The third annual UK Cookery School of the Year Awards, a nationwide competition showcasing the best work in cookery schools, has announced its 2014 winners.
The awards are run in association with Tabasco Pepper Sauce to highlight outstanding achievements in an industry that encourages a nation of TV cookery show addicts to become more creative in the kitchen. The winners and runners-up in each category are as follows:
Best cookery school
Winner: Bettys Cookery School, Harrogate, Yorkshire
Runner-up: Foodworks, near Cheltenham, Gloucestershire
Best day cookery course
Winner: Feathered and Furred, White Pepper Cookery School, Dorset
Runner-up: Fish and Seafood class, Food at 52 , London
Best baking course (sponsored by Brioche Pasquier)
Winner: WI’s Baking Weekender, Denman College, Oxfordshire
Runner-up: Five-day Baking Course, Squires Kitchen, Surrey
Best ‘diploma’ cookery course
Winner: Professional Cookery Diploma, Rosemary Shrager Cookery School, Kent
Runner-up: Demuths Vegetarian Diploma, Bath
Best community oriented cookery school
Winner: Chequers Kitchen Cookery School, Deal, Kent
Runner-up: Jamie’s Ministry of Food, north of England
Best cookery school tutor
Winner: Carole Rose, Cookies Cooking School, Essex
Runner-up: Christine McFadden, Dorset
Best cookery school website
Winner: Philleigh Way
Runner-up: Vanessa Kimbell, Sourdough Bread Making
Most Sustainable Cookery School, in association with the Sustainable Restaurant Association:
Winner: Daylesford, Gloucestershire
Runners-up: River Cottage, Devon, and the Cookery School, Central London
Head of judging panel, Nick Wyke, reflects on this year’s champion schools:
“Bettys is a hive of industry. The school brings together all of the best elements of a winning cookery school from expert, “nurturing” staff to innovation in courses and from an on-site craft bakery to free bread making courses for school children. The judges were particularly impressed with how the school is attuned to its customers’ needs, allowing them to cook individually rather than in pairs. They even have one customer who will soon be attending her 100th course.”
UK Cookery School Awards
As the leading independent cookery schools directory and website, Looking to Cook established these awards in 2012, to be presented annually in recognition of outstanding achievement in a range of areas in which cookery schools work and have influence. The awards are the only ones judged entirely by professional food writers, journalists and editors.
For more information about the UK Cookery School Awards click here
Looking To Cook
Looking to Cook was founded in 2011 by the food writer and Times journalist Nick Wyke. It is the highest ranked independent cookery schools directory on the web, listing more than 200 UK schools.
For more information about the Looking To Cook click here