Do you love cooking as much as I do? I’ve always said, if I won the lottery, the first thing I’d do is book into cooking school, just so I could cook like a pro chef for myself every night!
Well, my dreams came true last Sunday, when I got to train in the art of pasta with Cookery School at Little Portland Street, London (gifted). My boyfriend and I are big Italian food fans so I wanted to up my game when it came to cooking our favourite dishes!
Here’s how I found the five hour class – and why Cookery School is the most sustainable cooking school in the city…
Compliments to the chef
As I said before, I took Cookery School’s one-day Pasta, Risotto & Gnocchi course. The class was run by Carolina, a jovial yet direct teacher (the best kind) and her assistant Rahnuma who greeted us with fresh doughnuts and cups of tea.
As the only vegetarian on the course, Carolina was super accommodating, adding an extra vegetarian bolognese onto the menu so I could enjoy making each course like everyone else.
The day featured a combination of watching Carolina cook at the main cooking station (with handy mirror for anyone standing too far back to see the worktop), and then following the same steps ourselves. Our class of 10 students was divided into two teams of five, and across the day we made:
- Tagliatelle with fresh pesto
- Spinach and ricotta ravioli in a rich tomato sauce
- Potato gnocchi with crisp sage and sage butter
- Ricotta gnocchi with wild mushroom sauce
- Lasagne sheets with bolognese (+ vegetarian bolognese) and bechamel sauce
- Butternut risotto with vegetable stock
Oh and did I mention? We got to eat it all at the end! I was in bliss across the entirety of my course at Cookery School – so much so that the time flew by! It was only by the time that I sat down to eat did I realise how tired I was from all the learning.
Cookery School’s sustainability credentials
The other thing I loved about this course is how sustainability is so naturally rolled into the class. There’s no single-use plastic used in the school at all, ingredients are freshly-sourced and predominantly organic, and we were taught simple techniques to be more sustainable in the kitchen alongside the food learning.
Even our recipes were sent to us via email, so there’s no paper wastage!
Here’s all of Cookery School’s sustainability credentials, which has earned them the highest rating by the Sustainable Restaurant Association:
- More than 75% of all ingredients used are organic, including all meat, poultry, eggs, root vegetables, fruit and wines
- All fish used are sustainably sourced and no endangered species
- 75% of all ingredients are sourced locally
- All suppliers to Cookery School have to sign a stringent procurement statement
- All kitchens are powered by renewable energy
- Most food is eaten on site, or taken home by chefs, and any food waste is taken to a state-of-the-art plant where it is converted to renewable energy and nutrient rich fertiliser. Peelings and bones are saved to make stock.
- There are seven bins in the kitchen to ensure correct refusal and recycling.
When it came to this course in particular, we learned about the seasonality of certain ingredients (for example, tomatoes are far better from the tin than those on our shelves that have been poorly preserved and have hardly any taste).
I loved the course, and can’t wait to go back for take part in some of their other courses in the near future!
Disclaimer: I was gifted my experience at Cookery School in order to write this review. All views and opinions expressed remain my own.
