Overview
Leiths’ Chef Skills daytime course is an 8 week professional course designed for competent and knowledgeable chefs, food professionals and home cooks wanting to elevate their skills. Running two days a week, this unique part-time course teaches to refine and enhance your cooking.
Building on an existing skillset, this course will equip you with all the skills you need to excel in hospitality and other careers in the food industry or become the ultimate, masterful home-cook. Our teachers will train you to take your culinary ability to the next level and expand your repertoire of complex skills and recipes. You’ll learn to create contemporary dishes, with interesting flavour combinations and learn impressive techniques from global cuisines. You’ll also cover elevated food presentation, canapés, meat and fish techniques and gain endless recipe inspiration. The course celebrates and embraces emerging food trends, so you will be well positioned to offer the food that people love to eat today.
Suitability
Chef Skills is suitable for advanced home-cooks who have an existing well-rounded culinary skillset, perhaps having completed the Essential Cooking Certificate. As well as working food professionals wanting to gain accredited training in more complex cookery.
As this is an intermediate level course, we do recommend that home-cooks have a one-to-one chat with our teaching staff to discuss your cooking level and ensure the course is right for you before enrolling. You can book a 15-minute chat with our teaching staff.
Course Content
Course Content
This 8 week course runs part-time, two days a week.
Your time will be spent mainly in the kitchens with practical learning under the guidance of the Leiths expert teachers, however you will also benefit from a number of demonstrations in class and in our demonstration room during longer sessions.
Skills & Recipes
Skills covered:
- Breads and bigas
- Hollandaise sauce
- Uses of gelatines for set creams and bavarois
- Italian meringue
- Fish and shellfish prep
- Enriched pasta and gnocchi
- Pâte sucrée
- Soufflés, savoury and sweet
- Meat prep and sauces
- Layered pastry/introduction to flaky pastry
- Steaming
- Choux pastry
- Cake making
- Canapés and buffet evening cooking sessions
Example recipes:
- Duck breasts with a bramble sauce, pommes Anna and hispi cabbage
- Slow cooked pork cheeks with apple compote, braised lettuce and pommes purée
- Sea bream with fennel purée and hazelnut dressing
- Chicken liver pâte with soda bread and tomato chutney
- Sausage rolls using flaky pastry
- Gnocchi with asparagus, peas and a sage butter
- Gingerbread Alaska
- Fougasse bread
- Seville orange soufflé
Assessment & Coursework
teachers will assess your progress throughout the course and you will be required to complete a theory and practical assessment at the end of the course to be eligible for the certificate. Your teachers will taste your food as part of a continual assessment providing you with constructive feedback on both method and taste.
Qualifications
As well as the Leiths Chef Skills Certificate, successful students will leave with a qualification in practical cooking skills, kitchen theory and professional hygiene. These courses are taken online.
These courses are:
- Level II Food Hygiene and Safety for Catering
- Allergen Awareness
Career Support & Leiths List
Leiths has an unrivalled reputation in the food industry for producing highly-skilled graduates that go on to be the next leaders of the food world.
The past decade has seen an explosion in the varied career opportunities available within food, from private cheffing and hospitality, to recipe developing, media and food start-ups and entrepreneurship. Whatever your aspirations, the Leiths’ professional courses equip you with the lifetime skills, resources, network and solutions needed to kickstart your career.
Leiths List:
Our professional students all benefit from our bespoke careers and recruitment agency Leiths List, drawing on Leiths network of alumni and industry connections to provide work experience, job placements and advice from some of the UK’s leading food businesses. Students have access to this support from the point that they begin their course well into their professional careers.
Booking & Fees
Students on this course will require an equipment pack and uniform (approx. £148). Instructions for all required items are sent out before the course begins.
Book a One-To-One Chat:
We recommend for this course that you book in a 15-minute chat with our teaching staff to explore your learning requirements and cooking level before enrolling in this course. This is carried out remotely via video call. To request a one-to-one chat, fill in the form here with your details and we will get in touch to organise.
Alternatively, you can contact our Registrar with any questions by phone at 020 8749 6400 or email at Registrar@leiths.com.
Book and secure your place:
To book, click ‘Book now’ at the top of the page and select your preferred date. To secure your place, you will need to pay a deposit of £400 upon booking and complete our enrolment form. This form will be sent over to you by email along with further information after booking by our Registrar. By signing this form, you agree to our course booking terms and conditions. To read our terms and conditions, click here.
Payments for professional courses must be made by either bank transfer, cheque or a debit/credit card payment. We do not accept American Express.
Places are offered on a first come, first served basis.
Remaining fees:
Once the deposit is paid, all remaining professional course fees will be due six weeks before the course starts. We’ll send you an invoice, along with instructions for ordering equipment and uniform closer to the time. View our full price list here.
For more information on finance and payment plans, please contact our Registrar at registrar@leiths.com or call directly at 020 8749 6400.
Practicalities
Uniform & Equipment
Students on this course will require an equipment pack (approx. £145) and uniform (approx. £38). Instructions for all required items are sent out at least 8 weeks before the course begins. Further information can be found in the student handbook or contact the Registrar.
What is included:
What to bring:
- Closed toed, flat soled shoes
- Long, loose trousers and a long sleeved top
- A notebook and pencil
Allergies & Intolerances
We are happy to make adjustments where possible.
Please read our full policy on allergies and dietary restrictions here.
Accommodation
Reviews
“I’ve learned so much from a theory point of view. Understanding what the processes actually mean and learning why you can’t really cut corners with cooking has been hugely helpful. It’s made me a much more organised and diligent cook.”
– Emily Crocker, Essentials Student
“The best thing I got out of this course was consolidating confidence in my own ability. Now I feel confident to completely go for it. That’s why I’ve quit my job now and I have the confidence to take on my food business full-time. “
– Sara Assad-Mannings, Essentials Student
