cookery school

WHAT'S COOKING IN
THE CLASSROOM?

WHEN Audrey Hepburn in the film Sabrina Fair went to a super-posh cookery school in Paris, on thefirst day she learnt to boil water. On the second, she cracked an egg. I modestly like to think, after several cookery books to my name, I have progressed to at least day three. However, as a day at LucyCooks cookery school in Cumbria proved, there is always something new to learn.

If the school had been giving out prizes, I would have won a prize for the student who made the most mess on the Vegetarian — Thrilling Three Courses day course. And my ricotta cheesecake was only saved thanks to rescue work by chef-instructor Nick Martin. 

Lucy Nicholson opened LucyCooks in 2006 in Staveley as a natural extension to her well-known Ambleside-based deli,café, wine bar andoutside catering mini-empire, a culinary hub shestarted some20 years ago. A dynamic 51-year-old mother-of-four, Lucy’s views on learning to cook are bracing. “Everyone can cook, theyjust don’t know they can,” sheasserts. “It’s just something that needs to be uncorked. This is a cookery school, but there are no marks or homework, it’s about inspiration as well as education.”

The proof, of course, is in the pudding. Having started the day either nervous or over-confident (ahem), we ended with a sense of achievement, some good ideas and enough dinner to take home in cartons for the rest of the week. The most popular courses still tend to be the core ones — meat and fish, for example — but more unusual ones, such as a Taste of Thai, are getting a following. Also proving a hit are family days when mum, dad and kids all cook together.

The participants on my course (which costs £110 for the full day) included life-long veggies, some with a new vegetarian in the family, and others who were vegetarian but ate bacon sandwiches. They ranged from 14-year-old Lucy Turnbull to a pair of grannies. By lunchtime (dishes we had cooked ourselves that morning), everyone had relaxed and had the “What do we think of Delia?” conversation.

Nick had worked out recipes to suit novices and old hands, and set an unhurried pace and tone of friendly banter. Morning coffee and fresh scones consumed, Lucy aprons handed out, kitchen rules and knife skills explained and - off we went.
Nick handed out the printed recipe and demonstratedit, aided by an overhead TV. He explained what we had to do, throwing in tips like currants into cake mix. Then it was our turn to crumble.

Lucy regards the hands-on sessions as vital: “You can see someone demonstrate a recipe and feel very put off, but when you do it yourself and feel the food, it seems far less frightening. Some people who have never lifted a knife come on a fish course and, by the end of the day, fillet like a demon.”
Part of the pleasure of the day was trying out knives, whisks, pots and pans I had previously only eyed up enviously, but the downside was subsequently spending a fortune on new kit. For me, it was the kitchen equivalent of chucking out the chintz.

Thu 15 May 2008