Alain Ducasse opens Paris cookery school

French über-chef Alain Ducasse yesterday opened a new cookery school in Paris aimed at mere mortals wanting to improve their culinary skills.

The Ecole de Cuisine Alain Ducasse, which is located in the French capital's posh 16th arrondissement, is designed to let amateur cooks recreate his multi-Michelin-starred cuisine at home. Well, maybe not quite.

According to Emanuelle Perrier, director of PR, one of the most important aspects of the school is that "you can honestly be completely useless in the kitchen".

The Ecole caters for all different types of wannabe chefs and offers two different levels: experienced and inexperienced. There are ten different courses on offer with topics ranging from "traditional" to "escapist" and "gourmet cuisine", with classes lasting half a day or a full day depending on the subject.

And that's not where it ends: the Ecole de Cuisine Alain Ducasse also offers wine-appreciation and pastry-making courses and there are even English-speaking chefs for the non-French-speaking students.

Hoorah!