Leiths professional courses / Intermediate Certificate in Food and Wine
Summary Intermediate Certificate in Food and Wine
£12,710 (deposit of £1,000)
Dates:
9th January to 24th March 2023
Please call 020 8749 6400 or email registrar@leiths.com to arrange an interview.
Open evenings: To explore our Virtual School Visit, click here.
This one term full time course is a professional cookery course suited to those with a sound knowledge of cooking who wish to improve their skills. It is also suitable for experienced cooks who lack formal training but wish to learn classical cooking methods to create contemporary dishes. Students completing the Intermediate Certificate will be proficient cooks, able to enter into a professional catering environment. This is also the second term of the three term Diploma.
Students enrolling for the Two Term Diploma, starting with the Intermediate Certificate, must make themselves available from 3rd – 6th January 2023 in order to attend a 'Induction Week'. This is a series of sessions to help you brush up on your skills before commencing the course, thereby ensuring that you are at the same level as the students who have completed the Foundation Certificate.
There are demonstrations from various experts in their fields, who will introduce students to different styles of cooking, such as South East Asian flavours, as well as tastings and demonstrations on subjects such as cheese appreciation, led by cheese historian Tom Badcock.
How to book:
In the first instance please email us to arrange an interview or call 020 8749 6400.
Following this, to secure a place, we will require a completed enrolment form and a deposit of £1,000. If you have any queries regarding how to book the course please telephone the school.
Please note: Payments for professional courses must be made by either bank transfer, cheque or a debit card payment. We cannot accept credit cards.
Course content Intermediate Certificate in Food and Wine
You will be continually assessed during the practical sessions. You must also pass a theory and practical examination and complete the coursework to successfully graduate. A class teacher will give feedback and support throughout the course.
Coursework
You will be expected to study at home for about 4 to 5 hours a week. This will include writing time plans, menu planning and costing exercises. This will form a final portfolio to be assessed at the end of the academic year.
Attendance
You may be disqualified from taking examinations if you have not completed the required 80% of the course.
This course enables students to build on their basic cooking skills. Potential students wishing to enrol should be experienced cooks with a sound knowledge of cooking. You may lack formal training and wish to improve your skills and to learn classical cooking methods to create contemporary dishes. By the end of the course you will be able to cook both modern and classic dishes to a high professional dinner party standard. You will be taught to be more creative and to cook ideas of your own without written recipes.
In small groups, you willl cost, plan, shop and cook for 50 of your fellow students as a practical exercise developing your ability to cook for large numbers in a team.
During the term, Leiths List, our agency, will organise careers sessions where you will be able to talk to people from all over the catering industry in order to help make decisions about future careers.
Typical skills and sample recipes:
Meat preparation
- 2 day session with butchers
- Boned chicken with ricotta and sun dried tomatoes
- Butterfly leg of lamb
- Guinea fowl braised with smoked paprika, peppers and olives
- Salt and spice roasted pork belly with caramelized peanut and chilli dressing
- Pacific Rim
- Spanish
Professional skills
- Costing - How to organise an event for 200+ people, ordering, staffing, hire, etc
- Menu writing
Game
- Pan fried fillet of venison with fresh pear chutney
- Partridge, Jerusalem artichokes
Sauces
- Emulsion sauces – Monkfish with herby hollandaise, steak with béarnaise sauce
- Pan sauces – Skate with brown butter and capers
- Espagnole – Veal steaks with Madeira sauce
Fish and shellfish preparation
- Fried sardines with a spicy pickled cucumber & red onion salad
- Sea bream with skordalia and a pinenut vinaigrette
- Deep fried squid in herbed salt and pepper batter
- Spaghetti con Vongole
- Salted Szechwan pepper prawns
Puddings
- Gelatine and Mousses – Honey bavarois, chilled lemon soufflé
- Soufflés – twice baked goats cheese soufflés, passion fruit soufflés, pistachio souffle
- Ice creams – Ginger Ice Cream, Damson ice cream
Pastries
- Pate Sucrée – Tarte au citron
- Choux - Aubergine & Proscuitto gougere
- Flaky pastry – Steak and kidney pie, Cinnamon palmiers
- Hot watercrust pastry – Veal and ham raised pie
- Suet crust pastry – Steak and kidney pudding
- Beignets
Baking
- Enriched bread doughs – Beer bread, Chelsea buns, Walnut raisin bread, Hot cross buns
- Whisking method - Genoise and Crème au beurre
Wine
- Compare old and new world wines
- Discuss current market trends in food and examining the effect this has on the wine trade
- Matching food with wine
Typical day
A typical day normally starts at 9.15am and finishes at 5pm with an hour for lunch between 1-2pm.
The day is divided between demonstrations and practical cooking sessions. You will also receive lectures and demonstrations from gastronomic celebrities and head chefs from leading restaurants as well as caterers, food scientists and other culinary experts.
During the course, there is also the occasional outing and event that goes outside these set hours.
Morning
Your weeks alternate so on one week, your day begins with a morning demonstration at 10.00am; arrive at 9.45am to be prepared for the start.
The next week, your day will start with a practical cookery session; arrive by 9.15am to change into your chef’s whites and start organising ingredients.
Earlier starts:
During the Intermediate term, there are two earlier starts at 9am for the butchery sessions, plus two very early morning visits to Smithfield meat market.
Lunchtime
If the morning cooking session does not run over, lunch is 1-2pm. You can go to the student common room, remain in the demonstration room, do some research in the library or sit in the local park.
All the food you cook is yours, so if you have a morning cookery session your lunch can be what you've cooked. If you have a morning demonstration, you taste the food at the end of the session, but may also want to bring supplementary food from home or eat out locally.
Afternoon
If you have a practical session in the afternoon, allow time to change and get into the kitchens early to weigh up the ingredients.
Classes usually end at 5pm but may finish later on occasions. If you are cooking in the afternoon, the food cooked can be taken home to enjoy for dinner.
Late finishes:
During the Intermediate term we run a charity canapé party for friends and family of students, after the school day has finished.
Qualifications Intermediate Certificate in Food and Wine
By completing this course, you will gain the following qualifications:
- Intermediate Certificate in Food and Wine
- Level 2 Award in Food Safety in Catering
- Level 2 Health and Safety in the Workplace
- Control of Substances Hazardous to Health class
- First Aid training
Careers Intermediate Certificate in Food and Wine
What you could do with an Intermediate Certificate in Food and Wine:
- Set up your own catering company or freelance for other caterers
- Become a food stylist and make food look beautiful for photography
- Develop dishes or products for a food producer or supermarket
- Teach others to cook
- Write recipe books
- Become a food writer
- Become a private chef for a family
- Work in food media, marketing or PR
- Or become a chef and aim for a Michelin star or 3!
Leiths graduates have gone on to become chefs in the country's finest restaurants, leaders of the London food scene, celebrated TV chefs, editors and stylists at top food publications or successful food entrepreneurs.
Explore our alumni page to read about our previous students' inspiring career stories across the food industry.
Finding work
Leiths can arrange work experience placements in restaurants, magazines and other food companies for Diploma students. Leiths List, the school's agency for chefs, can also assist students and graduates in finding work.
Booking / Fees Intermediate Certificate in Food and Wine
Eligibility
A place on the Intermediate Certificate is subject to the student being proficient in the skills and theory covered during the Foundation Certificate. The student must have done some work experience in a professional kitchen before they start the course. A one-to-one with a Leiths teacher (at an additional cost) is usually required to assess the student’s skill level once the initial interview has taken place and then to cover or revise Foundation Certificate skills as necessary.
How to book
In the first instance please contact us to arrange an informal interview and a tour of the school. Following this, to secure a place, we will require a completed enrolment form and a deposit of £1,000. If you have any queries regarding how to book the course please telephone the School.
Fees
All remaining professional course fees will be due at least six weeks before the course starts. We’ll send you an invoice, along with instructions for ordering equipment, books and uniform closer to the time.
View our full price list here.
Funding
Regrettably the Professional Careers Development Loan was withdrawn on 31st January 2019 and as yet, a new scheme has not been announced by the Government.
Leiths are trying to register for alternative financing but sadly this is not yet available.
You can, however choose to pay your fees in instalments. Please call us on +44 (0)20 8749 6400 or email the registrar at registrar@leiths.com for more information.
Facilities Intermediate Certificate in Food and Wine
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 is comprised of 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 equipped with gas ovens and hobs of the same design and high standard employed by most 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 fully air conditioned and 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.
Students have access to a library of cookery books and magazines for reference, a student dining room, changing facilities and WiFi. There are computers at their disposal.
Preparing for the Course Intermediate Certificate in Food and Wine
Uniform and equipment
As a student on this course, you will require knives (£249 – £399) additional kitchen equipment (approx. £200) and course literature (£35).
You are required to wear a chef’s jacket, hat, apron, checked trousers and non-slip kitchen clogs (approx. £100). Instructions and order forms for all required items will be sent before the course begins.
Accommodation
The School is non-residential, but we keep an accommodation list if you need help finding somewhere to stay while you study.
Foreign Language Students and Visas
Students for whom English is a second language should normally have reached an IELTS (The International English Language Testing System) band score (or equivalent) of 6.5 - this equates to C1 on the CEFR (Council of Europe’s Common European Framework).
Students from abroad may be required to send a resumé of their cooking experience, knowledge and skills.
Please contact the school if you are a Non-EU prospective student requiring either a Study Visa or Tier 4 Study Visa.
Staff are so lovely and helpful.
Diploma student, 2019
* All prices correct at time of publishing. Please note that prices are likely to change at the end of each financial year (April).
NEED ADVICE ABOUT A PROFESSIONAL COURSE? CALL +44 (0)20 8749 6400
Loading course information...