The luckiest girl in the world: Day 1 of Cooking School

You could not wipe the smile off my face right now no matter how hard you tried. It's been fixed there all day.

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I am in Ashburton, Devon, on the edge of the Dartmoor National Park (3 hour train trip from London). I'm attending the Ashburton Cookery School this week, doing their 5 day Intermediate Cookery Course. The school opened its 3 brand spanking new kitchens (above, with Assistant Chef Luke) 3 weeks ago and they are superb.

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There are 16 people in my class and each day we cook from 9.30am until about 1pm when we sit down to eat the lunch we've cooked, and then from 1.30pm until 5pm when we sit down to enjoy our lovely dinner. It truly is my idea of heaven.

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This morning we practised knife skills in preparation for our paysanne vegetables (that means vegetables in little shapes) broth for dinner. We also made chicken and vegetable stocks.

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Our Chef (today it was Rob, who has worked both as a teacher and a chef in the UK and Italy, including working for Rick Stein in Cornwall) demonstrates the dishes or techniques (while we madly take notes), then we each head back to our work space to emulate as best we can.

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Lunch was saffron and dill risotto with poached salmon (above). It was lovely and so fresh and every piece of rice in our risotto was discernible - nothing like the congealed mash that sometimes masquerades as the risotto in our household. The saffron flavour was beautiful and subtle and the salmon lovely and moist - if I do say so myself (my partner in crime, Pat, & I thought ours far superior to anyone elses).

(Chocolate piping. My disastrous efforts below)

After lunch it was making piped chocolate decorations for our chocolate pots for dessert, and then straight on to chicken butchery.I have previously hacked the limbs off a duck, but never anything approaching "butchery". However, after today's lesson I'm determined to only ever buy whole chickens to butcher myself, and every leg I remove from that chicken will have the oyster attached!

(Checking the temperature of the chicken with the probe to see if it's cooked)

One of the many things that has impressed me about the course is that the ingredients are top notch. For example, we each had our own organic chicken to butcher, all from a nearby farm (the chicken used to be supplied by people supplying Gordon Ramsay but they grew too popular and there wasn't enough for the school).

I really don't enjoy chicken breast very much, but the chicken we had for dinner, on the vegetable broth, with roasted cherry tomatoes (aren't they darling!), with garlic and basil infused olive oil (which we made ourselves), and a garnish of a deep fried basil leaf, accompanied by a side of buttered new potatoes, was such a delight I will be definitely making again.
We polished off our chocolate pots (with crushed amaretti biscuits), garnished with our (in my case, extremely amateurish) decoration and a sprig of chervil, before heading home, beaming and congratulating each other the whole way.

I can't wait for the rest of the week!

Click here to read about Day 2.

Click here to read about Day 3.

Click here to read about Day 4.

Click here to read about Day 5.