Chef Skills:
Evening Course

Elevate your cooking skills and take your culinary ability to the next level with our accredited Chef Skills course.

Ready to take your culinary skill set up a level?

Chef Skills is a part time professional evening course designed for competent and knowledgeable home cooks, chefs and food professionals wanting to up their skills. The progressive techniques you’ll learn on this unique course will refine, enhance and elevate your cooking. The course runs two evenings per week across ten weeks and three Saturdays.

Building on your foundation knowledge, you’ll develop as a cook and learn the skills needed to become a masterful home cook or to excel in the food industry. Deepen your understanding of food, extend your repertoire of skills and recipes, and take on new challenges as you take your culinary abilities to the next level.

As well as building on fundamental classic skills, you’ll learn to create contemporary dishes, experience interesting flavour combinations, and learn impressive techniques from global cuisines. You’ll learn to master 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.

If you have taken the Essential Cooking Certificate, this course is the natural progression. If you haven’t, take a look at this questionnaire to determine if your skills are the correct level for this course.

Who is this course for?

- Competent, passionate home cooks who want to enhance and elevate their cooking skills

- Chefs looking to refine and elevate their skills to move their career forward

- Those who have taken our Essential Cooking Certificate looking to build on these foundation skills, deepen their knowledge, and take their culinary skills to the next level and unlock doors to a career in the food industry

- Those who have completed chefs training in the past and want to refresh their skills and learn more contemporary cooking techniques and recipes

Whatever your motivations for taking this course, we will equip you with in-depth knowledge and kitchen confidence to fulfil your ambitions.

If you're not yet ready for Chef Skills, our Essential Cooking Certificate is the perfect course to take to tackle the fundamental foundations of cooking. Available both in person and online.

Prices & Booking

If ever anybody comes to me for a job and I hear they’ve trained at Leiths, I want them.

– Rick Stein - Chef, Restaurateur & Broadcaster

Life at Leiths

What can I expect from life at Leiths?

Our Virtual School Visit is now live on our site to give you a taste of life at Leiths.

Course Content

Your course will be split between demonstrations and hands on cooking under the guidance of the Leiths expert teachers. We will also be focusing on planning your time in the kitchen and simple, effective food presentation.

Leiths teachers will assess your progress throughout the 10 weeks of the course and students will be required to complete a theory and practical exam at the end of the course to be eligible for the certificate.

Successful students will leave with a fantastic qualification in practical cooking skills, kitchen theory and professional hygiene.

Example Skills Covered Sample Recipes

Breads and bigas

Hollandaise sauce

Uses of gelatines for set creams and bavarois

Italian meringue

Fish and shellfish prep

Enriched pasta and gnocchi

Pate 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

Duck breasts with a bramble sauce, pommes anna and hispi cabbage

Slow cooked Pork cheeks with apple compote, braised lettuce and pommes puree

Sea bream with fennel puree and hazelnut dressing

Chicken liver pate 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 souffle

Course Details

Course Formats Bookings & Questions Covid Health & Safety

We offer the Chef Skills in various different formats, so you can achieve your culinary ambitions in a way which suits your schedule and lifestyle:

Chef Skills; Evening Course: An evening course running two evenings per week for ten weeks, as well as three Saturdays throughout the duration of the course.

Chef Skills; Online Course: Our flexible, 24 week online course which involves approximately 3 hours of cooking per week.

Chef Skills; Daytime Course: Our full-time daytime course which runs Monday to Friday for four weeks in the summer.

Students who attend the course in the school will automatically be enrolled for the assessment at the end of the course. Successful students will be awarded the professional Leiths Chef Skills Certificate.

Online course students will receive a digital certificate of completion. They will also have the opportunity to enrol for the full accreditation, with a two-day practical course at the school to determine their final mark.

If you would like to talk to us about a place on the Chef Skills evening course, please email us at registrar@leiths.com to arrange a chat with one of our experienced and approachable tutors, or call 020 8749 6400.

To secure a place on the course, we will ask for a completed professional course enrolment form and a deposit to secure your booking. If you have any queries regarding how to book the course please telephone the school.

Foreign Language Students and Visas

If English is your second language you should have proof that you've attained an IELTS (International English Language Testing System) band score of 6.5 which equates to C1 on the CEFR (Council of Europe's Common European Framework). If you have studied at degree level before in the UK this will not be needed.

If you have any Visa related questions please contact the Registrar at registrar@leiths.com.

Here is a summary of our full Covid-19 Health & Safety Plans, with all the key points and information you need for a safe return to our kitchens. We will be updating our procedures as necessary.

Practicalities

Practical Information Bookings/Fees School Facilities

Uniform and equipment

Students on this course will require an equipment pack and uniform (approx. £183). Instructions for all required items are sent out before the course begins.

If you have not completed the Essential Cooking Certificate, you will need to purchase the Leiths How to Cook Book.

What is included?

2 x Leiths aprons

What should I bring?

Closed toed, flat soled shoes

Long, loose trousers and a long sleeved top are advisable

A notebook and pencil

Allergies and intolerances

We are happy to make adjustments where possible.

Please see our allergy and dietary restrictions advice here.

Fees

£4,190 (£400 deposit)

Before enrolling, we highly recommend that you book an initial chat with one of our friendly tutors. Due to the current situation we are currently offering 1:1’s by phone and video. You’ll have an opportunity to talk about yourself, what you are hoping to achieve and we can discuss our courses and their suitability for you. We can of course talk you through our current social distancing and health and safety policies and explain what to expect in the new academic year as well as answer any questions that you may have. You should allow up to half an hour for the appointment.

Places are offered on a first come, first served basis.

To secure a place on this course a deposit of £400 is payable as well as your agreement to the terms and conditions, which you can read here. Your signed enrolment form should be sent to:

Registrar,
Leiths School of Food & Wine,
16-20 Wendell Road, London,
W12 9RT, UK
or E-mail: registrar@leiths.com

All remaining professional courses fees will be due at least six weeks before the course start date.

We’ll send you an invoice, along with instructions for ordering equipment, books and uniform closer to the time.

Credit

Credit for this course is available (exclusions apply).

Lendwise is a specialist loan provider dedicated to education finance, allowing you to pursue your culinary aspirations. Repayments would be at a fixed interest rate throughout your loan term, personalised to your profile. There are no fees or penalties for early repayment of your loan.

Contact Lendwise to apply directly. Be sure to read the terms before committing. Please note that other sources of funding may be available.

Leiths School of Food and Wine is located over 4 floors of a light and airy space on a residential street between Shepherd's Bush and Chiswick in West London.

The school comprises four kitchens, three of which are used for the full time students while the fourth is used for recipe development, corporate team building, one day workshops, photography and filming.

The kitchens are all air conditioned and equipped with gas ovens and hobs of the same design and high standard employed by professional restaurants and catering kitchens, giving students access to all the equipment needed to learn to cook professionally.

The demonstration kitchen on the ground floor is fitted with LCD screens and cameras enabling students to see the close up details of each step of the dishes and techniques demonstrated by the teachers and outside lecturers.

Prices & Booking