WHO AM I?

Hands up. I’m under 40 and I own an Aga, much to the derision and bemusement of my London friends. I can’t help it – I grew up with one – drop scones on the hob, slow cooking casseroles overnight and the dogs huddled against it all winter.

There are the downsides, too – the burning you can’t smell, the cake that won’t rise and the ovens that mysteriously nosedive in temperature. But that’s why I signed up to this two-day course: to learn how to use my Aga better.

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Focaccia, pistachio meringues, blackberry and apple crumble, fish en papiotte, roast beef with onion gravy and Yorkshire pudding, broccoli and goat's cheese tart, Aga yoghurt, jointing a chicken, lemon curd, chicken curry, Aga rice, flatbread, fruity tray bakes, drop scones and a Full English Aga breakfast.

THE COURSE

Eckington is in the heart of Worcestershire’s Vale of Evesham, known as England’s bread/fruit/vegetable basket, depending on who you speak to. Much of the food cooked on the course comes from nearby farms and claims to be the only cooking school in the country with multiple Agas (five, plus a Rayburn) so pupils can have one each or share between two. The thought of six huge ovens belching out heat may sound stifling, but clever design means you don’t work up a sweat (except when you’re kneading dough).

The school is on the second floor of a building that occupies one side of an attractively ramshackle farm courtyard. It’s been sensitively designed to fit in with the brick sheds around it, which will later this year be converted into further accommodation in addition to the restored farmhouse B&B opposite.

According to Eckington’s proprietor Judy Gardner, extractors remove heat from the school and transfer it around the building so it’s not wasted. Other high-tech additions are the CCTV cameras that buzz images from around the cooking school to flat-screen televisions at the front of the class.

I was also impressed by the gear - all the latest kitchen utensils and gadgets were available and an army of “kitchen fairies” were on hand to do the washing up – bliss. All we had to do was keep our worktops clean.

Downstairs is a commercial kitchen and shop selling the cooking paraphernalia you’ve got hooked on during the course (one baker's paddle and a trivet, or pot stand, came home in my case) plus beef and pork from animals reared on the farm, both exceptional.

HOW DID IT GO?

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