As part of the course Leiths will also support you with access to bespoke training by top chefs, industry placements, career advice and an exclusive network of hospitality businesses partnering with us to offer Leiths students long term job opportunities. Examples of business we partner with for work experience:

• BBC Good Food
• Soho House Group
• The Delaunay
• Spring
• Carousel
• Chez Bruce
• Elystan street
• The Stafford Group
• Norma
• Medlar
• The Glasshouse
• Saturday Kitchen Live
• Taste of London
• Delicious magazine
• Allplants
• Gousto
• The Dusty Knuckle Bakery School

Leiths graduates have gone on to become chefs in the country's best restaurants, leaders of the London food scene, celebrated TV chefs, editors and stylists at top food publications or successful food entrepreneurs.

Read more about their stories here:

Our alumni

The intermediate term allows students to build on their foundation skills and develop a more sophisticated style of cooking suitable for a professional environment. It’s now time to turn up the heat and produce more involved dishes, and take techniques to the next level: so, the foundation bread making skills you have been practicing will now be put to use as you master enriched doughs; you know how to make a bechamel and to perfectly whisk egg whites so souffles are on the menu; and the fish filleting skills you have learned can be incorporated into an elegant plate of Pan fried mackerel, roasted baby beetroot, lovage, radish and pickled shallot salad.

By the end of this term, you will be cooking to a good professional standard, with a level of refinement to your cooking that sets it apart. In class you will be encouraged to be more creative, with sessions where you design your own dish around core ingredients, and you will take part in a group cooking exercise where you work together to design, cook and serve a menu. You will also undertake a student management exercise where you will plan a service and manage other students as they work together to deliver their creative dishes.

Always focussed on student careers, Leiths will host an exclusive careers fair, inviting key restaurateurs, food entrepreneurs, alumni working in food styling and writing, and other guests from all areas of the food industry. Here you will discover more about the careers on offer, and start to forge links for work experience. Throughout your course, Leiths List (our own agency and careers service) is on hand to provide introductions and support.

The in-house demonstration program continues to broaden your depth of technical knowledge. Specialist guest chefs - from master butchers, to Michelin starred chefs, dim sum experts, and raw food specialists - inspire you to develop your presentation and creative skills. Students also use these sessions to make further links in interesting areas of the industry.

Taking wine studies to the next level too, we will dedicate one session per week to tutored tastings, so that you can achieve the Level 2 award in Wine from WSET. Led by Richard Bampfield (MW), our team of wine experts deliver the curriculum via a series of interactive wine classes, broadening your knowledge of tasting and production of wine.

Two term Diploma in Food and Wine and Intermediate Certificate in Food and Wine

This intermediate term can be taken as an independent 11 week certificate course (10 weeks full time tuition and 1 week where you will prepare for and then take a practical assessment) or as part of the two term Diploma. If you wish to enrol without first attending the foundation term you should be an experienced cook with a sound practical and theoretical knowledge of cooking. You may already work in a professional cooking environment but lack formal training and wish to improve your skills, learn professional cooking techniques and a fresh, modern style of cooking.

We can assist suitable candidates in arranging coaching or other methods of refining your foundation skills prior to the course start, to enable you to prepare to join us at this level. An initial interview will help us to establish the best course for you.

Intermediate term skills

• Refining of kitchen skills including seasoning, presentation and knife skills
• Technical butchery of meat and game
• Offal, game and meat cooking
• Fish and shellfish preparation and cooking including round fish, squid, octopus and clams
• Complex emulsion, reduction, veloute and Espagnole sauces
• Souffles, sweet and savoury
• Enriched doughs, brioche, introduction to bigas
• French, layered, hot water crust and suet pastries
• Patisserie including gateaux, bavarois, ice creams, sorbets and Italian meringue
• Canapes
• Pasta and risotto
• Preserving jams, jellies, marmalade and chutney
• CTH – commencing Level 4
• Wine – WSET level 2
• Guest demonstrations include nutrition, dim sum and east Asian cookery, plant based food, healthy eating, Middle Eastern and Italian cooking

Intermediate term example recipes

• Pan fried mackerel, roasted baby beetroot, lovage, radish and pickled shallot salad
• Braised octopus, paprika sauce and aioli
• Salt and spiced slow roast pork belly with chilli and peanut dressing
• Pork and apple hand raised pie
• Individual lemon meringue tartlets
• Doughnuts with fresh blackcurrant jam
• Seville orange souffles
• Sacher torte and fraiser cakes
• Bay bavarois, roasted pink rhubarb and sable biscuits
• Ravioli of fontina and pumpkin, sage butter

During this 11 week intensive term (10 weeks full time tuition and 1 week where you will prepare for and then take a practical exam), Leiths students refine their Intermediate skills to enable them to graduate with the precision required to enter a top level professional kitchen or alternative area of the food industry or food media. At this elevated level, many different techniques often combine in one dish, and processes such as sourdough bread making, curing and preserving, plant based cooking, advanced presentation, and patisserie are woven through the curriculum. Use of the sous vide cooker, thermomix, and other professional equipment allows for further creative development.

As well as honing your skills in the kitchens through frequent all-day cooking sessions and creative cooking challenges, you will also complete a program of work experience (you are required to undertake 3 short placements in a professional environment). Leiths List and our student support team are on hand to help you to connect with your chosen area of the industry, be it restaurants, catering, food styling, media or private cheffing.

This is also the time to polish your skills, with no shortage of time to practice, and your dedicated class tutor will be carefully monitoring your progress as you move towards the final assessments.

As well as the stunning in-house demonstrations, you will be learning from leading industry experts, as they share not only their unique and diverse cooking styles, but also provide invaluable advice on choosing your career path, and open your eyes to possible careers that you hadn’t conceived of before. Connections made with the Leiths Alumni and guest lecturers often lead to career opportunities, and students are encouraged to push themselves to explore a range of career paths. Sessions on how to start a food business and the practicalities of working in a variety of roles are part of this essential final term.

Students are continually assessed throughout the Diploma course, with a teacher tasting your food and giving you feedback each day. At the end of the Diploma you will take a theory paper and a practical exam. In addition, you will complete a portfolio of menus that is the perfect demonstration of your personal style, developed during your time on the course.

Advanced Certificate in Food and Wine

This course can be taken as an independent 11 week certificate course. Potential students should be extremely proficient and confident cooks with good knowledge of skills at Foundation and Intermediate level, either from formal training or from cooking in a professional kitchen.

The School can assist in arranging coaching prior to the course to enable students, where appropriate, to join us at this level.

Advanced term skills

• Clearing and consommés
• Advanced vegetable garnishes
• Refined sauces including Jus and bisque
• Puff pastry and laminated yeasted doughs, croissant and Danish pastries
• Sourdoughs and slow fermentation breads
• Mousselines
• Pasta
• Fish
• Terrines and pates
• Curing and smoking
• Sous vide and brining
• Shellfish including crab, lobster and scallops
• Entremets and petit gateaux
• Petit fours and macarons
• Advanced butchery and meat cooking
• Guest demonstrations including chocolate, plant based food, cheese, Michelin starred restaurant chefs, how to start a food business, gin tasting, food and wine matching

Advanced term example recipes

• Artichoke and green olive Pithivier, heritage tomato salad
• Mushroom consommé with pickled mushrooms
• Crispy cod cheeks, soused vegetable salad and citrus mayonnaise
• Rabbit ravioli
• Croissant, pain au chocolate, Danish pastries
• Country and wild garlic sourdoughs, ciabatta
• Gateaux opera
• King oyster mushroom, salt baked celeriac, hazelnut vinaigrette
• Beef bavette sous vide, shallot and tamarind puree, straw fries
• Ballotine of chicken with a chicken and thyme jus
• Pan fried cod, bouillabaisse sauce and baby fennel
• Sweetbreads, pomme puree and Madeira jus
• Braised violet artichokes, potato gnocchi and spring vegetables

A typical day normally starts at 9.15am and finishes at 5pm with up to an hour for lunch.

The day is divided between demonstrations and practical cooking sessions. You will also receive lectures and demonstrations from leading figures of the hospitality world and head chefs from acclaimed restaurants, as well as caterers, food scientists and other culinary experts. Some of these experiences will be off site.

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.

Lunchtime
During your lunch break a student common room is available. You can also 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.

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 by 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.

Eligibility

The first step is to book an informal interview where you can discuss your questions and ambitions with our experienced and approachable tutors. You can call +44 (0)20 8749 6400 to arrange this (take option “Reception”).

Interviews are usually held at the school (16-20 Wendell Road, W12 9RT) but will be managed via Zoom, Whereby or over the phone for now to ensure your safety during the pandemic.

On the day of your interview, you will meet our Managing Director, School Principal or a Senior Teacher. We can offer you a virtual tour of the school, followed by a chat about your previous experience, what you hope to achieve, and a friendly and open discussion to cover your questions about the courses and the school.

Please also use this opportunity to inform us during your interview of any relevant medical conditions and/or specific learning or mobility difficulties that could affect your time on the course.

How to book

Following your interview, our Registrar will contact you by email offering you a place (and setting out any relevant conditional offers). The enrolment form and details will be attached. If we do not think the course is suitable for you, for any reason, we will let you know, and offer alternative advice.

If you decide to join us, please arrange payment of the deposit and send the signed enrolment form to: Registrar, Leiths School of Food & Wine, 16-20 Wendell Road, London, W12 9RT, UK or email to registrar@leiths.com. This will secure your place on the course.

Once these have been processed you will receive confirmation of acceptance via email confirming that you have been allocated a place on the course subject to Leiths terms and conditions.

Fees

The total fee for all three terms of the 10 month course and qualification is £30,990 (deposit £3,000).

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, books and uniform closer to the time.

View our full price list here.

Funding

Leiths can offer you the option 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.

Professional Careers Development Loans were withdrawn by the government on 31st January 2019 and as yet, a new scheme has not been announced.

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 coniditioned and 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 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.

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. This can be sent to you once you have a place confirmed.

The Diploma can be achieved in two or three terms. The three term Diploma, starting in the Autumn, comprises the Foundation, Intermediate and Advanced Certificates. The Diploma can also be achieved in two terms, starting in January, if you have enough knowledge of cookery, previous culinary training, or sufficient practical experience to omit the Foundation Term.

Dates for 2023/24

26 Sept to 8 Dec 2023 (Foundation Term)

8 Jan to 22 Mar 2024 (Intermediate Term)

16 Apr to 28 Jun 2024 (Advanced Term)

If you would like to talk to us about a place on the Diploma course starting in September 2023, please email us at registrar@leiths.com to arrange an interview with one of our experienced and approachable tutors, or call 020 8749 6400.

To secure a place on the Diploma, we will ask for a completed 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 are a Non-EU prospective student requiring a Study Visa or Tier 4 Study Visa please inform us before your interview. Any Visa related questions can be directed to the Registrar at registrar@leiths.com.