Good cooking is all about good food; about care and quality and good ingredients.
It is about making the most of what is in season, available and at its best; what
is fresh and of superb quality. It is about exploiting the magnificent variety of
wholesome, traditional fare that is available today for all that choose to look,
but more especially that fortunate soul; the country dweller.
You will visit the supermarket
of course, we all do, but, far more important will be visits to the kitchen garden
and the small, local specialist producer who will be able to provide free range,
organically produced eggs, chickens, duck, pork, lamb and beef to die for. You will
find ‘real’ bacon and succulent hams, learn to make pâtés, ‘proper’ sausages, pasta
and potage ‘par excellence’.
Vegetables, fresh herbs, salads, olive oils and healthy
eating abound; you need not be an avid carnivore, although you will also find butter,
cream, wine and brandy.
It is not a course for the fainthearted; for those whose horizons
end on the supermarket shelves, who are happy to reach for the stock cube, the packet
of soup, or, heaven forbid, the ready meal.
Your guide and tutor on this journey will
be an experienced former professional chef, able to help both the complete novice,
the more experienced cook wishing to extend their horizons and increasingly, those
wishing to cook on a small-
The Country Chef
‘The Country Chef’ is a cookery course. It is a comprehensive guide
for the aspiring cook who has a passion for good food; who enjoys the planning, preparation,
cooking and, above all, the eating of fresh, wholesome, natural food. It is a guide
for those
who are prepared to put the time and effort,
the thought, the care and
the love into the
enjoyment of one of life’s great pleasures.
On your journey through
the course you will visit some of the great cuisines of the world; the traditional
and the modern, the ‘real’ cooking of the British Isles, of France,
of Provence,
of Southern Spain and the
Mediterranean lands where good food, quite rightly, is
afforded the status of an art form.
The course starts with seven study books covering the basics in depth and then moves
on with a further eleven, each covering a specific area, and having the same format
in each case ~ an overview of the type of cookery involved, the ingredients, methods
used and, of course, the recipes.
Each module ends with projects, test recipes and
a written assignment.
The Country Chef’ is not a recipe book, although it is full
of recipes; nor is it a manual of Haute Cuisine. It is a down to earth and very
practical guide to good food and the art of cooking; very, very good cooking.