SHORT BREAKS COOKING : FRANCE	COOKING VACATIONS

A cooking holiday in France . . .
cooking, relaxing and seeing the sights of the Dordogne

Set in the magnificent recently converted stone barn, Cookinfrance is a cooking course with a difference where you can relax and learn to cook.

You will cook some great classic and contemporary dishes from around the world in practical hands-on style. If you have ever wanted to cook and present dishes like the professionals and television chefs, you will be able to learn how on your summer cooking course. If you enjoy cooking among friends and like-minded people in a warm, friendly and relaxed atmosphere, then come and learn to cook with Cookinfrance , where you will feel right at home form the moment you arrive - a summer cooking course in France rather than a formal cookery school.

At Cookinfrance you will learn to cook with techniques you can later use to simplify your busy home life and impress family and friends. Throughout your summer cooking course, using fresh local ingredients, you will be preparing, cooking and, most importantly, eating local, Mediterranean and Pacific Rim cuisine. You will learn to:

• cook pastries, breads and soups

• select and prepare the best fish and sea food

• butcher common joints of meat

• cook classic French and Italian sauces

• construct modern dressings

• discover the art of professional contemporary food presentation

On your summer cooking course in France, Cookinfrance will introduce you to ways of cooking exciting and varied vegetarian food - and they are not talking nut roasts - and rediscover those great British childhood favourites like Stew and Dumplings, Fish 'n Chips, Bread and Butter Pudding and Spotted Dick. Learn to cook French food in France. Learn to cook on a barbecue without incinerating food, family and friends!

Activities on your cookery holiday might include:

• spending a morning buying ingredients at the local market

• an afternoon at a Seventeenth century fish farm selecting really fresh fish and cooking it for a cosy supper

• an evening spent around the barbecue watching the sun go down with a glass of local red in your hand

• even a day-off lolling around by the pool or sight-seeing or just paddling a canoe lazily down the Dordogne river

DORDOGNE FRENCH COOKING HOLIDAYS

A cooking holiday in France where you will have a great time cooking, relaxing and seeing the sights

Do you fancy a fun, friendly, hands-on cooking holiday where you can soak up the French life and learn to cook the way you've always dreamed?

Sitting at work wondering what you'll be doing on holiday this year? Or maybe you're at home dreaming about cooking and eating under azure skies . . .

A few days with us could be just the thing and, what's more, there's no washing up!

Well, if you'd love to cook and present dishes like the professionals, enhance your culinary repertoire and have a great time, come and join us for a wonderful cooking holiday in the Dordogne, France.

There's absolutely no washing up, courtesy of our Liz, so just come and cook fantastic food, enjoy great company and consume the fruits of your labour!

Loads of hands-on cooking, no long boring demos!

With only one or two short inspirational demos by the English chef (that's me, Jim Fisher), you will feel completely satisfied with what you've achieved.

And it's totally hands-on, which means you personally get to prepare and cook the market-fresh ingredients alongside me and your fellow participants.

It's pretty intense at times, but you will soon get into the flow. By midweek, you will be brimming with new found kitchen skills and cooking confidence!

THE CHEF : JIM FISHER

Jim Fisher was a self-taught cook before reaching the semi-final of BBC Masterchef. He tells the story . . .

I have always been into food (indeed as it has been into me). I cooked my first meal at the age of fourteen following a recipe from a Margaritte Patten book - my food bible at the time.

Once married, I even cooked most of the meals at home, so I was never the ubiquitous male barbecue specialising hobby cook.

And, of course, it was me who cooked the food - and took the praise - for our many dinner parties.

But was he any good . . .

Needing some objective gauge as to my competence in the kitchen gave me the idea of entering the BBC Masterchef competition. One of the judges was personal hero and TV seafood chef, Rick Stein, who's first comment on seeing and tasting one of my my winning dishes was nothing other than, "Wow!"

Fresh from Masterchef, I went on to win the £5,000 1st prize in the Rick Stein / Radio Times sea fish cookery competition with an original dish.

Building on experience . . .

As a consequence of all this, I was invited to work under the popular TV chef at his Seafood restaurant in Padstow, Cornwall, where I learnt many aspects of the restaurant trade. Cooking for 120 covers every lunch time, with even more in the evening, certainly honed my cooking skills leaving me hungry for more.

A stint in the London kitchens of another TV chef, Alastair Little, extended my expertise. Here, I learned the benefits of cooking great food in a simple way - Alistair Little's own raison d'être.

I subsequently appeared on the BBC Food and Drink programme working alongside chef Tony Tobin of Ready Steady Cook fame, cooking for 150 guests at a charity dinner.

A growing desire to travel . . .

Now confident in my cooking we set up Wine&Dine, a successful enterprise specialising in cooking dinner parties for people in the comfort of their own home. In partnership with wine expert and former wine-buyer for Sainsbury's, Julia Jenkins, I planned, prepared and cooked the meal, demonstrating the various courses. Julia selected and presented wines to go with each course. Meals were based on my love of traditional regional dishes, not only from British shores, but also the Mediterranean and Pacific Rim.

Though very successful, Wine&Dine eventually took second place to our growing desire to travel with a view to setting up a cookery school. We sold our home, then, armed only with a one-way ferry ticket, scoured Europe in search of a suitable venue for our cooking holidays.

Come and join us . . .

Seven years later, and now the proud owners of a converted Seventeenth Century farm set amid the rolling countryside of the Dordogne, we invite you to come and learn to cook some great dishes and immerse yourself, for a while at least, in our little corner of rural France.

THE COURSES

FIVE DAY RESIDENTIAL COOKING COURSE
Our Five day / Five night cooking course runs from 4:00pm Monday to 10:00am the following Saturday

You will have a great time with CookinFrance. We are relaxed, friendly and very positive about food. Simply put, we believe that food is good and cooking should be fun!

The five day course covers all aspects of cooking, and we are happy to accept anyone from keen amateur to budding professional.

Knife skills, sauce-making, market visits and much more

Designed to cover as many facets of food and cooking as can be fitted into the week, your five day residential cooking course will also include visits to markets and other food-related venues.

Aimed at preparing and cooking real food for our own lunch and dinner, most of what you learn during the day will be put to the acid test at the dinner table.

On the way, you will pick up many new skills and recipes. You will receive your own recipe pack containing all the dishes you cook during the week. You even get to take home your very own apron!

A great value all-inclusive cooking course which includes:

• An evening meal here on the day of your arrival
• Practical hands-on tuition with the English chef (me, Jim Fisher)
  
• All cooking ingredients, equipment and aprons Continental breakfast each day
• Lunch each day
• Dinner on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday (see Wednesday)
• Tea, coffee and wine
• Entrance fees and transportation to places visited
• Access to the private and secluded 10m x 5m pool (open-air seasonal)
• Internet and Email access

MULTI-DAY COOKING COURSES
Our variable multi-day cooking courses run from Tuesday to Thursday

Come for a day or stay for three, the choice is yours. Your one, two and three-day cooking courses are run on the Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of a scheduled week-long cooking holiday.

Here's how it works

We normally run our day-cooking courses during a scheduled week-long course as this will allow you more or less full days in the kitchen covering a good range of techniques and recipes.

For further information have a look at www.cookinfrance.com

COMBINED COOKING AND PAINTING COURSE

Do you and your partner enjoy taking courses together, but want to do different things? Or maybe you have a friend who would like to go on a cooking course while you come for a painting course, or vice versa? Well, here you will find the best of both worlds: a combined cooking and painting course.

One cooks while the other paints

So, while your partner or friend paints and draws on the painting course, you could be cooking the gourmet dishes that you'll both be eating later. Over lunch and dinner you'll be able to swap stories about what you've each been up to during the day.

And where better to learn not only the culinary arts, but also the painterly arts, than France: birthplace of some of the greatest chefs and painters in the world.

For further information have a look at www.cookinfrance.com

ACCOMMODATION

Stay in your own comfortable and spacious centrally-heated en-suite accommodation

Your cooking holiday is based in our magnificent recently converted barns set in the beautiful rolling countryside of the Dordogne, between the ancient honey-coloured market towns of Sarlat and Montignac.

The property consists of the two converted barns set around an enclosed secluded courtyard. The first, the original creche and hay store, the second, an old walnut-drying hangar.

The Barn

• First floor
  Shared lounge, kitchen and dining area
• Ground floor
  Four double or twin en suite bedrooms in rustic style with exposed oak beams, original stone walls and tiled floors.
  
  Tea and coffee making facilities.
  
  Direct access to the courtyard.

The Sechoir

• Ground floor
  Five double or twin en suite bedrooms in modern style with carpets and sliding patio doors.
  
  Tea and coffee making facilities.
  
  Direct access to the courtyard.

The ensuite bedrooms

The barn is centrally-heated and you will have your own spacious double en suite bedroom with independent access to the sunny courtyard. All bedrooms are on the ground floor and so remain at a comfortable temperature during the hotter months.

The rooms are clean and well-equipped with American standard plumbing (modern WCs, sinks and large powerful thermostatically controlled showers, etc). Each room has its own tea and coffee making facilities.

The barn is set well back from the lane that passes us, and is surrounded by extensive lawned and wooded grounds. There is a private and secluded 10m x 5m pool for your exclusive use.

Sechoir bedroom	Barn bedroom

The kitchen

The cooking takes place upstairs in the stunning light and airy kitchen, with its split-level floor and exposed oak roof trusses.
There are:

• Contemporary semi-professional stainless steel gas cookers and hobs
• Stainless steel sinks
• Modern units and worktops

The specially designed kitchen is spacious with well planned demonstration and hands-on preparation areas. On the lower half of the split-level is:

• A vaulted lounge with unparalleled views of the surrounding countryside
• HiFi
• Wide-screen television with English Sky satellite channels
• Comfortable modern furniture
• Dining table seating up to twenty

CONTACT DETAILS

Email Hub-UK : info@hub-uk.com