L’atelier des Chefs first introduced their Cook, Eat & Run courses a few years ago. This clever idea offered an alternative to a soggy deskbound sandwich at lunchtime or yet another trip to that local pub. For the then price of £18, the Wigmore Street based cookery school offered up a 30 minute lesson showing how to prepare a quick, easy but impressive meal which could then be eaten on site or be boxed up to be taken back to the office, depending on what your lunchtime allowed.
With the start of the New Year, these lessons return from tomorrow, running just about every weekday lunchtime. As well as being a perfect aide for anyone who’s resolved to eat more healthily/learn to cook/get out of the office more this year, the courses are also delightfully trend bucking in these times of price hikes and VAT increases. Compared to Londonist’s visit in 2008, the price has dropped to just £15 pounds. A little bit of Googling will also find you some 2 for 1 vouchers. Split it with a colleague and that’s lunch and a cookery lesson for £7.50 – little more than you’d regularly spend down at Pret.
And though the price has dropped, don’t think the quality has. On a recent visit, we made and ate a pan-fried duck breast with plum sauce and braised cabbage, and left having had a good time but also more than confident to recreate the dish at home. Especially thanks to the handy L’atelier website, which allows those who’ve been on a course to log in and review the full recipe and tips at their leisure.
L’atelier Des Chefs is at 19 Wigmore Street, W1U 1PH. Check the timetable and recipes and book on their website, but don’t forget to browse the web for those offers.
