Venue Yorkshire - Yorkshire Tourist Board

Swinton Park, the luxury castle hotel in the Yorkshire Dales, has announced an exciting new programme of cookery courses for 2008 at its cookery school. Two new chefs have joined the team and there are five new courses offering a wider range of skills and experiences.

 

Rosemary Shrager, the celebrity TV chef, is shortly to star in her own ITV series “Rosemary Shrager’s School for Cooks”. She has been running the cookery school at Swinton Park for the last five years and her highly acclaimed residential and day courses for 2008 are the Modern British, Fish and Seafood and Mediterranean Food courses.

Simon has run courses before at the Michelin starred Charlton House in Somerset and has now returned to his roots in Yorkshire as Head Chef at Swinton Park, where he has designed his own series of courses and master class clinics. He combines the skills of a professional chef (having trained in some of the best kitchens in the country) with a very personable approach to no nonsense cooking. Having learnt the tricks of the trade, he can shed light on all  the “short cuts” that give the professional cutting edge to the preparation and presentation of a dish.  

The 2008 Dinner Party day courses consist of three modules, allowing for returning guests to expand their skills and recipes – with top tips on all the professional tricks of the trade.

 

He is also running two other day courses – Farm to Feast where part of the day is spent with Tim Wilson of Ginger Pig (Yorkshire farmer and proprietor of acclaimed Borough Market and Marylebone High Street butchers) learning about animal husbandry, breeds, cuts and joints of meat, curing and hanging. This then leads into a cooking class with Simon who will use the various joints of meat, also preparing complementary sauces, pates and terrines and tasting wines to match.

 

The other day course is Garden Food, which is run in conjunction with Susan Cunliffe-Lister, the acclaimed garden designer. She will take you on a tour of the four acre walled garden, and advise on what crops to grow where, when and how – there were 62 varieties of fruit, vegetables and herbs grown in the walled garden this year! This then leads into a cookery class with Simon, cooking that day’s produce and also covering sauces and preserves and complementary wines for a predominantly summer menu.

Simon Crannage is also running the Food of Love courses in February, with a tasty concoction of indulgent and exotic food, and the Festive Fare courses in November and December for those wanting some inspiration and some fresh interpretations of the more traditional dishes.

Gilly has been Rosemary’s assistant for the last five years and in that time has learnt invaluable skills in terms of technical precision and has also developed her own style of teaching, having run courses at the school on Rosemary’s behalf. As a working mother herself, she has always championed nutritious wholesome family food that can, at the same time, inspire children to enjoy and experiment with cooking themselves. Her courses focus on the basic essentials of family friendly food, with a focus on practical recipes with that offer flexibility and scope for variety.

 

Firstly, Family Food which is aimed at all parents and child carers who have run out of inspiration, and her courses are fully of practical ideas for producing appetising and nutritious food for all the family. The course will be a combination of demonstration and hands on cooking and at the end of the course lunch will be served in the demonstration kitchen. Guests on the course will receive a voucher for 20% off all treatments booked in the spa which can be booked for the afternoon on the day of the course or at another convenient time (mid-week only).

 

Secondly, her Children's Cooking courses are aimed at encouraging children to master the basics and encourage them to enjoy and experiment with food, in a friendly and fun environment. Two age groups are catered for, 6-11 yr olds and 12+ yr olds. Each group will spend the morning cooking and then enjoy the lunch that they have prepared in the demonstration kitchen, the children will take home with them an apron and recipe card to try out at home The maximum number of children on a course is 10. Parents or carers who book children on a cooking course will receive a voucher for 20% off all treatments booked in the spa which can be booked for the morning on the day of the course (while children are cooking) or at another convenient time (mid-week only and within a month of the date of the course).

 

For further details on the course rates and dates, please visit www.swintonpark.com/cookery_school/the_school.html