Chapters
- 01. Cooking Courses at Culinary Schools and Universities
- 02. Culinary Institute of America at Hyde Park (Hyde Park, New York, USA)
- 03. Culinary Institute of Canada at Holland College (Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada)
- 04. The Sydney Seafood School (Sydney, Austrlia)
- 05. Cooking Lessons from/by Famous Chefs
- 06. Private Cooking Tutorials
- 07. Online Cooking Tutorials
Would you like to attend a prestigious cooking school?
Here’s a list of the best cooking courses and cookery classes London for aspiring chefs. Whether you want to learn to bake, cook foreign cuisine, or make meals for your family, there are plenty of places to learn to cook. No more pasta in a tin or soup in a mug for you!
Cooking Courses at Culinary Schools and Universities
These are the kinds of places where you can learn to cook from the best of the best. If you dream of becoming a famous professional chef or honing your culinary skills, you should attend a class at one of the following educational institutions.
Westminster Kingsway College (London)
This is the college Jamie Oliver attended to get his NVQ and Professional Chef Diploma. Other famous alumni include: Selin Kiazim, Antony Worrall Thompson, Sophie Wright, and Ainsley Harriott.
Their Professional Chef Diploma is the UK's first professional cooking qualification. There are three main options for students to focus on when they reach their third year of study: cuisine, patisserie and confectionery, or restaurant management.
In addition to the focused pathways available in the third year, students get instruction in butchery and fishmongery, practical cuisine, pâtisserie and bakery, health, safety, and food hygiene, etc.
University of West London
The University of West London offers a variety of different culinary degrees and diplomas such as the BSc (Hons) in Culinary Arts Management, MA in Food Business Management, Diploma in Chefs Apprenticeship, and Certificate in General Patisserie and Confectionery.
While this university offers a broader range of levels for those wanting to cook professionally, there aren't many options for those who just want to improve their cooking with a hands on demonstration (like a cooking class).
Tante Marie Culinary Academy (London)
You can find this culinary school in Woking (20 minutes from central London). The main qualification offered is the Cordon Bleu Diploma. Students have been learning how to prepare the finest cuisine since the programme sarted in 1954. This course will cost you between £17,950 and £21,850.
If you're looking for something less serious and just want someone to teach you how to make a tasty homemade dish, there are also cooking classes where a chef will can help you improve your skills. There are also lessons for kids and teens learning how to cook.
Royal Academy of Culinary Arts (London)
The Royal Academy of Culinary Arts was set up in 1980 and offers a Master of Culinary Arts. This is a highly selective course and only for those with at least 10 years of experience as a chef, pastry chef, or in restaurant management and service. Three of these years need to be at a senior level!
There are also apprenticeships offered by the academy. This option is for some very serious chefs at the top of their culinary career.
Le Cordon Bleu (London)
This is a culinary arts, wine and management school that was founded in the early 1930s with a focus on the cooking techniques that were being taught to gourmet French chefs. There are four main culinary arts diplomas offered by the school:
- cuisine
- pâtisserie
- boulangerie
- gastronomy and nutrition
They also offer short courses on various techniques, summer cooking courses, wine tasting, and cake decorating. These courses can be as short as two hours or as long as three weeks. These could be ideal for amateur chefs who want to get better at preparing pastry or gain some fundamental knife skills (in the kitchen, of course!).
The longer courses (such as the Grand Diplôme) can cost nearly £35,000 for 9 months. This is the kind of course where you will learn the art of cooking, every single technique, and all the cooking methods that the worlds best chefs have mastered. Of course, since you'll learn how to prepare a large variety of dishes, you'll be expected to handle seafood, veal (amongst other meats), and alcohol. This is not an option for home cooks just catering to their family.
Culinary Institute of America at Hyde Park (Hyde Park, New York, USA)
The Culinary Institute of America (another CIA) was founded in the 1940s and is considered the United States' best cooking school. This is one of the few not-for-profit cooking schools in the US and the first to offer degrees in Culinary Arts.
The school now offers degrees in:
- Food Business Management
- Applied Food Studies
- Culinary Science
- Culinary Arts
- Baking and Pastry Arts
Culinary Institute of Canada at Holland College (Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada)
The Culinary Institute of Canada is thought to be the country's finest cooking school. There are four main programmes offered by the school:
- Certified Culinary Scientist Preparatory Courses
- Culinary Arts
- International Hospitality Management
- Pastry Arts
The Sydney Seafood School (Sydney, Austrlia)
As you might have guessed, this school specialises in fish and seafood. If this sounds like your kind of thing, you're unlikely to find anything like it elsewhere in the world.
Cooking Lessons from/by Famous Chefs
What's better than attending a cooking school run by a famous chef where you can learn how to prepare their signature dishes?
Of course, these lessons are rarely taught by the chefs themselves (they have restaurants and TV shows keeping them busy). However, you will get a demonstration on preparing the recipes from an experienced culinary instructor.
A lot of these lessons are offered as experience days offered by companies such as Virgin Experience Days and Red Letter Days. Of course, this means that these courses are better as an enjoyable hands on gourmet experience than attending a culinary school and taking a course in the art of cookery.
That's not to say that they wouldn't make a great gift for someone who likes cooking homemade food from scratch and could do with a little more help than their cookbook can offer them.
If you run an office, these kinds of experiences can also make for entertaining team building days out.
Private Cooking Tutorials
Don’t worry if you don’t live near a cookery school or don't want to attend one, you can learn to cook no matter where you live thanks to private tutors. The main benefit to working with a private tutor is flexibility; you can choose what you learn and you have more control over the recipes you cook.
If there's a certain cookbook you want to work on or a certain cooking skill you want to master, a tutor can put together a plan for your tutorials with these in mind. Thanks to shows like MasterChef and The Great British Bake Off, more and more people want to learn how to cook at home and it's not hard to find books on cooking or baking!
Private tutorials are also a better option for those with dietary requirements. If you're vegetarian, vegan, or have any allergies or intolerances, your cooking instructor will be able to help you with the preparation of a recipe for you.
The culinary classes provided by tutors often tend to follow a theme or cooking style. Anyone who wants to learn how to create meals from certain countries should look for private tutors.
If you love cooking, you’ll love private tutorials with a cooking tutor.
Are you looking for chefs near you at affordable rates?
If you want to learn to cook like a professional chef, you can find a cooking teacher on Superprof. Easy, right?
Online Cooking Tutorials
As crazy as it may seem, you can attend a virtual cooking class with a chef on the other side of the world. No matter what dish you want to make, you can learn how to make it like a professional.
In the digital age, there are plenty of interesting cooking classes available over the internet. These lessons can still be interactive as participants can send their questions to the chef who’ll respond to them directly. On the other hand, you can’t press pause like you’d be able to on a pre-recorded cooking video.
The best thing about teaching an online cooking class: you can have as many students as you want! You can learn how to make great meals for your family for just a few pennies.
You should check out the testimonials of other students who “attended” the class to see if the course or lesson is right for you.
If you’re looking for a certain type of cooking class, such as learning how to bake or make your own dough, you can look for a cooking teacher on Superprof.
You can find tutors who’ve got loads of experience working in professional kitchens. Additionally, if you're a vegetarian, vegan, have allergies or other dietary requirements, you can focus on a specific ingredient or cooking style.
Discover the history of cooking, here.
See the different types of cooking classes here.
Here are the most prestigious cooking classes in UK.
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