Christine chats to students at one of her cookery classes
Basic ingredients: Food writer and cookery tutor, Christine McFadden, aka the Dorset Foodie, runs hands-on courses at home in the exceptionally beautiful hamlet of Littlebredy near Dorset’s Jurassic Coast. Classes feature a wide choice of topics that reflect Christine’s travels and first-hand knowledge of some of the world’s great cuisines. Topics range from ‘The Middle Eastern Larder’ and ‘Japanese Home Cookery’, to ‘Terrific Tapas’ and ‘A Taste of New Mexico’. Christine also runs skills-based classes including fish preparation, pasta-making, barbecuing and low-fat cookery. Classes typically run from 10.00–3.30, cost around £100 and include a tutored tasting, recipe folder and lunch.
They say: Christine’s classes are ‘hands-on’ rather than demonstration and limited to seven students, which means everyone has time to try out unfamiliar techniques, ask questions, and learn by trial and error, and tasting. She is an inspiring teacher who combines professionalism with informality and fun.
We say: Despite her global culinary leanings, Christine remains very much local when it comes to ingredients. She writes regularly about Dorset food producers for magazines and is the author of The Farm Shop Cook Book and Pepper: the Spice That Saved the World, which was short-listed for the Guild of Food Writers Food Book of the Year Award.
Discover what makes Christine tick in the kitchen with our cookery school Q&A
01308 482784; www.thedorsetfoodie.co.uk
I already knew Christine as an excellent cook and her cookbooks have a special place on my shelves. However I was further impressed by her teaching skills when I enrolled on one of her courses. I learned a great deal form her hands-on approach. Her methods also ensure that class members work together to promote their learning. Christine is an enthusiastic teacher with a passion for good food
Christine is an inspiring cook and equally importantly she is a great communicator (in cookery schools it’s difficult to find both in one person!)
She knows more about spices than anyone of us will ever know and has written the bible on Pepper – from first-hand experience of visiting plantations. She has inspired me with great recipes that I use every week. I can’t recommend her enough.
Not only does Christine know how to demystify the daunting part of how-to basics with her tips and tricks, she also has great panache when it comes to imaginative food combinations that elevate her recipes (and teaching practices) to deliciously knock-out food on the plate and in the mouth. I should know, I’ve been a ‘groupie’ for many years having bought her recipe books and watched her demonstrations.
Always a pleasurable learning experience – frequently ‘hands on’, perpetually informative, and carefully structured to accommodate all types of ability and interest.
Christine’s cookery courses are a real treat. Christine is not just a great cook, she is a most inspiring writer, a meticulous researcher and a natural teacher. The cookery courses take you around the world’s cuisine and yet she sources foods locally.
Christine is a great communicator and has an infectious passion for food. I attended her class on pepper and found it informative and great fun.
I recently attended the Chilli Day with Christine McFadden at Little Bredy. This was the first time I had attended a cooking school and the whole experience ( venue, course leader, content and hands on cooking) was such that I am already checking out further dates when I can travel down from Kent to Dorset for more inspiring days. I have recommended Christine’s cooking school to all my friends.
My husband attends Christine’s cookery classes and is so inspired by them he books on to the next course immediately!
I would definitely like to vote for Christine. She is fantastic and I know her not only through her cooking and food expertise but in her studies of education and teaching methodology.
I have had the good fortune to attend a number of Christine’s cookery courses and they are simply brilliant and genuinely inspiring. I am not at all an experienced cook whilst some of the others that attended with me were, but Christine’s approach made that work for both so well. I am not surprised that her courses are becoming so popular and i am looking forward very much to my next.
I can concur that Christine’s courses are really hands on in small groups which enabled me to learn. This also allows for good group dynamics and means you quickly get to know each other. I have been on the New Mexico course and the Chilli course and thoroughly enjoyed myself, which I highly recommend.
It is a real pleasure to be part of Christine’s cookery classes. The cottage is delightful, the kitchen very well designed (by her husband, lucky Christine!) with 7/8 people able to work comfortably together and the enormous benefit of a teacher who is so well researched in her field and able to present information in a friendly, interesting and hands-on way. One of the very best cookery classes available.
Not only is Christine a talented cook, passionate about all things to do with food and an excellent communicator, her classes are 1) affordably priced, allowing those not on a huge budget to learn some key cooking skills and 2) her classes are hands-on… and fun!
I have enjoyed six of Christine’s courses so I am fast becoming a groupie! I get so much out of the day and always come away looking forward to repeating the recipes at home. Christine is a great tutor,and makes her students feel at home and relaxed. Much laughter and amazing results. It’s difficult to choose which course to attend next, they are so varied.
An inspirational teacher, Christine makes it so much fun and you learn so many tips. The course I attended was for Gluten-free baking. Christine had done so much research and experimentation, just what I needed to help make being gluten-intolerant more exciting and understand the use of all the exotic flours. I am still making all her recipes regularly, delicious. The atmosphere is intimate, relaxed and fun but very serious cooking. Just the right balance to ensure you get so much out of the day but also enjoy yourself. I would recommend her courses to anyone.
I have attended lots of Christine’s classes. She’s very professional without being scary and it’s obvious that she’s an accomplished cook as well as author of many books. Her classes take place in her purpose-built kitchen in her Dorset cottage. They are informal and fun and Christine does an enormous amount of work beforehand to make sure that everything runs smoothly and that we get involved with the interesting and relevant bits. The day starts with coffee and introductions and maybe a visit to a local supplier or producer or a foraging session (she’s passionate about local produce) before we start to put the glammy lunch together! All working together round the table – a maximum of seven of us. Christine has often visited the country (and had cookery classes) in the cuisine we are producing and will travel to London or Bath to fetch ingredients for us to try. She will search out exotic ingredients and allow us to compare the fresh item with some bottled varieties. We have also had tasting notes and a selection of peppers and spices to try before a curry class. A great learning experience. The classes are at a gentle pace and we stop mid-morning for a snack we’ve made and some coffee. When all the cooking is done we sit round the table as in a family lunch party for a delicious three-course lunch. Christine is wonderfully patient, warm and encouraging, her recipes are imaginative and unusual and her classes are very informative and enjoyable. At the end of the day we are usually given samples to take home (eg chilli jam she had made earlier and some corn bread from the Mexican class). What’s not to like? I have already booked another one!
I have wanted to go to all of Christine’s classes. They sound so incredibly interesting, not just a nice get together with a few cooking hints but a well considered, in-depth exploration of unusual themes, including different ways of cooking the ‘usual’. Christine has given me insights into a way of preparing dishes I feel I could never have gleaned from a book. Already looking forward to the next time I can make it.
I’ve known Christine for many years. In this time her endless energy, passion and drive to share her well researched culinary knowledge with others has never ceased to amaze me. Her classes are hands-on, fun and informative. Clients return home fully inspired and keen to return at a later date. I would thoroughly recommend Christine as one of the best cookery teachers in the UK, and the school the best venue for a one-day cookery class – the setting is amazing!
It is a day of pleasure going to Christine’s classes. The classes are small, so you learn a lot in a very convivial setting. You don’t feel intimidated if you are not a confident cook and if you are a more experienced cook there’s plenty to learn: new techniques, new cuisines, herbs, spices – everything. Christine puts a lot of research into all her classes, testing the recipes to make sure they work and doing proper timings for us. From the time you arrive, the welcome you get, whether you are new or returning, the coffee, tea, snacks to the final sharing of the food around the table it just makes it the best cookery class I have been to.
Christine’s Cookery Courses are like a Spa Day for foodies leaving you feeling fed, refreshed and ready to go experiment. At the end of the day you feel you’ve had a real treat.
The classes are small and interactive with plenty of hands on tasting, examining, preparing and cooking of a wide range ingredients. Christine delivers the classes with a wealth of information about sourcing, quality, storage and alternative uses for the ingredients being used. The pace and breadth of the information is great and asking questions is a natural part of the learning experience.
Starting the day in the field seeing the where the produce is grown and meeting the growers and experts is great fun as well as hugely informative. I particularly liked visiting the chilli farm and fish mungers. Sitting down to a family style meal of the food made is a perfect end to the day.
You take home with you a recipe and information pack as well as edible goodies and an injection of Christine’s remarkable love and knowledge of food.