One of our most popular activities and back every year by demand is the courses run by professional chefs on healthy cooking! Come and try new and old recipes and surprise your family and friends with your skills. Have fun and stay healthy!

Following the refurbishment of our kitchen, we are once again offering Cookery Club for young women aged 14-19. During the Summer Term 2011 young people who take part will work towards an AQA gaining basic cookery skills and learning new recipes, but mostly having fun!

This term Senior Cookery girls have been getting a taste for leadership after starting Baytree’s own version of ‘Come Dine with Me’. At the start of the term girls paired up to design menus and budget for their recipes. Each week a different pair led the class, teaching the other members to cook their recipes and delegating tasks such as cleaning, chopping & serving.

After each class the girls marked each other on ‘tastiness of food’, ‘enjoyment of class’ and ‘cleanliness of kitchen’. All the girls have done really well and found their strengths in all areas of the Cookery Club. Chika, when asked, summed it up brilliantly: ‘taking a lead in Cookery has given us all experience and confidence.’

The winning menu included lasagne and pineapple muffins and scored highly among the whole group. Other menus included tuna pasta followed by fruit salad and teriyaki chicken with a dessert of pancakes.

For highlights of the Cookery Club in Autumn Term 2009 including recipes, scroll down:

Millionaire's Shortbread
The Autumn term got off to a very sweet start as the girls made millionaire's shortbread and learnt various cooking techniques from creaming together butter and sugar to making a caramel sauce. Click here for the recipe.

Chicken Stir Fry
In week two Cookery Club volunteer Meredith introduced the girls to Chinese food with a yummy Chicken Stir Fry. The recipe called for a number of cooking techniques with the class learning how to make an omelette (and then shred it!), how to (carefully) de-seed and chop chillies and finally how to stir-fry! Click here for the recipe.

Jamaican Patties
To celebrate Black History Month, Cookery Club Volunteer Shannon introduced the group to Jamaican food. After showing them how to make patties, the girls then ate them along with other Jamaican treats (cakes & drinks) as they talked about Black History Month. Click here for the recipe.

Spaghetti Bolognaise
After half term the girls continued to learn about world food and discovered how to cook the Italian dish Spaghetti Bolognaise. Click here for the recipe.

Thai Green Curry
Week 9 saw the Cookery Club look east for inspiration. Cookery Club Volunteer Melanie introduced the girls to thai food and showed them how to make a thai green curry. To see the recipe they followed click here.