Patricia Stone’s three decades with Leiths

Patricia Stone’s connection to Leiths spans decades. She’s a Diploma graduate herself, the parent of a graduate, and now teaches the Leiths Confident Cookery 30 Week course (LCC30) at one of our Partner Schools – King’s College, Taunton.

‘The LCC30 works well for King’s and we’re now in our second year. I love seeing the students develop over the course of the year to become confident and skilled cooks, taking care with presentation and seasoning of their dishes. They are enthusiastic about cooking and it is a complete change from other aspects of school.’

That passion for teaching cookery goes right back to Patricia’s own school days.

‘I wanted to teach cookery when I was at school. I loved cooking from an early age and had a great home economics teacher. I was inspired by someone who did Leiths a few years before me – it seemed to have all the aspects of cooking I would enjoy with good prospects after the course.’

Having mastered dishes like coq au vin at school (‘very exotic in the 1980s’), Patricia completed the Culinary Diploma in 1993, then worked as a private chef and at Good Housekeeping magazine before moving into cookery education.

Patricia’s daughter, Izzy, who is about to start a PhD, also completed the Culinary Diploma in 2019 after taking the LCC40 course at school.

‘After school, Izzy worked a season at a shooting lodge on Exmoor and has spent all her university holidays working as a private chef from cooking for a family in France to managing a cookery course in Puglia. Leiths has more than paid for itself.’

Patricia believes her students could follow a similar route from school course to professional opportunities.

‘The course is long enough for the students to gain a sound set of skills to enable them to find summer jobs or gap year jobs when they leave.

‘It is useful to fill up the long university holidays with interesting and better paid jobs.’

Her students are currently wrapping up an intense exam season, but just before half term, Patricia and her class visited Stream Farm in Somerset.

‘We all enjoyed a walk around the farm which is set is the most idyllic valley. Will, the farm manager, explained how they farmed and the ethos behind it in a fun and interesting way.

‘At the end, we had a picnic at the bottom of the valley with their pork sausages, tasted the apple juice and ate some cakes, of course.

‘The inspiration for the farm visit comes from my long-held view that provenance is important when choosing ingredients particularly meat and vegetables – buying organic produce may not fit with their student budget but it may well be something they can think about later in life.’

Indeed, one of the key challenges of teaching practical cookery is the cost of ingredients, but Patricia says, the LCC30 helps address this.

‘The recipes are flexible and, in some instances, can be halved to reduce cost and waste.’ Patricia tells the Leiths Letter she’d recommend the course ‘without hesitation’ to others. Having experienced Leiths as a student, a parent and a teacher, we’re happy to take her word for it.

Are you interested in becoming a Leiths Partner School? We’ll be at the HMC conference from 29 September – 1 October 2025. Come find us to discover how a Leiths food education programme is the hands-on subject that adds so much value to the student experience.