The north-west seems to suffer from a dearth of cookery schools -- all the ads in the cookery magazines are for places down south or in the north-east -- so this little gem of a place is a real find. Set in a truly beautiful part of the country, the school is still close enough to the motorway network to be very accessible by car.
I went on a meat course about 8 months ago and was very, very impressed: right from the start (when we had a warm welcome with some pastries) I knew it would be a good day. There were 10 of us on the course, which meant the chef who led the day was able to give us individual attention when we needed it (quite often in my case). The kitchen upstairs was well appointed and we could easily see what was going on when chef demonstrated various techniques. All the ingredients were provided for the four dishes that we made. and all of them were very tasty -- one of them we ate for lunch, and three we took home. The luncheon dessert, prepared by the chef whilst we were working on Dish Number Two, was a real highlight.
The day was quite expensive (although not as expensive as other courses I've seen advertised) but it was worth every penny. read more
