Cooking up a social, healthy summer with Greenwich Pantry
Ever longed to learn how to use a knife like a professional chef, make sushi or amazing bread?
A cookery school in London is counting down the days until May 17th when they throw open their doors (in a safe, socially distanced way) after the hardest year in living memory.
For the team at Greenwich Pantry teaching cookery is about giving customers a skill, a legacy to pass on to future generations, it’s about mindfulness, sharing time with friends and making new friends and it’s about helping people make healthy choices.
It starts with the company’s founder Lara Omoloja whose love of cooking came from her mum (a former foodpreneur in Nigeria who also worked for the Ministry of Works).
Lara added: “Mum inspired me to teach cookery and she loves to see what I’m doing with the cookery school now! I started in marketing and went on to run community cooking classes before launching these private classes.”
Greenwich Pantry Cooking School was founded in 2016 – customers include corporate teams from around the UK, groups of friends, singles, couples and children. The company, which works with nine talented chefs, has been making the best of lockdown – training their team up with new skills. Local Buyers Club members save 10%.
Lara, who has a 21-year-old son, said: “Cooking is a life skill and learning to cook is an opportunity to be social. It’s a legacy – leaving your children with the skills to be able to cook is as important as leaving them money!"
She added: “Cooking has huge benefits – once you learn to cook a meal you can vary it and cook it five different ways – that means spending less money outside and having control over what we eat. The food we make doesn’t have to be extremely complicated – every day cooking doesn’t have to be boring!
“Lockdown has been hard for us – we’re part education, part events and part hospitality and, because we run from a school building we had to shut when the venue was shut. I want May 17th to be a big day – we’ll take it a day at a time.
“We have created an environment that’s all about warmth and hospitality and I hope that shows in everything we do. We cook with love in an environment that’s relaxing!”
Chefs at Greenwich Pantry take inspiration from the Eat Well Plate, ensuring a good balance of nutrients, healthy starchy food and non-dairy protein. Classes take place at a secondary school in Lewisham.
Courses include Pastry and Piemaking, Vegan Baking, Fermentation and Preserving, Choux Pastry, Kids Cooking, Knife Skills, Sourdough Bread Making, Couples Cooking, Gluten Free Baking, Learn to make Sushi and many more.
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