Our Partnership Schools: Dame Prue Leith opens state-of-the-art Leiths teaching kitchen

In March, Leiths Education celebrated a milestone moment in its mission to improve the landscape of practical cookery teaching in the UK. Opening the state-of-the-art teaching kitchen at Queen’s College, Taunton, which will deliver Leiths courses, our founder Dame Prue Leith cut the ribbon, tasted food cooked by the students and said a few words. 

‘Queen’s College, Taunton, is the best school I have ever seen for food and I have been to a lot of schools! If every school had this attitude, we would have a generation of healthier children. It’s wonderful to see a school do what every school should do – take food seriously.

‘I just feel so passionately that we have a duty to teach young people to eat, teaching them to cook is fine but if we can just teach them to understand food and to love good food, to love healthy food, we set them up for life.’

The college will deliver courses designed by Leiths Education. One of which – the Food and Nutrition Teacher training qualification – has been a collaborative effort between Leiths and the University of Roehampton. This course forms the last step in our complete pathway of culinary education which caters for students from primary age right through to those seeking qualifications in food education.

Maria Dunbar, CEO of Leiths Education, was delighted to join the celebrations and commented on the vast array of careers available to the culinary students of today.

‘Joining the world of professional catering and hospitality has changed radically in the past ten years and more young people are attracted to it. 

‘This generation understands that the opportunities it offers are diverse: recipe developers, food stylists, journalists, TV production, photography and, of course, as chefs. 

‘Investment in their education and training needs to keep pace which is why we are so pleased to be providing our courses for this new, exciting development at Queen’s College.’

Students at the college, Hannah and Ellie, prepared food for Prue Leith and other guests and said that ‘cooking for Dame Prue with our head chef, Jordan, yesterday was a truly eye-opening experience.

‘It gave us a real sense of what it will be like to work in the industry when we’re older. Having the opportunity to cook for such renowned chefs was an incredible honour.

‘The entire journey of learning about food and nutrition has been an incredible experience. Having a brand-new kitchen to continue that learning makes it even more exciting. ‘It’s an amazing opportunity to develop new skills and deepen our understanding of food in a hands-on way.’