Cookery school is serving up a treat

CHEF and landlord at the Golden Fleece, Mark Flynn, in the kitchen with cooking students Jill Evans and her mother Janet Taylor – getting to grips with the menu for the Saturday service.

‘If you can’t stand the heat – get in the kitchen’!

That’s the message at Denshaw pub the Golden Fleece this year as students enrolling at a new cookery school begin to create their own culinary delights.

Budding chefs and food-phobics alike are getting the chance to experience the pressure of a professional kitchen, while picking up a few new skills along the way.

Cookery lessons at the restaurant and pub on Oldham Road, Denshaw, give the Average Joe a chance to brush up on their culinary skills over five personal sessions with the chefs.
Landlord and chef, Mark Flynn, tailors each course to the desires of his students.

He said: “Because the sessions are individual, just one or two people, I can listen to what people want – it’s about teaching people how to steer away from convenience food and help them get what they want form fresh, seasonal, local ingredients.”

As an added bonus, students get to shape the specials board and work a busy Saturday service in the sixth and final week, something which Mark admits has been received well by enthusiastic learners.

He said: “People are quite surprised by the laid- back feel in our kitchen, after seeing Mr Ramsey shouting and firing off on the television, but it is not like that at all.

“This gives people a chance to get in the kitchen, come up with their own starter for the menu and get the restaurant experience as a whole without formal training.”

Mark, who has worked with celebrity chefs Gary Rhodes and Raymond Blanc, took over the gastro-pub in July 2009, bringing the restaurant back to what he describes as ‘traditional cooking with a twist’.

From soups to salmon, hotpots to haddock, the cooks-in-training are put through their paces, mastering up to five different dishes during each session.

But the latest graduate from the Golden Fleece cookery school, Jill Evans, (36), had wanted to get more than just new skills from the sessions.

The self-confessed ‘fussy eater’ made a new year’s resolution to come up with a new recipe every week, but it is only since joining the cookery school that she has truly started to try new foods.

“I knew that if I could learn how to make dishes the way I wanted I would try them, and I have found myself liking all of the recipes I have learnt.”

The account manager, from Huddersfield, survived on cheese sandwiches and meat and potatoes before the course, a habit that would irritate her boyfriend, who it seems, has also gained from the course.

“He loves it now when I come home and make something different, I’ve benefited from the course so much - at good value for money.

“Just being able to look in the fridge at different ingredients and come up with ideas of dishes to make has been brilliant, something I really struggled with before.”

Not everyone is so keen to get their hands on the kitchen’s pots and pans.

Chef Mark says that he has witnessed a decline in the number of people wanting to work in the industry.

He said: “Either people don’t want to do the long hours and hard work, or the television has portrayed it as a nasty job, but we have seen a trend of dwindling numbers people taking up formal training.”

The course has proved a hit with the punters, though, with the busy chef now running several classes a week as well as servicing the restaurant.

Students are presented with their own portfolio of recipes at the end of the school to help them put into practice at home the skills they have gained.

Contact the pub on 01457 874910 for information.