One Month Practical Cookery Course

Monday 1st September – Friday 26th September 2025

9.30am – 4pm

This course teaches you the basic skills of cookery and will appeal to aspiring chalet cooks or gap year students. The course is suitable for those who have just left school or university; as well as those who wish to develop an understanding of basic cooking skills and techniques. The knowledge and skills learnt on this course will enable you to apply for jobs, particularly in ski chalets, shooting lodges, summer villas or luxury yachts.

The course is mainly focused on practical cookery, but there will also be some demonstrations and talks.

Topics covered include:

• knife skills
• vegetable preparation
• meat
• fish and shellfish preparation and cooking
• stocks and sauces
• pastry and bread making
• baking
• meringues
• ice creams
• puddings
• sweet sauces and
• using gelatine

Also covered is: REHIS Basic Food Hygiene Certificate, nutrition, choosing and storing produce, menu planning, budgeting and costing and advice on finding a job.

Throughout the course your cooking and food presentation will be assessed so that we can track your progress. At the end of the month there will be a 3 hour practical test as well as a short theory test.

Students are required to wear suitable clothes and shoes whilst working in the kitchens and you will need to buy a set of knives at an extra cost of approximately £125.

This is the view of one student, Hattie, who attended the course in August 2011

“I attended ENTCS last August for one month.  The course was great fun and I would recommend it to anyone.   The group bonded early on and we worked and played hard!

I was surprised at how exhausting the course was and how much there was to learn – its not easy!  But the teachers were good fun and patient with us. 

Towards the end of the course ENTCS introduced us to some Cooking Recruitment Agents and I have been able to get some holiday jobs through them.  The course gave me the confidence to apply for jobs knowing that I can produce some good meals and look after people.  There is masses more to learn and I think cooking is something that you need to keep practising but my beginners one month course gave me good foundations to build on. 

For me the best bit of the course was most definitely learning to make twice baked cheese soufflé! My least favourite part of the course was remembering to take my apron home each day and putting it in the washing machine! “

To see what some more of our ex students are doing now visit our case studies area of the website.

Please view the Certified Course Terms and Conditions.