A chalet company known for its high quality cuisine has joined forces with a cookery school in the UK to try to help them meet their need for proficient culinary staff in the coming seasons.
Gourmet chalet holiday specialists Fish&Pips which operates chalets in Meribel and Val d’Isère, have have teamed up with the brand new Abinger Cookey School, located in the heart of the Surrey Hills, to teach aspiring cooks about excellent food and diverse recipes.
Run by Head Chef and Fish&Pips veteran Vincent Clist, courses are hands-on, practical, inspired and most importantly fun say the company.
‘Vinny’ was in the kitchen when Fish&Pips won the Times Chalet Chef Award 2010 and contributed to their successful chalet cookery book A Portion of Fish&Pips.
Holly Chandler (nee Fisher, the ‘Fish’ of Fish&Pips) said that as the company has expanded, they’ve noticed it’s becoming harder to find the skilled chefs they demand.
“This season it has been particularly difficult sourcing cooks. We finally managed to recruit some phenomenal talent and the season went fantastically, but there’s definitely a shortage of good chefs out there,” said Holly, “Food is so high profile now and top end chefs in the UK are being paid more, so we thought we’d create the opportunity to train more. What better way to hone your skills than on the Abinger cookery course followed up by a ski season in the Alps? If we can help introduce people to a career path then all the better.”
The Abinger team driven by life time foodie and majority owner, Lewis Davies, love food and insist on using the best locally-sourced produce Britain has to offer. The five-day chalet course syllabus (from £695) takes hosts-to-be through everything they need to know to achieve great chalet or yacht cook status; incorporating knife skills, menu planning; how to plot the week from breakfast, through afternoon tea to dinner, and how to impress with remarkable canapés.
Alongside the five day chalet course a range of one day courses (from £135) are also available teaching the skills to handle seafood, meat and pastry with flair, how to deliver dinner parties to impress and a masterclass in chocolate.
The Chalet Cooks course run from June-November and in school holidays.