Basic Ingredients: Professional vegetarian chef Rachel Demuth was a founder of the Neal’s Yard Bakery in Covent Garden before turning her attentions to Bath, where she pioneered vegetarian and vegan cooking with the Broad Street Bakery. She went on to establish award-winning vegetarian restaurant Demuths in 1987 and finally, in 2001, set up the Vegetarian Cookery School. The Georgian venue boasts a spacious, pristine, purpose-built kitchen with wonderful views of the nearby abbey. The rest of the team have been plucked from the nearby restaurant and include two head chefs and a food stylist. Classes promise to be a healthy mixture of hands-on and demonstration and, in true vegetarian style, seriously laid back, with everyone ‘cooking together, eating together’. All courses are either full-day, half-day or evening, priced at £135 – £175, £75 and £45 respectively. They range from workshops in raw food, bread-making and pasta to master classes with special guest hosts such as Fabulous Baker Brother, Tom Herbert, Chantal Coady from Rococo, Yotam Ottolenghi and, ‘queen of vegetarian cooking’, Rose Elliot. There is also a broad choice of international cuisine from French, Spanish, Moorish, Lebanese, Vietnamese and Southern Indian and some interesting options in the form of Supper Club evenings, Cooking Holidays and the Young Vegetarian Chef competition.
They say: For everyone from beginners through to accomplished home cooks, these courses provide inspiration and ideas that are easily achievable in your own kitchen with the emphasis on inspiring you to cook with renewed passion.
We say: Demuth’s ample choice of courses is testament to the limitless potential of veggie cuisine. There are more than 20 different courses to choose from and day courses accommodate up to 14 people with potentially 10 different dishes being cooked, so it’s unlikely you’d be stuck for inspiration if eschewing meat. In fact, approximately 60 per cent of those who attend are non-vegetarians so for those carnivores seeking fresh ideas, the doors are most certainly open.
01225 427938; www.vegetariancookeryschool.com
