On 17 May, the prestigious Rick Stein Cookery School will open its doors just in time to celebrate its 21st anniversary.
Despite a difficult year, the school successfully diversified, introducing virtual cookery workshops and a hugely popular Stein’s on the Quay pop-up.
But it’s finally time to welcome aspiring chefs back into the Padstow harbourside kitchens with a brand-new season of cookery courses lead by the school’s Head Chef Lecturer, Nick Evans and Chef Director of Rick Stein restaurants, Jack Stein.
The Cookery School is ready to reopen with a bang, bringing back their popular one-day courses for holidaymakers and locals alike, as well as introducing more advanced, longer courses to celebrate two decades of the school’s existence.
The school is the finest place to learn how to cook fish - you can watch the fish being landed on the estuary from the school window, before being taught how to prepare, cook and serve it to perfection.
Courses include the ‘Fish & Shellfish’ one day courses, which includes fishing trips around Padstow and visits to local Cornish farms.
There are also half-day courses, such as the new ‘Indian Seafood’ course where guests learn to make prawn molee, Amritsari fish and Chettinad crab curry, or the ‘Asian Street Food’ course, diving headfirst into three of Rick Stein’s dishes inspired by his travels around Asia, including Kolkata’s famous kati rolls and steamed mussels with yellow kroeung, coconut milk and kaffir lime leaves.
In addition, they will be running a brand new ‘2021 Celebration Course’ in honour of the school’s 21st anniversary year. This course centres around six favourites from the last 21 years and guests are given demonstrations from the experience chef lecturers, hands on practice, and of course a glass of wine to help things along while learning how to cook in the Rick Stein way.
Also available are the short-term residential courses which includes a two-night cookery break for two for the perfect weekend staycation. The package offers two days at the cookery school, an overnight stay in luxury Rick Stein accommodation in the heart of Padstow, as well as a full Rick Stein breakfast, and recipe folder to keep and a cookery school certificate to prove newfound skills.
One of these courses is run by Chef Director of the Rick Stein restaurants, Jack Stein, who will be teaching his two day ‘Cooking with Jack Stein’ course, where guests will join him on a fishing trip to catch their own lunch, meet with local vegetable farmers and suppliers, before heading back to the kitchens to learn how to finesse their newly learned skills.
Rick Stein said, “This year sees us celebrate our 21st anniversary. I started the school to give the chefs at The Seafood Restaurant a bit more intensive training preparing and cooking fish and shellfish.
'To keep the lecturers, all chefs from the restaurant, gainfully employed I ran a few courses for aspiring cooks, it was an instant success with the public and now it’s hard to find slots for the chefs, but the principle remains the same, teaching by chefs who really know what they’re doing.”