On The Menu This Month: March

At the heart of Leiths life is the expert teaching team who, combined, have a near-encyclopaedic knowledge of cookery. In pristine whites, they ‘teach, taste, repeat’ each student to success. Lou Kissane, the school’s new headteacher as of September and veritable patisserie queen, is no exception.

In her unflappable, quick-witted style, she has spent six years guiding Diploma students from foundational skills in simple sponges right through to shimmering Michelin-level Gateau Opera cakes. But before joining the Leiths teaching team in 2019, Lou honed her craft in professional kitchens.

‘I worked in restaurants for about fifteen years. I worked at a bistro in Ireland, we used good quality local ingredients and I think that’s where my love of doing things properly started. Then I moved to the U.K and got a job doing patisserie in particular. I had a great head chef who was really encouraging in terms of teaching which is where I think that love of teaching started.

‘You know, I taught a lot of people in kitchens over the years, loads of commis chefs coming and going and some of them went on to be really successful.

‘We had a Michelin star for four or five years until the head chef moved on. Then I was looking for a change and came across Leiths.

‘I took a step back to come here in terms of teaching level because I hadn’t any ‘official’ teaching experience. But I’d been running a kitchen for ten years.

‘Leiths is the best place to work. All the students come here because they really,really want to be here and what an amazing privilege to be guiding people who are like “Tell me everything you know!” It’s absolutely incredible.’

Just a few months into leading the teaching team, Lou is using her experience in kitchens to help to keep the curriculum as industry relevant as possible. Pâte à bombe, egg-free marshmallow and using a Rocher spoon – to create those incredibly satisfying quenelles you see on Great British Menu – are now on the ever-evolving list of techniques Diploma students will learn to master. The Christmas cake that traditionally wrapped up the first term has now been replaced with a ‘naked’ layered celebration cake which is especially useful to students only there for the Foundation Term.

‘We want to give the students the best possible experience and we’re also wanting them to leave with the best possible skills.

‘We are using new types of equipment such as Paco Jets to make ice cream too. You know, exposing students to the realities of what they’ll find in kitchens.’

Speaking of those realities, Lou describes Leiths’ crucial role in training the next generation of chefs for an environment that can be ‘hugely, instantly gratifying but that can also be hugely, instantly soul-destroying’ depending on the employer.

‘You’ve got to be nurturing and encouraging. We teach the students so much here but when they go into the kitchens that environment needs to continue if they’re to improve and not walk away.

‘What I always see is at the start of the Diploma quite a lot of students, particularly career changers, say “Oh I definitely don’t want to work in kitchens, it’s not for me.” I loved working in kitchens, you know, it’s hard but the buzz is incredible.

‘And that’s what I want to encourage because we need great cooks in restaurants.’

Leiths Education now encompasses the school in West London and the new Partnership School programme. So, for want of a better phrase, Lou has a lot on her plate in her first year as headteacher.

‘As a business, we’re really focused on highlighting that pathway from teaching children to cook early doors and exposing young kids to the huge opportunities that are available in hospitality and in the food industry which is always short-staffed.

‘I’ve been to one of our partner schools in Rickmansworth already. It was incredible. Some of the students were like “Oh it’s really great to meet you, I’m really thinking of coming to Leiths.” And you know their cooking is really good, I was like “You can come – definitely!”

‘My mission is to basically keep churning them out. Not in a “one in, one out” kind of way, but in a “Why wouldn’t you want to come here and learn to cook and use that skill?” kind of way.’

With her sustained commitment to the next generation of chefs, our new headteacher is set to keep populating kitchens with chefs that have the dual ‘Leiths and Lou’ stamp of approval.