L'atelier des Chefs, a top London cookery school, has seen an extraordinary rise in the number of people wanting to bake bread, cakes and pastry this year. The school's bread making class was launched in September and has quickly become its most popular workshop, with two thirds of sessions sold out.The classes last four hours and give home cooks all the skills and knowledge they need to make bread from scratch. With just four ingredients – flour, water, yeast and salt – it's possible make a variety of delicious breads, simply by varying the proportions.

There are a number of reasons for the trend, but chef Neil Matthews commented that many people are bored with the long-life, processed breads available in the supermarket. With homemade bread you have complete control over the ingredients and it's possible to make speciality loaves much more cheaply than you can buy them from a store. Making your own bread is healthier and cheaper, and it's not that hard to do. 2012 has also seen a lot of interest in baking, whether it be making cakes for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee or BBC2's The Great British Bake Off. And of course baking is a traditional skill – for hundreds of years every household in the country made its own bread.

L'atelier des Chefs is helping revive home baking by giving people the skills they need, from mixing and proving to kneading and cooking. L'atelier des Chefs has two London locations kitted out with high tech kitchens. The quality of the environment and guidance from professional chefs means budding cooks get a great experience from the moment they walk through the door. Perhaps that's why the Bake Off's very own Paul Hollywood popped along recently to conduct a Daily Mail interview and photo shoot (read the story here).

For the bread course, attendees get to work with their own dough to really get a feel for how the bread making process works. One happy customer had this to say: "I love the interaction part of it all and how you... break it down with some tips too!" The cookery school’s pastry making class has also been popular, and there are courses on making macaroons, cupcakes and afternoon tea.

Company Profile:

L'Atelier des Chefs is a cookery school with a difference, with kitchens in Oxford Circus and St Paul's. Rather than enrol on lengthy courses, people have the opportunity to spend as little or as long as they like improving their culinary skills, with classes starting from just £15.

Contact Details:

Sylvia Pearson
L'atelier des Chefs Oxford Circus
19 Wigmore Street,
London
W1U 1PH

L'atelier des Chefs St Paul’s
10 Foster Lane
London
EC2V 6HR

Telephone: +44 (0) 20 7499 6580
Email: [email protected]
http://www.atelierdeschefs.co.uk/
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