Specialities
Though set in the bucolic surroundings of a traditional working farm in rural Worcestershire, Eckington Manor’s cookery school is a picture of gleaming modernity. Smart, well thought-out workstations are served by range cookers, including what they proudly trumpet as the largest number of AGAs of any UK cookery school – and AGA cooking is, naturally, an Eckington speciality. Ranging from a single morning to two days or more, its courses cover a wide variety of topics: from game to vegetarian; Italian to Indian; bread baking to desserts. All abilities are catered to, whether you want to polish your recipe repertoire to a restaurant-quality shine, need help finding your way around the range oven, or simply need a general boost in kitchen confidence. Classes are relaxed, fun, and set up to suit local students as well as visitors who fancy making a weekend of it – there’s luxurious B&B accommodation available in the school’s courtyard (the old mill and milking parlour), as well as a widely admired farm-to-fork restaurant headed by Masterchef: the Professionals winner Mark Stinchcombe, and his equally celebrated wife Sue – both regular school tutors.
