YSE Cookery School

This course took me from mediocre meals from a very small repertoire to a confident, consistent and adventurous cook with a huge number of skills under my belt. The course is perfectly designed to teach and develop the essential skills of cookery through a really broad range of dishes. Each day of cooking introduces and reinforces the skills and techniques you will use for all future cooking in any context, so I now feel that even if I'm tackling a new dish, I have the knowledge and skills to do it justice. The menu plan challenges your time management and organisational skills as much as the cooking skills and, for me, that was another really excellent aspect of the course to take on as an aspiring professional cook. Murray's detailed feedback on all dishes and questions was another invaluable part of the course, so that even if something was disastrous, I could understand how to correct it for next time. Having access to the discussion board and the ability to compare notes and ask questions with other cooks created a lovely feeling of support, enthusiasm and encouragement which was really great. I learnt so much from this course and feel equipped and inspired to continue my cooking journey. I would highly recommend the course to anyone who would like to get into professional cookery or someone who just wants to gain the essential foundations to cook delicious food forever!

Murray is an excellent and gifted chef. More importantly, he is an excellent and gifted teacher. The course is set up in such a way that it can also be used as a reference guide to cooking and technique. It's also fun and very well laid out and presented. The lessons are a good length and the instruction is very clear. I still regularly go back and rewatch many aspects of the course and just use different recipes and ingredients. My cooking is constantly improving because of this and I have been helping other cooks to improve their skills. I have recommended the course on many occasions and will visit the school in Val again. Great experience.

I have thoroughly enjoyed this course. The set of dishes gets progressively more technical as the course goes on which allows you to pick up the basics, then apply them to more complex dishes. Murray sets out each day perfectly, giving you enough time to complete all your dishes but keeping the time pressure high enough so that you really learn to plan, manage and prioritise your time carefully. Each day has a theme running through it, meaning you might spend one day focusing on pastry, another on cooking with certain meats or on regional cuisine; this allowed me to hone my skills in each area and helped me learn more about the wider cultural influences in food. The overall theme is to supply you with the principles that occur over and over in pretty much all the cooking you will do, Murray gets this spot on and I now feel confident to apply what I have learnt and get creative with my own dishes. The feedback given was insightful and helpful and allowed my confidence to grow with my cooking. This course is definitely not designed for beginner cooks, but for those who already have a firm interest in cooking and wish to expand upon this, I cannot recommend this course enough.

Loved the style of the book. Relates exactly to the video instruction and will be a useful aide for years to come.

I really enjoyed the course and have learnt some great techniques. Thank you for making this available it was a much appreciated and enjoyed birthday gift from my partner and everything I have learnt will stay with me for years to come. Clare Zimmerman

A fantastic cooking course. Murray provides the flexibility to learn when it suits you, in the comfort of your own home, working at your own pace. and not falling behind which can happen during residential cooking courses. You can do the 10 modules back to back or take them a couple of days at a time, which suited me better doing them around work. During the videos for each module Murray demonstrates how to cook each course but also provides some theory behind the dish or cooking technique which was really interesting and useful, as was the ‘30 basic principles of cooking’, which helped make daunting menus achievable. The cookery book, which comes with the course, was extensive and very professional. To my surprise, it had even more meals than the ones on the course, which was a nice addition. The beauty of the videos are that you can go back at any stage, to check the consistency of the sauce just before serving, or even a few months later if you wanted to recreate one of the many delicious meals you cook. Everything you cook you photograph and send to Murray who provides extensive, constructive feedback for you to focus on in the coming modules. Personally before the course, I was concerned about how Murray would provide feedback for food I cooked. However, I was baffled with how he could determine if aspects of the dish were over / under cooked or the consistency of sauces were wrong etc. The course provided me with the confidence to be able to cook really good food for clients in the ski chalet I was due to cook in this winter, unfortunately this never happened! However, in the meantime I have enjoyed cooking for family and friends. I couldn’t recommend this cookery course more.

Thank you Murray and team for putting such a well thought out and comprehensive course together! I wasn't quite sure how it would go - with me being a beginner to cooking and this being all virtual - but expectations were met and exceeded. Not only do i feel like I've practised a wide range of dishes, but I've now got a solid understanding of the principles of cooking that can be applied to all i do in the future. Some of the days were intense but the learning from them invaluable, especially appreciated the fast and detailed feedback to my questions and dish photos. I've gained lots of confidence in the kitchen and am looking forward to putting the skills to the test at dinner parties, and hopefully even into a professional setting