Basic ingredients: Located at No.7 the High Street in Welwyn, Hertfordshire, the No. 7 Cooking Academy is run by globetrotting chef, Dennis Van Golberdinge and his artist wife, Juliette McGill. Having run a New York based food consultancy for the last decade, cooked for Hollywood A-listers and at two-Michelin star level kitchens around the world, Dennis has many strings to his culinary bow. He is also a keen marathon runner, and coaches other runners in the UK, but a class at No.7 is anything but an endurance test. Limited to six people, classes take place in Dennis’s homely kitchen and cost £95 for four hours. Classes are typically a ‘semi hands-on’ experience. Italian classes involve making fresh pasta, for example, and the fish class sharpens those all important knife skills. There are also regular workshops for vegetarians and those based on a seasonal three-course menu. Each day class includes petits fours, lunch and, presumably in keeping with the website’s colour-scheme, a glass of pink champagne!
They say: Our Dutch executive chef, Dennis offers you the chance to improve your cooking skills under his guidance. He will teach you some tricks of the trade so that you can build your confidence in the kitchen, improve techniques and impress your friends and family.
We say: No.7 is also a catering company and can service a range of events from canapes to sit-down dinners. Dennis and the team take care of the cookery and use fresh, seasonal and, where possible, locally sourced ingredients so the standard promises to be top notch.
01438 712622 ; www.no-7.co.uk
