ICSA Cookery Schools are selected and ‘Accredited’ for their consistent quality teaching standards and cookery facilities.
Providing reassurance to cooks and students of all levels, gaining transferrable life skills, culinary knowledge and a memorable cookery experience.
One of our prestigious Accredited Cookery School members is The Kitchen, located within the grounds of five star
Chewton Glen Hotel in the New Forest, Hampshire.
Celebrity chef James Martin has inspired and closely helped develop the Kitchen Cookery School, inspired by his kitchen and TV studio at home. He’s a familiar guest on countless daytime shows, and is much loved for his down-to-earth Yorkshire wit and charm. He’s also recently been awarded Personality of the Year (at the Fortnum and Mason Food and Drink Awards), alongside our very own recognition of a ‘Centre of Excellence’ for the teaching standards and facilities located within at The Kitchen Cookery School, Chewton Glen.
AN INTERVIEW OF TASTE: CHEF JAMES MARTIN
James never tires of sharing his expertise and loves teaching all levels of culinary skill at his masterclasses in The Kitchen Cookery School at Chewton Glen. He says, “I love food, I love cooking. My masterclasses share my life-long passions for my style of food. Tips from the basics up, to help make what can be complicated cookery, simple. It’s about simplifying cooking, and breaking it down to easy-to-understand, memorable techniques. Then we play with a few exciting and amazing ingredients which can help add flavour to dishes. I hope that comes across in my cookery masterclasses. If someone needs extra focus, as all classes are mixed skill, then that’s fine we can help with that, but simple cooking is about applying the right heat, to quality ingredients. Good cookery is about practice and application. Hopefully my masterclasses inspire students to push their limits, and to try some of the simple skills at home.”
James says the three important elements of a cookery school experience are: to share knowledge; have fun; and inspire your students. The absolute essential tip, he says, is to ‘Taste. Taste. Taste!’.
He explains, “Every cook or chef of repute will constantly taste what they are creating to ensure the dish remains balanced. The secret is, to know what to add or take away to maintain the flavour. That comes with knowledge and experience “… and a few sessions at a cookery school helps!”
James regularly hosts his ‘Cookery Masterclasses’ at the ICSA (the Independent Cookery Schools Association) recently accredited Kitchen Cookery School, located within the grounds of the hotel.
James once described teaching as a ‘magical privilege’, and says the trick to being a good teacher is experience and knowledge, but more importantly being a good communicator. He says, “When teaching you have to keep up to date with trends and methods, to pass on that knowledge in a non-condescending way. There is no space for bravado or ego when teaching – that is often there to cover up a lack of knowledge.”
Having started working in a kitchen at a young age in his home country of Yorkshire, and finding academia a struggle due to his dyslexia, James has many decades of experience both learning and teaching. He says, “Many chefs are not academic, as we start in the kitchens young. For instance, I was already in kitchens as a young teenager with my father in Yorkshire, and spent many adolescent years in French kitchens learning the trade, tricks and tips from the masters. Many of which I apply in my cooking and classes today.”
James has learnt from some of the most inspirational chefs in the world, yet some of his most heart-felt memories are of a college lecturer who he says transformed him from ‘school failure’ to ‘catering success’.
“Ken Allanson believed, and had a vision,” he remembers. “What Ken did was look at your skills, not your academic achievements. To this day I can spot a good cook in five minutes. Some of the key skills in a kitchen are being able to present yourself, good cleanliness, respect for the food and colleagues, and overall personal presentation. A pride in your work.”
More well-known names that have made an impression on James include Keith Floyd, who inspired and encouraged James’s TV career. However, he says, Michel Roux Snr, who sadly passed away last year, was his greatest inspiration. “We built up a mutual respect. I used to have the privilege to cook with him in our homes and we shared a respect for food and each other. He commanded and deserved a high level of respect from many chefs in the industry – he had an aura of calm and was a great communicator, I miss him greatly.”
“There is no better legacy for Michel than for the family to be transforming his house near the Waterside at Bray into a cookery school where many chefs, hopefully including myself, will be cooking.”
Ask James Martin what information about his future might surprise his 16-year-old self, and he laughs, retorting, “Saturday morning TV is going to change for a while!”
He’s not wrong there, James’ Saturday Kitchen ran for 10 years on the BBC, followed more recently by James Martin’s Saturday Morning, presented from his Hampshire home.
Thinking more deeply about the question, he reveals a commitment to the real-life working kitchen and a desire to achieve and succeed. He also emphasises the value of surrounding yourself with a good team. He says, “I always had a strong work ethic. But I think looking back, it’s important to be aware of who you are working with, and who is around you for the right or the wrong reasons.”
Hailing from a hard-working Yorkshire family farm, James had a grounding in graft from the beginning. Being dyslexic, James found his time at school a challenge, though, he says, the experience helped shape who is today.
“My dyslexia has always been a positive for me. Maybe less so at school back then – but as you learn to deal with it, it makes you more street smart and focused on the relevant things in life. In business, it helps make you understand your shortfalls and recognise the skills and strengths in others. Respecting the team, staff and those around your working life is like building a giant jigsaw puzzle, so the team make up the missing pieces in yourself. The key is that they too have to believe in you, so they stick by you when things get tough.”
Yet for James, the real passion comes – not from celebrity – but from a genuine love of food, and teaching others about cooking. He is not just the face of television kitchens, but an exceptional chef with a fierce devotion to quality cooking.
With a passion for food and a commitment to sourcing the finest ingredients, James can be found in the kitchen’s of James Martin Manchester and The Kitchen at the highly-acclaimed five-star Chewton Glen Hotel, in Hampshire. He has been awarded the Craft Guild of Chefs Special Award and is a member of the renowned Roux Scholarship judging panel, and more recently the school was awarded an ICSA ‘Centre of Excellence’ award for their teaching standards, overseen by resident chef tutor Gerard Molloy.
To experience a cookery masterclass with one of the best teachers in the business, and book a Masterclass with James Martin, read more on the ICSA accredited ‘Centre of Excellence’ Kitchen Cookery School at Chewton Glen
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