6 Day Really Useful Cooking Course in Wandsworth, London
Basic Cooking Course in London
This listing has one of the 10 most popular offers available in the United Kingdom
This Really Useful Course is great for those who want to learn how to cook from the basics or want to get professional training to get rid of any bad habits. The Really Useful Course will teach you a whole host of useful tips and tricks to move you away from bad cooking for good!
Highlights
- Hands-on cooking
- Wine tasting session included
- Enjoy the food you have prepared in the classes
- The Really Useful Course Avenue Certificate on completion
- Daily breakfast and dinner
- 5 nights accommodation
- An Avenue cookbook
- An Avenue apron
Skill level
- Beginner
Accommodation
You will be provided with accommodation at a family-run bed and breakfast that Avenue has worked closely with for years. Rooms will be separated into male or female shared rooms (this can be more than one other person). A guaranteed private room is available at an extra cost.
Program
The Really Useful Course is for those looking to be taught professionally in order to gain the correct basic foundations of cooking making your time in the kitchen easy and more enjoyable. This course has been designed to guide inexperienced cooks through a week of well-planned, transferable recipes and techniques. We offer hands-on cooking with plenty of help and support, specializing in teaching a true understanding of cookery, so you won’t need to be relying on a cookbook in order to cook for yourself and others. By the end of this intensive program, you will have progressed from a tentative cook to a confident one. You will be surprised how much you will learn!
Each day has 2 demonstrations, both in the morning and at the beginning of the afternoon, getting you ready for your hands-on cooking. You will be cooking everything you eat!
Having completed this course you can follow it with Avenue Cookery School's equally popular Intermediate Cookery Course!
What The Avenue Cookery School offers:
- A fun, sociable, flexible, and informative course
- Intensive daily cooking program
- All equipment and food provided
- Interesting demonstrations
- Cooking without a cookbook
- Fun, warm, and professional teaching
- Useful tips and tricks of the trade
- Budgeting and cooking with leftovers
- Tips on organization and prepping your dishes ahead of time
- Hands-on cooking
- Mind-blowingly delicious recipes
- Delicious lunches
- Wine tasting and origins of alcohol talk
- Well-structured course
- Ingredients, aprons, and equipment provided
- The Avenue Cookbook
- The Avenue apron
- The Really Useful Course Avenue certificate
Skills acquired
- Knife skills
- Variations of baking
- Preparing and cooking a variety of vegetables
- An understanding of ingredients and cooking them
- Rectifying dishes
- Variety of transferable cooking skills and techniques
- Cooking without a recipe book
- Food presentation
- Knowledge of transferable skills and recipes
- Avoiding waste and cooking with leftovers
- *Time management
- Kitchen hygiene
- Kitchen organization
- Quick cooking
- Having fun while cooking!
- Anything extra that anyone wants to know, the list grows!
Course timings
- Monday – Thursday 9am – 5pm (lunch included)
- Friday 9am – 4pm (breakfast and lunch included)
The course beginning on 19th January will run on the below dates and times:
- Friday 19th January 9am – 5pm (lunch included)
- Friday 26th January 9am – 5pm (lunch included)
- Friday 2nd February 9am – 5pm (lunch included)
- Friday 9th February 9am – 5pm (lunch included)
- Friday 1st March 9am – 4pm (breakfast and lunch included)
Location
The cooking course will take place at The Avenue Cookery School in London.
Food
Breakfast and dinner will be provided every morning and evening from Monday. Since you are staying from Sunday night, you will need to eat before you arrive. Vegetarian, lactose-free, and gluten-free dietary requirements can be catered for on request, but time restraints mean meal alternatives will not be covered in the demonstrations.
Sample menu
Monday
Morning demonstration
- Health and safety
- Victoria Sponge
- Laying a table and serving etiquette i.e. serving and clearing plates and pouring wine
- Organization
- Making tea and coffee
- Diana’s Bread
- Lemonade
- Knife skills including sharpening knives (onion, garlic)
- White Sauce and Beurre Manie
- Cooking Broccoli
- Chocolate Roulade and dealing with chocolate
Lunch made by students 1:45 / 2 p.m.
- Lasagne
- Broccoli
- Chocolate Roulade
- Chocolate Sauce (demonstrated)
Afternoon cooking 2:45 / 3 p.m.
- Rendang Curry/Casserole
Afternoon demonstration
- Rendang Curry
- Cooking rice
- Cooking peas
- Different ways of using leftover mince
- Herbs / aromatic veg
- Poaching chicken
- Making Stock
- Time planning
Residential supper:
- Chilli con Carne
- Rice and peas
- Fruit
Tuesday
Morning demonstration
- Apple Crumble
- Custard
- Leeks and Carrots - julienne and how to cook
- Chicken Pie
- Puff Pastry - different ideas for leftovers
- Shortcrust Pastry - baking blind
Lunch made by students 1:45 / 2 p.m.
- Chicken Pie
- Leeks and Carrots
- Apple Crumble/Charlotte
- Custard
- Pastry Case for afternoon
Afternoon demonstration
- Savoury Custard
- Cauliflower cheese
- Couscous
- Chicken Chorizo
- Ice Cream - Honeycomb
Afternoon cooking 2:45 / 3 p.m.
- Cauliflower Cheese
- Quiche Lorraine
Residential supper:
- Chicken Chorizo
- Couscous
- Chocolate Roulade
Wednesday
Morning demonstration
- Potatoes - Roast, Mash for Fish Pie, Rosti, Fondant, Rustic, Hasselbacks, Stacks, Dauphinoise, Baked, Minted
- Boiled New Potatoes, Baked Potato Souffle, Crushed and Roasted
- Bread Sauce
- Cabbage - shredded
- Lamb - carving
- Chicken - carving / jointing
- Gravy
- Lemon Meringue Pie
- Treacle Tart
- Ginger and Pecan Tart
- Apricot & Almond Tart
Lunch made by students
- All of the above
Afternoon demonstration with help from students
- Tomatoes - blanching/concasse
- Beans - blanching
- Peppers - skinning
- Melba Toast
- Garlic Bread
- Bruschetta
- Salmon Mousse
- Fish Pie
- Twice Baked Soufflé
- Melba Toast
Afternoon cooking 2:45 / 3 p.m.
- Humous
- Smoked Mackerel Pâté / Chicken Liver Pâté
- Smoked Salmon Mousse
- Tomato Bruschetta
- Garlic Bread
Residential supper:
- Quiche Lorraine
- Salad
- Fruit
Thursday
Morning demonstration
- Profiteroles / Éclairs
- Chocolate Icing
- Mango Soba Noodle Salad
- Fruit preparation – for fruit salad
Lunch made by students 1:45 / 2 p.m.
- Leek & Bacon Risotto with Rocket
- Garlic Bread
- Fruit Salad
- Honeycomb Ice Cream
- Profiteroles
Afternoon cooking and duties
- Oven cleaning
- Deep cleaning the kitchen
- 3 p.m. - Wine tasting
- 4:30 p.m. - Team photo
Residential supper:
- Mango Soba Noodle Sald
- Fruit
Friday
Morning demonstration
- Breakfast in a pan
- Egg (fried, poached, scrambled, omelettes, boiled)
- Fried Bread
- Sausages
- Bacon
- Tomatoes
- Mushrooms
- French Toast
Breakfast made by students 11 a.m.
- Choice of eggs
Afternoon demonstration:
- Bread Crumbing
- Arancini Balls
- Tarte Tatin
Lunch made by students 2:30 / 3 p.m.
- Katsu Curry Sauce
- Chicken Goujons
- Thai Sticky Rice
- Soup
- Tarte Tatin
Afternoon:
- Clear up and clean kitchen
- Test
- Round-up of the course
- Certificates awarded
- Finish around 4 / 4:30 p.m.
The following meals are included:
- Breakfast
- Lunch
- Dinner
The following dietary requirement(s) are served and/or catered for:
- Vegetarian
- Gluten Free
- Regular (typically includes meat and fish)
- Lactose Free
Things to do (optional)
- This cooking course is recommended to be followed by the Intermediate Cookery Course
- You can take the Food Safety Level 2 Certificate (extra 39 GBP)
- If you want to buy a class as a present but can’t think of a specific date, you can buy a voucher (redeemable for 1 year)
‘Avenue Amigos’
Get a ‘stamp’ for each class you book and for each friend you recommend. For every 10 stamps, you get a free class.
What's included
- 2 daily cooking demo
- 5-day intensive program
- The Really Useful Course Avenue Certificate
- Wine tasting
- 5 nights accommodation
- An Avenue Cookbook
- An Avenue apron
- Daily lunch
- Daily breakfast and dinner from Monday to Friday
What's not included
- Intermediate Cookery Course
- Food Safety Level 2 Certificate (extra 39 GBP)
- Airfare
- Airport transfers
How to get there
Recommended Airports
Luton Airport
47 km
Transfer not provided
Gatwick Airport
34 km
Transfer not provided
London City Airport
18 km
Transfer not provided
Heathrow Airport
18 km
Transfer not provided
London Stansted Airport
55 km
Transfer not provided
Arrival by airplane
You may book your flights to arrive at any London airport. Depending on which airport you arrive at, it will cost about 15 GBP one way or 25 GBP return trip using train transfers and then approximately 5 GBP for the tube fee.
Arrival by car
There is road parking but this tends to get taken up quickly, in which case there is paid parking at Riverside West Car Park on Smugglers Way; a four-minute walk to the school. You are able to park for free on evenings and weekends next or near to the school but this can depend on spaces.
Please make sure you read the signs so you don’t get landed with a ticket. For those renting the kitchen and needing to unload, there is a spot available outside, which can be used for free for half an hour.
Arrival by train
Wandsworth Town is the closest train station, just a 20-minute train journey from Waterloo. The Avenue Cookery School is a short 10-minute walk from Wandsworth town. East Putney is the closest tube (17 minute walk or five minute taxi ride).
Walking direction from Wandsworth Town train station
- You turn left out of the station and walk under the railway bridge
- Keep walking straight over the traffic lights and all the way along Smugglers Way with Holiday Inn and B&Q on your left (about a five-minute walk)
- You will eventually reach a pedestrianized area and walk over a little bridge where you will reach a new housing complex
- Keep walking straight and The Avenue Cookery School is on the right when you reach the T-junction, directly opposite the Sainsbury’s
Arrival by boat
From the city, you can get the river boat to Wandsworth Riverside Quarter Pier which is just a two minutes' walk to the kitchen.
Arrival by bus
Nearby bus links: 44, 28, 295, 28, C3, 37, 337, 39, 220, and 270.
Cancellation Policy
- A reservation requires a deposit of 27% of the total price.
- The deposit is non-refundable, if the booking is cancelled.
- The rest of the payment should be paid 30 days before arrival.
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