christmas cooking - take a course!..

Cumbria has several excellent cooking course providers, and many of them offer special Christmas courses, so if you are interested, book to attend one of these:

• Lucy Cooks: This Staveley cooking school offers a course called A Christmas Celebration (demo and lunch), which takes place in the AGA kitchen, were participants get to watch a Christmas feast being prepared and of which they will then partake.

• Cook in Cumbria: Wicked desserts - freeze ahead for Christmas. Cook in Cumbria is run by Yelly de Jong from her beautiful home in Ravenstonedale in eastern Cumbria.

• Woodend Cookery: Run by Grainne Jakobson, runs Christmas cooking demonstrations all through November and early December.

• Cumbria on a Plate: Run by Cumbria's food OBE Annette Gibbons, holds Getting Ready for Christmas afternoon and evening classes in November and December, all at Annette's lovely home Ostle House in Mawbray.

Also, for those of you planning ahead: In Cumbria lives one of our country's foremost authorities on the history of food and cooking. Ivan Day is internationally known and hired for his expertise on projects ranging from film making to museum exhibitions. Luckily for Cumbria, he also runs historic food courses from his house, with a fantastic historic kitchen, in Shap. And this year, Ivan is putting on a new Christmas cookery course, A Taste of Christmas Past. Unfortunately, all places for this year are taken, but there are still places in the 2010 edition!

Content and photography supplied by artisan-food.com