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Waitrose Cookery School is the one-stop shop to achieve a sparkling culinary performance this Christmas

Waitrose

8 November 2010

The Waitrose Cookery School will open its doors in London next week offering 25 different food and drink courses. Culinary classes will commence just-in-time for Brits looking to polish rusty scratch-cooking skills ahead of the festive season. The classes will also provide the perfect solution for shoppers looking for ‘experience’ Christmas presents.Staffed by a seven-strong professional chef team, four of whom have worked in Michelin-star kitchens, the Waitrose Cookery School will deliver expertise and theatre to students.Not only will these chef teachers show students how to be confident cooks but also how to get the best from local, seasonal and more exotic ingredients. Customers can already buy courses from its timetable, which commences on November 8th 2010 when the school will open above the Waitrose John Barnes branch on Finchley Road in north London. Whether you want to improve your basic proficiency through a ‘Knife Skills’ workshop or discover how to deliver an ‘of Art Michelin Star’ dinner party to impress friends, the school has something to offer everyone from beginners to more accomplished cooks this autumn. Learn how to make ‘Spanish Tapas’ in a masterclass in time for your Christmas drinks party or what to cook the family on the 26th of December in the school’s ‘Boxing Day Leftovers’ session. With its broad and varied timetable, the school is also the perfect place to find presents for family and friends this Christmas. Opt for the ‘Thai’ course to remind your husband of your Honeymoon, a ‘Petit Fours’ lesson for your sweet-toothed Mother-in-Law or the ‘Comfort Food’ class to nourish your best friend. Courses offered by the school are both half and full-days as well as shorter demonstrations. The school will open from Monday to Friday. Each one day course will run from 9.30am until 4.30pm at a cost of £175 including all ingredients, wine and equipment. The half day courses start at 9.30am and finish at 2.00pm or commence at 5.30pm and end by 9.00pm. These shorter courses will be £105 including all ingredients, wine and equipment. Evening and morning demonstrations, which will last between two to three hours depending on course, are approximately £65 including food and wine. For corporate customers, the Waitrose Cookery School will offer team building days which offer venue exclusivity, guest chef lectures and more. If you wish to buy a course for yourself or a masterclass as a gift for a family or friend you can call the telephone booking line 020 7372 6108 or visit the website www.waitrose.com/cookeryschool Waitrose Marketing Director, Rupert Thomas says: “Waitrose shares a love of food and drink with our customers. Across our business we have enormous expertise, which we aim to pass onto our customers.“We are delighted to be the very first supermarket to open a cookery school. Our team of chefs have experience at some of the best restaurants across Britain to ensure Waitrose will deliver the best possible cookery lessons.”Waitrose Executive Chef, Neil Nugent adds: “We want to inspire the nation to move from just watching cookery programmes to actually cooking and experimenting with new ingredients.”Courses offered in November and December 2010 will include:- • Thai Food- One day• The Art of Michelin Star - One day• Seasonal Dinner Party Menu - One day• Boxing Day Left Overs - One day• South East Asian Cookery - One day• Breadmaking - One Day• Wine & Food Matching - Half day• Spanish Tapas - Half day evening• Comfort Food - Half day• Introduction to Sauces - Half day morning• Japanese - Half day• Fish and Seafood - Half day• Knife Skills - Half day morning or evening• Pasta and Risotto - Half day• Canapes and Cocktails - Half day• Afternoon Tea Cakes - Half day• Hands-on Chocolate Class - Half day• Michelin-Star Pastry (desserts) - Half day• Traditional Christmas Dinner - Half day• Canapes - Half day evening• Wine and Cheese Course - Half day• Cupcakes - Half day• Petit Fours - Half day• Macaroons - Half day evening• Traditional British Desserts - Half day New courses for 2011 will also be published later this year and available via www.waitrose.com EndsNotes to Editors BackgroundWaitrose will be the first UK supermarket to own and operate a cookery school. The cookery school is located above the retailer’s Finchley Road (John Barnes) branch in north London. The 4,600 ft² cookery school comprises a theatre, teaching area, dining area, bar and kitchen. The Team includes:Gordon McDermott, Waitrose Cookery School Course Manager• Gordon is a professional chef with 16 years experience under his whites. • One of the highlights of his career was Head Chef Teacher at Rick Steins’ Cookery School in Padstow. He taught 16,640 people in four years. He also established and ran the Anton Mosimann Cookery School in London.• Living in London for over ten years, Gordon worked at some of the capital’s best restaurants including the Savoy Hotel, Bank Restaurant London, Quaglino’s restaurant London and the People’s Palace Royal Festival Hall London. • Gordon is an accomplished TV chef with experience comprising Good Food Live, Taste (Sky 1) and South West Television. • He has even cooked for The Queen on her Birthday as well as working on various cookbooks.James Bennington, Waitrose Cookery School Head Chef• James followed his passion for food from an early age. Leaving University in his native North East, James came to London in 1997 where he began his career in professional kitchens.• He started as a kitchen porter for Group Chez Gerard and quickly gained experience at restaurants including Bertorelli’s, Scott’s and Cafe Fish.• In 2001 he joined the critically acclaimed, Michelin-starred restaurant, Chez Bruce in Wandsworth. After two years at Chez Bruce, James became Senior Sous Chef.• His big break came in 2005 when he became Head Chef of La Trompette, which at that time did not have a Michelin star.• After three years leading this popular West London restaurant, James achieved his biggest success to date gaining a Michelin Star in 2008. • He continued to hold the star at La Trompette until he left this summer to join the Waitrose Cookery School.James Campbell, Waitrose Cookery School Head Chef Pastry• James is a pastry chef with over 20 years experience in five different one-star Michelin restaurants. • As a young Scot, James left school at 17 years old, to commence his career at Cameron House Hotel, Loch Lomond. • Since then his cooking career has taken him all over the world. Highlights of period include working for Restaurant Bathers Pavilion in Sydney. • He worked under Gary Rhodes for five years culminating in him becoming Group Head Pastry Chef at just 24 years old. Championing the dessert menus at five restaurants - two with one Michelin star, he managed a team in charge of delivering 300 puddings a day.• He has catered for some of the world’s biggest stars including Sting, U2 and Yoko Ono.• He was also Head Pastry Chef at the award-winning Mandarin Oriental Hotel. As part of the role he ran cookery courses and did cooking demonstrations as far afield as Malaysia. • He has recently been made a member of the Academy of Culinary Arts. Wilson Chung, Waitrose Cookery School Sous Chef • Wilson is a warm, friendly Australian chef.• He has had the opportunity to work across magazines, TV and in some of Australia's best restaurants as a chef, bar manager, food stylist and writer. • His passion for food began growing up in a family of chefs and foodies, with almost every member of the family still in the food industry. • After a short stint in the world of marketing and advertising, the world of hospitality beckoned and Wilson quickly gained experience running bars and nightclubs. • What followed was a foray into the world of food, organising and managing the food for Ready Steady Cook and Masterchef Australia amongst food styling for TV commercials, writing for magazines and running private and corporate cooking lessons and demonstrations through his company Home Cook Hero. • Highlights include running the kitchen at the 2009 Sydney Good Food & Wine Show and teaching members of the police force how to cook! • Wilson's food philosophy is to source fantastic ingredients, give them some love through great technique and above all to enjoy yourself and have a laugh in the kitchen! Jon Jones, Waitrose Cookery School Chef Trainer Jon fell in love with cooking at school and was voted most likely to become the new Naked Chef, which he says is a “work in progress”. He gained a place at Bournemouth College on the Specialised Chef Scholarship, sponsored by Waitrose, which took three years to complete. It was a work-based course and he did his apprenticeship at Langans Brasserie in Mayfair. After gaining a distinction on the Scholarship he went to work in Ibiza for eight months. On his return to England, he started to work at Fortnum and Mason. Within two and a half years he worked his way up to become Junior Sous Chef and also got to the final of the Academy of Culinary Arts awards of excellence. After he worked for outside catering, events and parties before moving to Whitechapel Dining Room, a two rosette restaurant as a Junior Sous Chef. At Whitechapel he learnt a lot about local seasonal produce using modern and classical techniques. Eleni Tzirki Waitrose Cookery School Sous Chef and Trainee Pastry Chef For the past five years Eleni has been a part of the catering industry, working in a number of kitchens, expanding her knowledge and love for food. Her love for pastry began at home due to her mother’s passion for cookery.She began her pastry career in her home town Leicester where she worked for a small pastry shop for one year. She then moved to London in order to further embark on her passion for cookery. She worked at the Ritz Hotel for three years and learnt a great deal.She then joined Pierre Koffmann at Selfridges where she worked at the Restaurant on the Roof. Her last role was as part of the team to launch the new restaurant opening at Bistro Bruno Loubet. Claire Lanza, Waitrose Cookery School Chef Trainer Claire was brought up in the UK but her Italian father has instilled in her a love of good food.As a child, Claire spent every summer at her family home in Lombardy Italy where she got a taste for Italian food. She studied Modern Languages at Bristol where she spent a year based in Italy’s gastronomic heart Modena.In 2010 Claire travelled around Italy working as Gary Rhodes personal Sous Chef for his Good Food Channel television series ‘Rhodes Across Italy’. Claire worked in the wine trade before committing to a career in catering. Since it is one of the best places to train, Claire then signed up to gain the Leith’s Diploma in Food and Wine. After Leith’s Claire joined the John Lewis Partnership where she was part of a team of chefs to debut the John Lewis Food Hall format. Claire recently spent one year as a Chef at Recipease, which is Jamie Oliver’s cookery school.She is perfectly placed to encourage home cooks since she has also worked as a live-in private chef. Skiing is Claire’s other passion and she has also been a Chalet Manager, which involved training Chalet Girls to deliver menus for guests.Karen Himsworth, Waitrose Cookery School, General Manager• Karen joined Waitrose sixteen years ago and started that career in distribution working for the buyers to place deliveries into branches. • For the last thirteen years for the supermarket, Karen has headed up the Waitrose Customer Events team. • This role gave her chance to broker sponsorship deals with large organisations including TASTE, Hampton Court Palace Music Festival and English Heritage Picnic Concerts. • The sponsorship arrangements also included the relationship with the Academy of Culinary Arts through the Bournemouth Chef Scholarship, where Waitrose funded some places for students. This relationship has been running now for over ten years. • Her event portfolio includes concerts, BBC Good Food Shows, Gardeners World Live events, Agricultural Shows, Country Living shows, British Eventing at Blenheim, Gatcombe and Burleigh.• Karen is an extremely keen cook and Sunday roast is her signature dish. BookingCustomers can book Waitrose Cookery School courses via the telephone booking line 020 7372 6108 or online via www.waitrose.com/cookeryschool