Bettys cookery school has enticed people to rattle those pots and pans for a decade. MAXINE GORDON speaks to its creator.

COOKERY schools are not that unusual today, but ten years ago the notion of teaching the public to cook was more rare. Lesley Wild was determined to follow her instinct and set up a teaching kitchen attached to her family business, Bettys.

She had three reasons for doing so.

During her time running the popular tea rooms, she realised that to train kitchen staff “the Bettys way” she needed a separate training establishment.

Her gamble quickly paid off. “As soon as we set it up, the quality of food improved; so I knew we were on the right track,” she says.

Secondly, at school Lesley had been judged “too academic” to have cookery lessons. Luckily, her mother, Catherine, was a great cook and instilled her passion in her daughter. However, Lesley firmly believed every child should have the chance to cook.

To date, some 5,500 children have taken cookery courses at the Bettys cookery school in Harrogate and 3,600 enjoyed free bread-making classes as part of the cookery school’s community education work.

Thirdly, Lesley wanted to share the expertise of Bettys staff. “We have master bakers, chefs, confectioners and chocolatiers who never got the chance to show off their skills or pass them on to someone else,” she says.

Today, the public can enroll on one-day classes taught by Bettys experts on everything from chocolate making to patisserie and mastering fish techniques.

The most popular course is One Pot Wonders, which has been taught 67 times.

In all, around 20,000 adults have put on the Bettys Cookery School apron since it opened in 2001.

Many have come back, time and again. “I met someone who had been on 40 or 50 courses,” says Lesley, 58, who has been the chairman of Bettys for the past two years.

Although tutors run several demonstration events, the bulk of the classes are hands-on. Pupils work from 9am to 5pm, with a break for lunch (often made by themselves) and leave laden with the results of the day.

Lesley, who is also a pro-Chancellor of the University of York, firmly believes more than ever that it is crucial to get young people cooking.

That not only means teaching them basic culinary skills, but also setting an example by adults confidently creating food at home.

“It’s everybody’s right to be taught to cook,” says Lesley. “It’s an essential life skill. If every child who left school learned how to feed themselves properly, a lot of issues like obesity would not be plaguing us now.”

She suggests making bread or cakes with children at home to fire up a passion for home cooking.

“Baking is like magic,” she begins. “When you make bread, what you have is a pile of flour, some funny looking stuff called yeast, some water and sugar, but you end up with the most delicious tasting thing that smells gorgeous.”

From the thousands of people who have visited the school, one case in particular stays with Lesley.

“There was a little boy who was quite phobic and fussy about food, although his parents didn’t tell us when he arrived,” says Lesley.

“He just did the course like everyone else and when his dad came back and asked us how he got on, we were puzzled. We had no idea he was funny about food and it had been a real breakthrough for him. It’s really rewarding to have an experience like that.”

Recipes from the Young Chef’s course at Bettys Cookery School

Toffee and banana sundaes

Makes four

Ingredients

For the caramelised breadcrumbs
Two slices brown bread (thick sliced)
40g caster sugar.

For the toffee sauce
100g butter
100g soft brown sugar
100g golden syrup
300ml whipping cream.

1 ripe banana
40g chopped hazelnuts or grated chocolate to serve.

Method

To make the caramelised bread crumbs:
1. Preheat the oven to 200°C (fan assisted). Using a food processor, blitz the brown bread until it forms fine crumbs.

2. Pour into a bowl, add the caster sugar and mix well. Tip onto a baking tray and bake for eight to ten minutes, turning occasionally with a spoon until golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the tray.

To make the toffee sauce
3. Place the butter, brown sugar and golden syrup into a heavy based pan over a moderate heat. Stir and bring to the boil.

4. Reduce the heat and simmer the sauce for three to four minutes, then remove and allow to cool.

To assemble the sundaes 5. Whip the cream until it forms soft peaks.

6. Chop the bananas into even slices.

7. Place a spoonful of softly whipped cream into the base of four sundae glasses.

8. Sprinkle over some of the brown breadcrumbs, top with sliced banana, then spoon over some of the toffee sauce. Continue until you have divided all the ingredients equally between the glasses, finishing with a layer of whipped cream.

9. Sprinkle over some of the chopped hazelnuts or grated chocolate and serve immediately.

Fresh lemonade

Makes approximately ½ litre of concentrated syrup

Ingredients

Four organic unwaxed lemons at room temperature
170ml water
280g caster sugar.

Method

1. Carefully peel the lemons with a peeler, ensuring the white pith is left behind.

2. Halve the lemons and squeeze over a juicer to extract the juices.

3. Place the water, lemon juice, lemon zest and caster sugar in a large, heavy-based pan. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer gently for 15 minutes.

4. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool for 1 hour. If left any longer the syrup will become bitter.

5. Strain through a fine sieve into a jug and then pour into bottles for storage.

6. To serve, dilute with sparkling or still water – five parts of water to one part syrup.

• This recipe makes a concentrated syrup that will keep for four weeks in the fridge.