Thirty years ago last month (October), I published my first cookbook. A tiny little, 32 page, effort called The Perfect Cheesecake. It launched a veritable empire, not to say a relatively successful career.

But that was not the intention. What I had in mind, from the get go, was a way to encourage people to cook, and to eat well, using readily available and not very expensive but good quality ingredients.

With more people nowadays realising that they want and need to cook for themselves and their families but without the necessary skills, straightforward instruction is more important than it has been for a long time.

Adults have not been taught to cook at school and many have not been taught to cook at home. They watch celebrity chefs on television but then discover that putting into practice what they saw an expert do is not as easy as it looks.

What, then, is to be done? There are cooking schools around and many are good, albeit time consuming and expensive. They may be far from home and not very convenient. But there are places to learn, all over the country. I recently tracked down one of them not very far from my own home in Oxfordshire.

Belinda Hill opened Stirring Stuff in 2005 after several years of professional teaching on other people’s turf. Luckily for her, there was a convenient 17th century barn in her garden and she managed to raise enough money to kit it out.

Maintaining that “great food is a source of life and vitality, sharing and generosity”, she aims to “inspire you to cook and to discover new ingredients and cuisines, and above all to enjoy the experience we offer at the cookery school.”

Stirring Stuff is all about small, hands-on classes designed to instil confidence. Courses cover everything from kitchen confidence and knife skills to entertaining as well as a number of different cuisines.

Some are designed for children and teenagers, others for men. Still others are tailor-made for groups of friends.

Having started to build a reputation for enthusiasm and good food, Belinda is also working with organisations sending groups of employees to learn how to cook while having a bit of fun and getting to know each other better. That is, building her own business as well as others’.

www.stirringstuff.co.uk

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By Bernice Hurst  on   Nov 13,2008

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Keywords

cooking    food    skills    training    schools    enthusiasm   

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