"THE problem with most cookery classes," says Sean Fisher, founder of Trafford trade kitchen Cook:Manchester, "is that you don't learn to cook... not properly... you turn up, start on the wine, have a few laughs and learn a few recipes.
"It's a nice day, not a cooking lesson."
"This isn't a lightweight lesson, this is a brutal six hours of graft. Nothing is done for you, we want to give people experience of being a real chef in a real working kitchen."
Fisher's new lessons at Cook:Manchester on Chester Road are a whole different animal, because, well... you get a whole animal.
This Sunday 8 March, celebrated Manchester chef and Man of the Wood, Rob Owen Brown, formerly of the Mark Addy and author of new cookbook Crispy Squirrel and Vimto Trifle, will hand each of his class a whole lamb and teach them how to hack it down and make it restaurant-ready.
"We start at 9am by giving you an entire lamb," Fisher explains. "Then for the next six hours Rob will show you how to take it apart, why to take it apart in that way and the best way to use the cuts; then we start the cooking, creating six dishes in a working kitchen environment.
"This isn't a lightweight lesson, this is a brutal six hours of graft," Fisher continues. "Nothing is done for you, we want to give people experience of being a real chef in a real working kitchen."
Cook:Manchester
After ten years in retail and working for Microsoft, Fisher found that many part-time chefs, street food traders and small-time food businesses were struggling to find enough cooking space at home or the money to buy the kitchens they needed. There was a gap and Fisher intended to plug it.
Just over a year ago, Fisher opened Cook:Manchester in Trafford, a 3000 sq ft warehouse filled with over £100,000 of kit, including blast chillers, bbq smokers and a mighty walk-in fridge.
Word soon spread, and by the time Manchester Food and Drink Festival came around in September 2014, all 30 of the festival's food traders were using the Cook:Manchester kitchen.
Rob Owen Brown: Man of the Wood
Now Fisher is opening up his kitchen to the public for the first time with a series of specialist cooking lessons run in collaboration with chefs and food producers from across the North West.
As with Owen-Brown's lamb masterclass, each six hour course will focus on mastering a particular skill or ingredient; Owen-Brown will be running more classes on pigs (with Chorlton's renowned Frosty Butcher) and seafood, while sausage-makers Bobby's Bangers and barbecue hogs Fire & Salt BBQ are amongst a number of others lined-up for the future.
Places are limited to ten students per course and priced £150 per person. Not cheap. Still, Fisher reckons you're getting a lot of bang for your buck.
"We think the price actually gives some amazing value for money," explains Fisher. “We’re offering the chance to learn basic butchery as a skill as well as some amazing recipes with meat that you’ll take straight off the animal.
"Best of all, our students will be taking all the leftover meat home with them to practice with."
Cook:Manchester, 476 Chester Road, Trafford, Manchester M16 9HE. 0161 876 4806. Email sean@cookmanchester.com
The first of the sessions begin on Sunday 8 March with Robert Owen Brown’s Lamb Masterclass, followed by a joint course on butchering and preparing pork by Lee Frost and Robert Owen Brown on Sunday 29 March.
