Nick Nairn Cook School

Scottish super chef Nick Nairn has been a TV fixture for the last two decades. One of youngest chefs to be awarded a Michelin star back in 1991, a passionate champion of Scottish produce and a prolific cookbook author, he opened the Nick Nairn Cook School in the Lake of Menteith in 2000, and followed it with a sister outpost in a converted church hall in central Aberdeen in 2012. Today, both sites run a packed course calendar, with a team of resident tutors and Nick himself divvying up teaching duties to classes of 24 students at a time. At both schools, classes are generally recipe-focused, unpacking the secrets of restaurant-quality preparation of one or two dishes over two to three hours, or diving deep into a full menu or single topic (such as fish or Indian) over the course of a whole day. As you’d expect from such an enthusiastic devotee of Scottish ingredients, provenance is paramount, and the same quality standards extend to the facilities and cookware.

Nick’s New Scottish Cookery: £249

Modern Scottish – Fish, Shellfish & Desserts: £149

Nick’s Desert Island Dishes: £149

Classic Italian: £149

3-Hour – Roast Chicken Supreme, Vanilla Pannacotta: £79

3-Hour Perfect Steak; Nick’s Cranachan: £79

2-Hour Cooking Class – Saffron Chicken & Chorizo: £59