Best Summer Cookery Schools

05 May 2014
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3 min read
Start planning your Summer around these FOUR cookery schools…
The EUROPA 2 Cooking School

Sail through Western and Eastern Mediterranean for seven days on board the Europa 2 cruise ship, kick back and enjoy a gourmet cookery class. Fine-dining aficionados can hone their cooking skills under the guidance of their Tarragon chef. The chefs will entertain you in the kitchen equipped with high-quality MIELE appliances as they teach you how to conjure up haute cuisine and creatively present it on the table.

hl-cruises.com

Stirred, Italy

An historic 15thCentury villa in the foothills of the Dolomites provides the setting for this Italian culinary experience. Under the supervision of expert chefs, guests are immersed in thetastes, sights, smells, and culture of one of the most evocative parts of Northern Italy.

Using the area’s seasonal produce, you will learn to create classic Italian dishes such as Osso Buco with Saffron Risotto, and Spaghetti a la Vongole, learning new techniques and becoming acquainted with an exciting array of regional ingredients over the week-long courses.

As well as cooking classes, there are trips to the Rialto fish and fresh foods markets to pick up some of the best seasonal produce to bring back for classes; seasonal truffle-hunting trips are organized; and opportunities to experience the local food in the area’s restaurants.

All of this while staying in a beautiful, sun-blessed hotel, with luxury rooms and amenities…you can’t get much more of an authentic Italian cooking experience. La vita è bella!

stirredtravel.com

Course dates: 8th to 14th June; 15th to 21st June;7th to 13th September;14th to 20th September;21st to 27th September; 12th to 18th October.

Prices: £2,400 per person (£250 single supplement)

The package includes: Six nights’ accommodation, tuition, food, wine, trips, tours and tasting (unless otherwise stated), transfers to and from Venice Airport at recommended pick-up and departure times.

The Thinking Traveller, Sicily

The Thinking Traveller organises a variety of fine-dining cookery schools for guests staying in one of their villas. In Palazzo Lanza Tomasi – a beautiful mid-18thcentury palace – guests are taught how to cook some typically Sicilian dishes, from buying the ingredients for your class at Palermo’s markets, to being taught how to make traditional Sicilian recipes by the Duchess of Palma’s daughter-in-law.

Cooking lesson with Katia Amore – one of Sicily’s best cookery teachers and food experts – in Modica gives you the opportunity to get to grips with the area’s produce, and marry all the flavours to create your own menu. Later, your feast is yours to enjoy, accompanied by some excellent Sicilian wines.

Also on offer is a hands on cooking lessons, wine tasting and oil tasting with Planeta’s La Foresteria in Menfi, amongst rolling hills, with sea views and vineyards. Here Chef Angelo Pumilia guides you through some of the tastiest traditional Sicilian recipes, and gives you a tour of the beautiful area.

thethinkingtraveller.com

Lucknam Park Cookery School

The School offers a unique opportunity for anyone who enjoys cooking to perfect their skills and master new techniques through a variety of innovative courses led by Chef Hrishikesh Desai with the guidance of Lucknam Park’s Michelin starred Executive Chef Hywel Jones.

Hrishikesh Desaiis heading up the cookery school. Desai, aged 32, has been at Lucknam Park for seven years and already has many accolades to his name, having won the prestigious Roux Scholarship in 2009 followed by the coveted National Chef of the Year Award in 2010.

The Cookery Schoolis located in a small house on the estate, just a short walk from the hotel.Chef Desai’s courses will feature a strong emphasis on fresh ingredients and nutrition, and many of the dishes will include home grown seasonal produce from Lucknam Park’s kitchen garden and fresh herbs picked from the cookery school’s own herb garden.

Course dates: The School is open Monday to Friday and day courses run from 9am to 4.30pm, we do ask for students to arrive at 8.30am to get ready for 9am start. Half day courses run from 8.30am – 12.30pm and from 1.30pm until 4.30pm.

Prices: Each one day course is £175 per person including all ingredients, lunch, course folder, Cookery School bag and use of apron and chef jacket throughout the day. The Adult and Child and Kids Only courses are priced at £75 per person.

lucknampark.co.uk

Cooks, The Carlton School of Cooks

Located in the Yorkshire, this newly opening school offera range of courses available for you to enjoy from Wild Cooking to Artisan Bread and Back to Basics with Fish. Cooks, The Carlton School of Food strives to bemore than just a cookery school and more of aplace to discover food. Learn to grow, cook, photograph or write about food. Bake, butcher, forage, preserve, get back to basics or further hone your skills. Explore the kitchen wisdom from the past, or the daring foods of the future.

The setting in 250 acres of parkland is glorious. The school is in the original kitchens of the historic Carlton Towers, Carlton near Selby, Yorkshire. Carlton Towers is an ancestral home belonging to the Duke of Norfolk’s family and home to the Duke’s brother and sister-in-law, Lord and Lady Gerald Fitzalan Howard.

Cooks welcome everyone, from the absolute novice to the professional chef, the enthusiastic amateur, gap year student or those already running food-led businesses.

cooksatcarlton.co.uk

Stirred images© Sean Knott

Lucknam Park image© Lucknam Park