Recently in Cookery schools Category

Laverstoke Park, former Formula One world champion Jody Scheckter's organic farm in Hampshire, is to open a cookery school this summer.

Headed up by Paul Blake, who previously ran the Fine Food School in Dorset, the school will open next month offering a variety of courses which in addition to recipes and cooking methods will also highlight the importance of food provenance.

The school will be located at the heart of the 2,500 acre Laverstoke Park and will offer customers the chance to meet the farmers and understand the practices and philosophies of biodynamic farming.

Courses on offer will include subjects such as Cheap Cuts and Offal; Field to Fork with Pork, Lamb, Beef or Buffalo; BBQing; Curing, Smoking and Sausage Making; and a seasonal course on Game.

Scheckter founded Laverstoke Park in 1996, which today has the only licensed Soil Foodweb laboratory in Europe.

Kenneth Culhane a sous chef at contract caterer BaxterStorey has been named the 2010 Roux Scholar.

Culhane, who works at the group's contract at Level 31 Barclays in London, won the title following a fierce cook-off in the kitchens of Westminster Kingsway College yesterday (29 March).

Competitors were asked to cook filet of beef en croûte à la Bisontine with pommes duchesse and sauce béarnaise in two hours and fifteen minutes after they were given extra time to complete the dish.
 
Their culinary skills were judged by a panel of industry experts headed by scholarship founders Michel and Albert Roux and their respective sons, Alain and Michel Jnr. The panel also included David Nicholls, Gary Rhodes, Brian Turner and guest judge James Martin, as well as the competition's inaugural scholar Andrew Fairlie.

Culhane, who competed alongside his colleague Kevin Sutherland in the final, has won prizes including a week's paid work experience in New York, courtesy of Compass Group's Restaurant Associates, an expenses-paid trip to Champagne Gosset in Ay and a trip to visit the Caffe Musetti roasting factory in Milan.

Speaking after the award ceremony, Michel Roux said: "Kenneth was able to handle the pressure and he was very clear in his mind that he wanted to win the competition. He was beautifully organised and his method of work brought out the best dish of the day."

The five runners up were:

Gemma Almond, the General Tarleton, Ferrensby, N Yorks
Mark Birchall, L'Enclume, Cartmel, Cumbria
Stephen Stevens, Cleifiog Uchaf, Anglesey
Kevin Sutherland, BaxterStorey, Barclays, London
Kevin Tew, Corrigan's, Mayfair, London

Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay has abandoned this year's Gordon Ramsay Scholarship due to a lack of funding.

A spokeswoman for the chef said that the Gordon Ramsay Scholar, which was launched in 2001, "is being rested this year" due to a lack of sponsorship.

But she added that "exciting new plans" involving the scholarship and Tante Marie cookery school in Woking, Surrey, would be announced soon.

Dropping the Gordon Ramsay Scholar is the latest blow for the celebrity chef, who this year has seen profits in his company plummet by 90%, and has given up control of many of its overseas restaurants, including those in Paris, Los Angeles and Prague.

Many of the seven previous Gordon Ramsay scholars have gone on to establish themselves in successful head chef roles, including Tristan Welch at Launceston Place, and Marcus Eaves at the Michelin-starred L'Autre Pied.

Last year's scholar was Stephen Hope, junior sous chef at the Great Room restaurant at the Merchant hotel in Belfast. His prize haul included a new car, £5,000 in cash, a set of Wusthof knives, a £10,000 oven for the Great Room restaurant kitchens, a signature Bragard jacket and a commemorative trophy.

He also won the opportunity to complete a three-city stage, training with chefs in Gordon Ramsay's signature restaurants in London, Paris and New York.

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!