New Year Resolutions.........

Well first of all.............a Happy New Year to all and our very best wishes for 2012.

So what are your New Year Resolutions? Join the gym? See more of family and friends? cut down on the alcohol?.......all the usual suspects!!

Well this year why not learn a new skill? How about something both educational and fun?

Here at Hartingtons we have a fantastic range of artisan cookery courses designed to inspire you to roll your sleeves up and give it a go!

Learn to bake bread with a local artisan breadmaker, join us on our very popular artisan beer making course, perfect your own truffles with a renowned chocolatier, spend a Sunday learning how to make sushi or even learn how to make your own artisan pork pies!!

Stuck in a rut? Looking for a challenge?..............then check out our cookery courses and be inspired in 2012!

Sushi Sunday in Bakewell

Have you had enough heavy Christmas food and drink? Are you determined to eat more healthily in 2012?

How about learning how to make your own sushi?

We are putting on a fantastic sushi making course in April under the expert tutorship of Tomo Hasegawa a graduate of the Tokyo Sushi Academy. On the course you will learn how the different types of sushi are made and then practice your own skills.

This is a relaxed, fun but hands on half day cookery course that will set you up to eat more healthily in 2012. Tastes great too!

BOOK NOW!

Cookery school at Billingsgate

Billingsgate Market in London has always been synonymous with fish but I wonder how many people realise there is a fantastic Seafood Cookery School at the market!

The school is run as a charity and not only do they have an amazing selection of specialist courses for people in the trade but they also have a host of really interesting cooking classes for amateur enthusiasts.

Courses include Fish Preparation Knife Skills, Shellfish Courses, a fascinating Sushi Masterclass called Feng Sushi, various evening classes, a Passionate About Fish course ........but what really caught my eye was their 'Catch of the Day' cookery course.

On this course you arrive at 6.15 a.m. when you are taken on a guided tour round the market identifying the different species of seafood which are on offer that day followed by breakfast.

After breakfast the first session is fish preparation, where you cover the many aspects of fishmongering and are shown how to prepare a number of different fish and make a rich fish stock to use for lunch.

The second session covers how to cook fish with a number of the fish demonstrations being served as part of the lunch along with fish you cook on the day. Wine is served with the lunch and the course finishes around 2.15 p.m. with everyone attending taking home 6 species of seafood.

The cost is £185 and it is a measure of how popular this course is that a number of dates before Christmas are already fully booked.

The testimonials on the website for all the courses are full of praise so if fish interests you check the cookery school out at http://www.seafoodtraining.org/

Sushi cookery courses

I've recently comes across this fantastic looking cookery class for sushi making.

I don't know about you but the art of sushi has alluded me. I'm not great with raw fish. Could it be those eyes staring back at you?

However, over the last few years the taste of delicately sliced raw tuna with a little bit of soya sauce and wasabi paste is possible one of my favourite meats.

The chance of being able to prepare this delicacey by my own fair hands by going to a cookery school seems a great opportunity to expand my cooking skills.

Has anybody been on a sushi cookery class that they rate? I'd be interested to know.