“This is the course I want to teach to just about everybody. Not that I don’t meet highly competent cooks regularly in cookery classes or in home kitchens around the world; and I’ll add too that I’m always finding myself standing alongside a genius in the kitchen more expert than I’ll ever be (don’t ask me to decorate a wedding cake or produce a Thai style centrepiece of flowers from a turnip and half a cucumber!).

One of the requests I get most is for some back-to-basics tuition. I know just how valuable this was to me and I still use daily my chef’s college training in the basics from more than 30 years ago. And really that’s where this course was born, an opportunity whether starting from scratch, wanting to revisit some culinary challenges or simply looking to go where you’ve not dared to go before with knife and rolling pin. Over 6 weeks we’ll pull it all together and be you’ll be able to slot new skills into your culinary life.  As always my experience is there for the taking.  Look out for the inspiration too.”

During each 4-hour class you’ll have the time and space to learn some fundamental cookery skills.  The promise is to make it as enjoyable as it is informative (unlike some of my City & Guilds early Monday mornings at college), and as we learn we’ll be using the skills on the spot to cook some really exciting food including Spanish and wider Mediterranean dishes as well as French and English classics on which the course was originally based.

• The course is split into 6 distinctive classes as detailed below.

• Classes are available to book individually, but you’ll gain enormously from participating in the course as a whole because in every kitchen cooking skills overlap dish by dish, meal by meal. But if you are interested in an individual class from the course, please ask.

• Tuition in mixed class: 75 euros per class

• Mixed class course of 6 x 4 hour classes: 350 euros

• Places restricted. Classes will run with just 2 participants and there’s flexibility on scheduling the six classes over 6 or more weeks. Please ask about all possibilities.

• Private individual tuition is available by arrangement including in your own home kitchen (surcharge applies)

• Private tuition: 145 euros per individual class

• Course of 6 x 4 hour private classes: 490 euros

Ricky M’s Classic 6 part Cookery Course

Class 1: Stocks, Soups and Sauces

This was the starting point on my culinary life journey and I still use the same stock pans I bought as a student chef. Markets are the place for filling a stock pot and I’ll have toured the stalls to gather the best ingredients for the job in hand. We’ll master the secrets of meat, poultry, fish and vegetable stocks.  There’s no good paella or risotto, no tasty bowl of hot soup, no jus or gravy and few classic warm sauces without a decent stock. 

We’ll learn basic soup making and an appreciation of the different types of soup; a blender is not always the answer. We’ll tackle sauces without fear; you’ll leave with confidence about flavour and consistency. We’ll learn about keeping flour away from sauces, how to deglaze and reduce, how to season and how to make perfect gravy for the roast. Plus we’ll get to grips with Bechamel, Veloute and Tomato Sauce.

We’ll make a seasonal Minestrone and put our stock to good use in a classic Risotto. And we’ll produce two different sauces, one a reduction for fish and and a classic onion gravy.

Class 2: Pastry and Pies

From the start I’ve always tackled pastry head-on and with confidence and I think it’s the only way to avoid pie rage whilst being in charge of a rolling pin. Don’t panic, it’s not complicated as long as you and the pastry stay cool. And although the handling rules are strict, the techniques are few and ingredients from one pastry to another more or less the same the world over. This is about getting to grips with flour + water + fat for an hour or two and then you’ll be the head pastry chef in your own kitchen.
Yet a good pastry can be badly filled, so as well as making our own all-butter puff, short crust, strudel and empanada pastries, we’ll also look at the best pasties to use for different pies and even ask what is truly a pie (there’s plenty of debate). We’ll make some amazing pies, both sweet and savoury, learning the tricks of rolling, finishing and baking.

We’ll produce some traditional Sausage Rolls and a Quiche for you to take away for a picnic. We’ll go comfort British with a Steak & Kidney Pie and make Empanadillas plus a classic Fruit Tart and Apple Strudel.

Class 3: Chicken & Co

Odd to devote a full four hours to poultry? Not at all. Consider its versatility and think how recently most of us ate a chicken meal. Here we’ll learn some knife skills plus a basic understanding of how to cook all the different parts of a chicken to the best effect. So we’ll bone a whole chicken, learn how to stuff and roll poultry and game; we’ll make quick-cook dishes and in doing so learn the art of paniere, perfect for pork and veal schnitzels too. We’ll slow down the pace with a classic French slow-cooked dish and, being Catalonia, rabbit will also be on our chopping boards. In fact, we’ll challenge ourselves to make 3 different dishes from one rabbit in an hour!

Be prepared to enjoy the fruits of our labour as together we plate up Normandy style Chicken in Cider; Breaded Escalope of Chicken; an original and delicious Rabbit Burger, Italian style Pasta with Sage & Rabbit; a Turkey meal for 2 for 5 euros And almost certainly more!

Class 4: Vegetables

A class that’s not about vegetarian cookery, but a focus on selecting, preparing and cooking vegetables. Firstly a chat about my favourite vegetables from a cook’s viewpoint, those that give maximum plate appeal and which also make life easier in the kitchen. Seasonality and the importance of pairing vegetables with the main elements of a dish is something I have strong views on. There will be no cauliflower in July! Techniques? We’ll do some vegetable cooking basics, though not too much as there really are only a few rules and we can talk technique as we cook.

Vegetables are diverse and can be turned into even more diverse dishes, so the plan is to spend the rest of the first half of the class turning a selection of very different vegetables into 3 stand-out side dishes; this is about making sure the veg more than sits up there with the other components of the meal.

• Fennel au Gratin

• Best ever Ratatouille

• Braised Red Cabbage

We’ll start the second half of the class with preparation of two raw vegetable dishes - otherwise known as salads. We’ll make the under-rated Celeriac Remoulade and a fabulous Coleslaw.

Next a quick guide to Puree. We’ll make one of my favourites, the versatile Broad Bean Puree.

The last hour of the class will be devoted without apology to the magnificent and far from humble potato. After a brief chat about potato types and matching classic potato cooking styles to the main components on the plate, we’ll start cooking 3 classic potato dishes. Time to rid yourself of potato anxieties (sorry, some therapeutic peeling involved!).

• Duchesse

• Dauphinoise

• Rösti

Class 5: Seafood

Although we can only touch on some of the basics In a first stage seafood cookery class a little know-how extends surprisingly far across the preparation of a huge variety of fish and other fruits of the sea. So in this class we’ll confidently indulge the preparation and cooking of both fish and shellfish to really break some barriers I know exist with cooking seafood.

Sometimes we simply don’t have time to wait for our fish to be filleted on a busy day in the market, so all cooks need to feel confident to do it at home. We’ll fillet one or two different fish and this will then lead us to talk about different techniques for cooking fish fillets depending on the fish type. We’ll examine the coating options that go with different frying techniques and also learn which fish are cooked best by a particular frying technique. Whilst some fish are almost always matched to a single cooking method, with others we’re lucky that we can opt for any of several ways to cook them. In this respect we’ll poach fish and bake fish in an oven based dish. Watch out for some delicious local hake!

Not all fish needs filleting of course and we’ll also be cooking on the bone. At some points throughout the class we’ll also talk Tuna, Fishcakes, Fish Soups and Sardines. You’ll learn a classic Mediterranean way to quickly finish pan-fried fish by adding a handful of ingredients into the pan once the fish is out, producing a ‘sauce’ that can be poured over the fish on the plate.

When we turn our attention to small fish and shellfish there’ll be a 30 minute squid mini masterclass, preparation of mussels and shallow-fried Italian style boneless sardines for antipasti. Plus we’ll go through the process of fast deep frying Andalusian style. Salt and a squeeze of lemon obligatory. 

Class 6: Cakes and Breads

Being realistic we need more than a baker’s dozen hours to even start to explore baking cakes, bread and all those in-between specialities that rise (hopefully) and cool to perfection on the rack. But to get the best slice of it in our 4-hour class I’ve decided to focus closely on the different ways we make cakes and breads rise: yeasts, baking powders, eggs. Chemistry no, baking yes. Along the way we’ll learn how and why we can make it happen in each baking task as we turn out some eye-catching breads and cakes from the oven. This is an area of cookery where you need to know what’s going on beneath the glossy recipe photos. I promise you if you master the basics you will produce fabulous cakes and breads forever.

Below is a guide to what we ‘ll be taking out of the oven in the class:

• Batch Bread Roll making

• Mediterranean Flat Bread

• Irish Soda Loaf

• Majorcan Almond Cake

• Rich Chocolate Cake

• Classic British Scones

We’ll make a chocolate cake. But how you finish it with icings and chocolate is up to you!

If you would like to book the complete course of 6 classes with PRIVATE tuition at the discounted rate of 490 euros please contact Ricky M to arrange a bespoke schedule info@rickymcooks.com