Leiths School of Food & Wine

Cookery Course | Wine Tasting Course

Leiths School of Food and Wine, based in the Hammersmith / Shepherds Bush area of west London, teaches classic and creative cookery in a professional but informal, hands-on environment.  Leiths’ teaching staff are fully trained professionals with first-hand experience of restaurants and commercial catering.  With its dedicated teaching and friendly atmosphere, Leiths’ guiding principle is to impart enthusiasm for the trade and instil a lasting love of good food and wine.  As a first class training school for chefs, Leiths is the most prestigious and respected cookery school in the country, attracting students of all ages from across the world.

Running cookery courses for all levels and teaching all the fundamental cooking techniques, Leiths provides professional chef training for aspiring career cooks, as well as evening classes and short specialist cookery courses, for beginners, enthusiastic amateurs and confident cooks.

For those with professional ambitions, the Leiths Diploma in Food and Wine is highly respected in the culinary world. Achievable in two or three terms, students learn menu planning, budgeting and wine appreciation, attend practical classes, lectures and specialist demonstrations, some by gastronomic celebrities, famous retailers, cookery writers and head chefs from leading hotels and restaurants.  Visits are organised to a variety of food related establishments including Billingsgate fish market and Smithfield meat market and students also get the chance to undertake work experience in some of London’s leading restaurants.

Short cookery courses and one day workshops include Chocolate, Preserving, Knife Skills, Thai, Sauces, Fish and Seafood, Pastry and Baking.  Leiths also runs Holiday cookery courses for teenage children, Survival cooking, Easy Dinner Parties and a Basic Certificate course.

Leiths Evening classes include Quick and Easy Cooking, Confident Cooking and Carving as well as Corporate Team Building evenings.  Evening drinks classes include Wine and Beer food matching evenings and Champagne and Whisky masterclasses.

Leiths School of Food and Wine was established in 1975 by Caroline Waldegrave and Prue Leith.  It is now owned jointly by Caroline Waldegrave and Christopher Bland.