To mark the anniversary, the School, set in the middle of 15,000 acres of rolling parkland on the beautiful Welbeck Estate at the edge of Nottinghamshire's Sherwood Forest, has announced a special summer programme for 2024 featuring over 40 short courses during July and August.
The highlight of this year's line-up is a four-week Artisan Summer School, the only artisan summer school of its kind, offering students the opportunity to become immersed in the world of artisan bread baking, viennoiserie, patisserie, pizza making, BBQ and ice cream making, too.
The School of Artisan Food offers a wide range of hands-on courses which are taught all year-round by world-class tutors, from bread to charcuterie, cheesemaking to patisserie and more, with courses ranging from a half day short course to a full BSc (Hons) degree.
Since the school was opened 15 years ago, it has seen over 15,000 students from all walks of life pass through its doors, with many students going on to form artisan businesses of their own both in the UK and further afield.
Artisan Summer School
Running from 29 Jul -23 Aug 2024, the Artisan Summer School is suitable for home bakers and anyone with a love of artisan food.
No previous experience is required as students will be guided by the school's world-class tutors Kevan Roberts, Sally-Ann Hunt and Martha Brown to establish strong foundations and progress to advanced skills.
Summer School students will be taught in a small group in the School of Artisan Food's specialist training rooms, gaining much hands-on experience to develop their knowledge, techniques and confidence day-by-day. Highlights will include:
Learning the basics of baking bread, making tinned loaves, bread rolls, brioche, pizza and sourdough;
Graduating to more advanced techniques, including creating gluten-free and buckwheat dough;
Making traditional English pies with hand-raised hot water pie crusts;
Studying artisan patisserie, producing raspberry and meadowsweet financiers, milk chocolate and sesame choux buns, and venison and wild garlic petivier;
In the School's special dedicated teaching dairy, students will make ice cream, butter and yoghurt;
Learning Viennoiserie, producing a range of sweet and savoury laminated pastries, including pain au chocolat, zaatar, gruyere croissants and Danish pastries;
Out of the kitchen, students will also enjoy a visit to a local flour mill to see first-hand how flour is produced; a foraging walk; a picnic by the boating lake; and a behind the scenes tour of the artisan producers based on the Welbeck Estate, including Welbeck Bakehouse, Welbeck Abbey Brewery, DropWorks Rum Distillery, and Stichelton Dairy.
For students who wish to enjoy a truly immersive experience, accommodation is also available on the Welbeck Estate, just yards from the school itself.
Price: £3,995, or £4,995 with accommodation.
Short Courses
In addition to the Summer School, further highlights in the 40-strong short course programme running at The School of Artisan Food this summer will include:
Introduction to Sourdough Baking with Emmanuel Hadjiandreou
Smoking and Curing with Sally-Ann Hunt
Introduction to Fermenting and Pickling with Lindy Wildsmith
Woodfire Pizza with David Finn
Pig in a Day with Andrew Sharp
The school is also delighted to reveal the launch of three new patisserie courses with tutor Martha Brown. By popular demand, these courses, ranging from 1-3 days will cover Pastry Fundamentals (1 day), Vegan Pastry and Viennoiserie (2 days) and Creative Patisserie (3 days).
Prices start at £95 for a half-day course.
For more information, please visit www.schoolofartisanfood.org or call 01909 532 171
To view the School of Artisan Food's full summer programme, visit www.schoolofartisanfood.org/courses
For more on the Artisan Summer School, visit https://www.schoolofartisanfood.org/courses/artisan-summer-school