Welcome back to The Avenue’s Weekly Shenanigans!

We are knackered after another full on week at the Cookery School! Every day was a full house with a lot of great food to and taste and share.

To finish last week off on a sweet note, Alice had her Hen Party with a “Great British Bakery-Off” theme. The ladies brought their A-game to battle it out in the cake baking competition being judged on creativity, flavour and presentation. We even tried an old trick in the kitchen with Alice; testing the stiffness of the meringue by holding the bowl upside down over your head – thankfully all went well! The Hens did a marvellous job with their creations, leaving the school with full bellies, lots of laughs and new memories with friends.

With summer in full swing, the kitchen was bustling with the Really Useful, Off to Uni, Duke of Edinburgh, Basic to Brilliant and Chalet Host Courses. The students have been actively learning and improving their skills every day in the kitchen. There were few slip-ups at the beginning but that’s why we’re here – they all left the kitchens today with new confidence and raring to get cooking at home.

On Tuesday night, we spiced things up in the kitchen with our Peruvian Cooking Class. Everyone learned about the beautiful Peruvian cuisine and flavours to help them perfect some of the classic dishes. The spotlight plate was the Tuna Ceviche, as everyone overcame the fear of working with raw fish at home!

Wednesday saw a more relaxed day at the Cookery with Zoe back for more private lessons. Zoe has shown great improvement, and we joke that in no time she will be teaching classes for Diana.

We also hosted another successful Thursday Dinner Party, which is an all-time favourite since 2004! The students love that they cook a meal on their own and get to invite their family and friends, show off their newfound skills and get to have a bit of a party!! These evenings are always bursting with laughter, excitement and food-a-plenty.

Finally, we finished the week off with Ski Beat continuing with their kitchen hire for the upcoming Chalet Season. It’s a great chance to learn more in-depth info of what it’s like to work in a chalet kitchen, as well for the applicants to do interviews and cookery testing. We hope by the end of the Saturday the students are counting down the days until their ski season starts and they can begin working at their dream chalet job, while hitting the slopes in their free time.

This week in the recipe section, we posted a very summery Falafel recipe. This is great for lunch with a fresh salad and some tzatziki. You can even replace the eggs with flax seed paste and make them Vegan! If you attempted this recipe or our other recipes, be sure to tag us on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter because we love to see what’s up in your kitchens at home.

Next week we are welcoming back the second week of the Basic to Brilliant and Chalet Host Course, the continuously sold out Dinner Party Dining Class, and a not so lazy Sunday with our Sunday Brunch Club, and Bread Class.

Finally, a weekend off for the Chefs! Richard is off camping with his best friend Will, Diana is seeing her sister for lunch and Sophie is off to Croatia to see her brother Oliver – so a real family weekend.

Until next time for more Avenue Shenanigans and tasty recipes….