
Price: £30 - £175 for half a day, £5,585 for five weeks
The Avenue Cookery School
3 Enterprise Way, Wandsworth, London
Thinking of getting your family more involved in the kitchen? The Avenue Cookery School can help you. This is a family-run business with a friendly and fun vibe; learning how to cook here is something to enjoy rather than endure!
There are a plethora of classes to choose from, with some specially aimed at children while others are centered around a specific ingredient, like fish. Or perhaps you want to brush up your chopping skills. Take a knife class and never fear the onion again.
Course prices vary
Food at 52
96 Central Street, London
Vietnamese, Italian, Moroccan, Southern Indian, and Spanish cuisine; learn how to cook all of these different types of dishes at Food 52. The choice is entirely up to you, with separate classes for each gastronomy.
And the recipes are easy to follow, giving you a prime opportunity to build your confidence if you feel a little uneasy in the kitchen. And the best part? Make sure you go into your class hungry because at the end you’ll be devouring everything you make!
Course prices vary
Burro e Salvia
252 Lordship Lane, East Dulwich, London
Burro e Salvia is all about pasta (and nothing else, but when you love pasta, do you care?) Take a course here and discover the secrets behind cooking Italy’s finest pasta from scratch.
Burro e Salvia’s pasta workshop will teach you how to create Italy’s staples like lasagne and tagliatelle, to more complicated shapes such as tortellini or cardinali. And if you really want to test yourself, book a Semolina course and work with water-based dough (serve your friends the unique ear-shaped orecchiette and they’ll be talking about it for days!)
Price: £45 - £65 for one hour or one and a half hours.
“Great cooking favors the prepared hands.” - Jacques Pepin
Now you have an incredible selection of cooking schools to choose from. So identify what you want to learn, whether it’s brushing up your skills with a knife and chopping board or your ability to recreate a dish you’ll never want to stop eating.
- Then embark on an expertly run (and fun) cooking course, and gain newfound love and confidence for producing food that will satisfy and exceed your expectations.
