UCD_BC_Time out_42-45.qxd 25/8/08 16:54 Page 1
TIME OUT
HOT
PROSPECTS
Gourmet cookery classes are proving a big hit as the
cash-rich and time-poor opt to upskill in the kitchen
ITH an ever-increasing focus on healthy eating, introduce learners to seafood, Asian, Italian, vegetarian and low-
W
cookery schools have developed around the prem- fat cookery.
ise that people want to eat well but just need to be One of the more novel courses offered by the academy is the Singles
taught the tricks of the trade. Ireland has a grow- Supper Club. The class has eight guys and eight girls, with each getting
ing number of top-class cookery schools offering a the chance to work alongside one other in preparing and cooking a
wide range of courses designed to fit around the meal. Afterwards everyone gets to sit down and enjoy the meal with
busiest of schedules. They have proven a hit with the time-poor, cash- some wine. Aiming to create the genesis of a romantic relationship,
rich division looking to upskill in the kitchen. Cooks Academy even offers to pay for the honeymoon of any couple
‘Enthusiastic amateur’ is a catch-all tag Tim Greenwood (DBS 97) who meet at the Singles Club and subsequently get married.
uses to refer to those who come to learn at Dún Laoghaire-based Cooks Despite the venture being a “bit worrying” to begin with, Cooks
Academy, which he set up with his wife and fellow alumnus Vanessa Academy took off straightaway after being launched in May 2005 with
(MBS 94). classes filling up within a month. Now a big element of its sales is cor-
“It’s a very diverse client base. It’s everything from the retired priest porate business, with companies using cooking as a method of team
who no longer has a housekeeper and has to learn how to cook, to the building or to entertain clients.
transition-year student whose parents sent him or her to us. We’ve “Cookery schools have typically been associated with older people,
even had a former chief executive of one of Ireland’s largest banks. but cookery has become much trendier. It’s no longer the preserve of
What we do is all about the self-improvement marketplace. People are matronly icons; we’ve now got younger, sexier celebrity chefs like
sick of convenience food; they want good food but they just don’t know Jamie Oliver and Nigella Lawson. We’re operating on the back of
how to cook it.” that image — making cooking less frumpy and more trendy,” says
Drawing on the highest level of expertise from schools in the UK and Greenwood.
Europe, the Greenwoods brought this knowledge to their school and A razor-sharp focus on its target market — young professionals from
created a comprehensive range of courses that have grown year on year their late 20s to late 30s — was crucial for the development of the
and now stand at 40. Dedicated cookery professionals give the lessons enterprise, says Greenwood. Back in the early days they would stand
while the Greenwoods concentrate on running the business. around the International Financial Services Centre handing out fliers
The longest course available is the full-time professional attempting to reach young professionals. With both giving up their
one-month certificate course. This comprises 20 practical days of full-time jobs to pursue Cooks Academy, Greenwoods says:
intensive cookery tuition. The Essential Foundation course and the “We knew very quickly that we were on to something.” If the booked-
Essential Intermediate are conducted over five full days and promise to out courses at many of Ireland’s cookery schools are anything to go by,
equip the learner with ‘a war chest of impressive recipes’. they certainly were.
For the time-poor, four and six-week evening cookery courses Maeve McGovern
42 UCD BUSINESS CONNECTIONS
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