Let’s be honest, I am not an experienced chef and most of the beautiful pictures of food many of you admire on my Instagram are of the dishes made for me at the restaurants I dine at. Nevertheless, I love a challenge and I decided to eat out less and learn how to prepare some delicious dishes at home. As my family is joining me and my husband for Christmas this year, I decided to impress them and attended ‘Christmas Entertaining’ class at Leiths School of Food and Wine.
Location:
Leiths School of Food and Wine is located in a quiet area of West London close to Shepherds Bush. It is easily reachable by a public transport.
Classes:
Leiths School of Food and Wine is the most prestigious and respected cookery school in the UK and it offers a range of classes for all ages and abilities in addition to longer courses and professional certificate and diploma qualification for aspiring chefs. You can learn many practical skills ranging from discovering world food recipes to knife skills to healthy eating as well as masterclasses with guest chefs. If you wish to polish up your cooking skills or simply learn some new recipes then I would suggest you to check a range of themed classes. They will help you to understand how to cook perfect curries, sauces, desserts or a perfect steak to name a few. The school has a purpose-built demonstration theatre, seating 40, as well as 4 fully-equipped teaching kitchens, each accommodating 16 students.
My experience:
I arrived at Leiths School of Food and Wine around 15 minutes before the class started and I was welcomed by a friendly receptionist who asked me to wait on the first floor with other attendees. There were some pastries as well as coffee and teas provided.
Our class begun with an introduction to Angela – a very friendly and approachable chef who taught our class that is also running her own successful catering business. We were put in pairs as our class comprised of a mixture of hands on cookery and demonstrations performed by Angela.
We all had an opportunity to practice preparing some dishes to get confident in creating a perfect Christmas meal and to entertain friends and family in style during the festive season. I was positively surprised by how simple and effortless our menu was. Most dishes were designed in a way that they can be partly prepared ahead to enable you to spend more time with your guests and enjoy their company.
The dishes we created during the class included:
- Hot smoked trout with roasted beetroot and watercress;
- Marinated venison steaks and red wine sauce, with braised cabbage and thyme rosti;
- Plum streusel tartlets with calvados cream.
To sum up, I really enjoyed the whole experience of attending the class at Leiths School of Food and Wine and got confidence in preparing the dishes we created during our hands-on cooking which was overseen by our approachable teacher – Angela. The whole experience runs like clockwork and I would recommend these classes to anyone who would like to polish their cooking skills. Whether you are an amateur or a cook you will definitely find a class or a course at Leith’s that will improve your skills.
What’s great about this cooking classes is that at the end of each session you have an opportunity to sit down with fellow students and enjoy what you prepared with a glass of wine or some elderflower water. I was impressed by everything we cooked on the day!
If you are still looking for a Christmas gift then Leiths School of Food and Wine offers a range of gift vouchers (from £50-£900) which would be a perfect present for a food-loving friend or family member.
To book your place on the next available course or class visit:
Address:
Leiths School of Food and Wine,
16-20 Wendell Road,
W12 9RT London
X
Pauline
firstclasslounge.net 