Whether you fancy yourself as the next Rene Redzepi in the making (the head chef from Noma but you know that) or you struggle with sardines on toast, there's always room for culinary improvement and, truth is, all the You Tube demos in the world are no substitute for proper hands-on training from instructors who know what they're doing.
So we've picked out three cooking courses with you in mind:
For Beginners: Tante Marie Men Only
The country's longest-running cookery school runs everything from professional chef diplomas to one-day courses for amateurs.
We recommend the one day Men Only course as a perfect entrée for making your first proper forays into pulling together some dishes. There are three levels you can progress through – beginner, intermediate and advanced – which naturally flow into each other as you improve.
The day starts with a bacon sandwich before you watch a demo from your instructor on the first dish (you'll cover five or so different dishes using different skills over the day). Then you go and do it yourself.
It's relaxed but challenging, supportive but mildly competitive, just as you'd want it to be. And not only will you add some dishes to your repertoire which you'll remember for the rest of your life, you'll get to take the food you've made home to eat that very night. Win, win.
For Specific Skills: Atelier Des Chefs
With two London locations at Oxford Circus and St Paul's, this well-attended school is perfect for brushing up on specific skills or learning how to make individual meals, and course times are short and flexible enough to squeeze into a lunch break. From 30 minute courses on street food or cooking flat iron steak, 60 minutes on fresh pasta or curry, right up to four hour masterclasses built around a themed dinner party menu.
At the end you can sit down with your fellow chefs to enjoy your efforts or nip back to work and eat it at your desk. We recommend the knife skills classes which show you how to chop specific type of food as well as how to look after knives – important for any wannabe chef.
For Meat Lovers: Ginger Pig Butchery Courses
You probably know The Ginger Pig as the chain of smart London butchers that gives premium meat new meaning. Their beef, lamb and pork butchery classes are proving a popular sideline too, instructing amateurs in the art of trimming, slicing and jointing under professional tuition.
It has recently added poultry to its range of hands-on classes, where you'll learn how to spatchcock a chicken, bone out a duck, use the whole carcass and, most importantly of all, make a chicken Kiev.
Whether you're a leg man or a breast man, you'll come away a better cook than when you went in.
