With the exception of our Beginners cookery course, all our cookery courses are designed for enthusiastic amateurs.

We define an enthusiastic amateur as someone who cooks regularly at home, who loves food and cooking but who may not necessarily have ever been taught formally.

Willingness to learn is far more important than any particular skill - we teach you everything from scratch, from how to chop an onion to how to bake bread (for example). We will never ask you to go away and, for example, make a hollandaise without showing you how to do it first - we assume no level of knowledge, but we do expect a certain amount of familiarity with food, cooking and the kitchen.

It's all about what you feel comfortable with. Students who come on our beginners courses range from teenagers about to leave home to embark on a university degree, to mature men that have never spent much time in the kitchen, to young city couple that want to improve their dinner party cookery skills. Our Beginners Cookery Weekend course runs at a gentle pace and introduces you to the fundemental techniques of cookery, and incorporating them into modern recipes that you will make (and eat) yourself. You will enjoy a huge confidence boost

Confidence level is important - we want you to feel encouraged and inspired, not out of your depth. If you are less confident in the kitchen then perhaps try a Beginners course first.

You don't need to be a chef to learn the techniques and skills used in the professional preparation and presentation of great food. Chef Skills is a Level 3 course, we would expect that you have good knife skills and be generally confident in the kitchen. Working Chefs also attend our courses in order to get new ideas or to enhance their skills in certain areas such as seafood and fish. If you are in doubt about your skill level, please call us to discuss on (01364) 652784.

We have yet to have a student leave us feeling that they had learned nothing. Our system of skill levels offer you a way to assess your skill level and select courses appropriate to that level. Enthusiastic, confident cooks will still learn new techniques and recipes from a level 1 one-day course.

For the experienced home cook, we would recommend any of our Level 2 or 3 weekend cookery courses such as Chef Skills or Fish & Seafood, and our 5 day Intermediate and Intermediate Cookery Extra.

We frequently get asked this question. We will rename the Intermediate Extra course 'Advanced' to better reflect the increase in skill level.

Most people should go for Intermediate Cookery in the first instance - it covers more familiar areas such as pork, lamb, beef and chicken as well as breads, sauces, stocks, puddings and desserts. Intermediate Cookery Extra takes things a level further by introducing shellfish, game, soufflés, home curing, pasta and other more complex techniques.

There is very little overlap between the Intermediate and Intermediate Cookery Extra course - but a substantial step up in skills and techniques used, and complexity of recipes.

In general, if you are in any doubt, do the Intermediate course first. Another good way of deciding is to look at the itineraries for each course and see what you already know how to do!

We recommend our Intermediate Cookery cookery courses for staff intending to work a ski season or onboard a yacht and have already had several people complete courses who have successfully gained employment for ski tour operators and on-board private yachts.

For those who already work in resorts or on board, it's a great opportunity to freshen up your cookery skills to deal with the culinary demands of yacht owners or chalet guests.

These cookery courses provide students with an excellent grounding in essential cookery skills as well as a rolling menu that can provide a strong basis for day to day cooking.

For anyone contemplating a gap year abroad our longer courses provide a good way of training intensively for working abroad - there are always jobs in catering available on your travels.

We often have members of the Armed Forces on our Intermediate Cookery, and Cookery Diploma courses. It's a popular way of using the resettlement grant and we are familiar with all the paperwork required.

If you want to know how the courses can help you in a career in the catering industry see below.

First of all, if you've never cooked before you need to do a Foundation course - this five-day course provides the best grounding.

Intermediate Cookery, Intermediate Cookery Extraand the Basic Cookery Diploma are designed for those who want to learn key skills in a short space of time.

They are ideal for those who only have a little time to spare in already busy lives, who don't want to commit to spending two or three years in an NVQ program and who want to do a course with a like-minded people who are all motivated and enthusiastic. We have small group sizes (which means there's a lot of individual work) and use top quality ingredients that you will be hard pushed to find at any public colleges.

These are the kind of reasons people give on our feedback forms for coming on our longer courses:

• I need a change of direction I want to work a ski season
• I want to work on a private boat/yacht
• I run a B&B and want to offer evening meals
• I'm already a chef and need some new ideas I've just bought/already run a catering business and want to…
  • train my chefs to cook more complex food
  • gain an understanding of what my chefs are doing in the kitchen
  • improve my own cooking skills so I can cook for customers I've always dreamed of opening a restaurant I love cooking but I've never had any formal training
  • I want to become a chef

For our 5-day courses we offer a certificate of completion of the course. For our Cookery Diploma we present a Diploma certificate along with a form assessing your abilities in a number of key skills areas. This assessment should be familiar to most chefs - it's similar to the NVQ assessment and this, along with our reference, will give a potential employer a good idea of your abilities.

We are not accredited by any government body - that is to say that by doing our courses you do not receive a recognised qualification, although we are rapidly gaining a reputation in the industry for delivering quality training.

What we do offer is:

• The ability to learn practical cookery skills in a short space of time.
• Courses that are almost entirely hands-on.
• A large percentage of individual and pair work on longer courses (see below).
• Small class sizes where everyone is motivated to learn.
• Premium quality ingredients.
• Highly experienced and professional staff.
• Meals included in the course price (see course details).
• Help with finding work placements after a course.
• References - written or phone references.

All of our courses are totally hands-on - it's one of the most important factors in what we do. And when we say hands-on, we mean it - on a normal day you will be involved in cooking almost from the moment of your arrival until you sit down to eat what you have prepared.

There are many cookery courses out there which are demonstrations followed by lunch, there are also cookery courses out there where theory forms a large part of the day. Our courses are not like either of these.

Our courses are approximately 95% practical work which means chopping, peeling, kneading, frying, rolling, boning, filleting and all the other things that make cooking so interesting.

We've kept class sizes deliberately small so that there is time for individual and pair work - in fact we are working toward maximizing the amount of individual and pair work on all our courses.

We find the most effective way for you to learn is by doing it yourself. Out of necessity, there will always be an element of group work - for example, it's not practical for everyone to make an individual venison casserole.

Our concept of individual work does not mean skimping on ingredients - we feel it's important that you have access to the best available so, for example, you prepare a lobster each on our Intermediate Cookery Extra course.

The courses are very mixed. Ages tend to range from mid-20s to mid-60s on the shorter courses, and from 18 to mid-50s on the five-day and Diploma courses.

The longer courses attract more people who are in or intending to enter the catering industry, but we do get chefs and other professionals on the one-day and weekend courses too.

We get a fairly even spread of men and women apart from the Gentleman's Relish course which is just for men.

We are in a small town on the edge of Dartmoor just off the A38, about 20 minutes south of Exeter.
See the back of the brochure for more information. Click here to download the brochure

You need to wear sensible footwear with non-slip soles and covered toes. Long hair needs to be tied back; we advise wearing comfortable clothes and not your best outfit. We also recommend wearing trousers.

You don't need to bring anything with you, we supply aprons, and all the equipment you'll be using. There will be a Kitchen Assistant working with your Chef Tutor throughout the day who will have prepared all the preparation and weighing of ingredients

The town is on the edge of Dartmoor, which is great for walking; numerous outdoor pursuits from horse riding to golf are available nearby. We're half an hour or so from Totnes, Dartmouth and Exeter, and of course there are several lovely beaches within driving distance. Devon is blessed with some great restaurants - if you're staying in town we'd particularly recommend Moorish and Agaric.

If you need any further information please phone us on (01364) 652784 and we can arrange an interview with one of our chefs.