ThisDorset cookeryschool hasalltheright ingredients..
BILLY the spaniel, who looks faintly ridiculous with a shaved bottom and a cone round his neck, is recovering from an operation after chasing a duck.
Once poor Billy has been shooed out of the kitchen, we’re ready to begin our cooking lesson.
In charge is Rose Prince, who launched a cookery school in September after relocating to Dorset with her family.
The one-day courses are run from her Georgian rectory in Winterborne Houghton — atop a hill with impressive views of Thomas Hardy country.
First, Rose wants to ensure that my companion, Tom, and I are on the ‘same onion wavelength’.
Do we know the best way to dice one?
After passing that test, it’s time to make a pork and duck terrine — an inexpensive dish, but not one I’d necessarily knock up. Rose explains that her aim is to give students five to six new dishes they’d happily cook again.
Once our terrines are baking, Rose — in Blue Peter mode — brings out ‘one I made earlier’. On hot buttered sourdough with a homemade carrot pickle, the terrine is meaty and moreish.
Snacking over, we tackle the main course: Arctic char with a pearl barley risotto-esque side dish. The char has travelled from a fish farm you can see from Rose’s front door.
She shows us how to make a ginger beurre-blanc sauce and a lighter, easier version of a hollandaise. Explaining her choice of white pepper, she says: ‘There’s nothing worse than a hollandaise with black speckles.’ With a maximum of eight pupils per class, this is a brilliantly personal course where all the cooking is done at the large kitchen table or huddled around a central island.
Rose doesn’t believe in individual working stations: ‘That’s the worst way to learn to cook. With your back to the room, you don’t realise you’ve made a mistake until the end — and that ruins your confidence.’
But the best bit? Students can stay at Rose’s home the night before a course.
There’s just enough time to make a classic cherry clafoutis, the French flan style dessert. It disappears in minutes.
One-day courses cost £165, including lunch, wine, recipe file and book. Double rooms from £60pp (with £20 single supplement), roseprince-cookery courses.co.uk; 012258 880 040.