I'm excited to be currently attending and documenting The School of Artisan Food's very first Summer School - a unique opportunity to learn some of the skills and techniques involved in artisan baking, patisserie and viennoiserie over a 4-week, full time course, held in the school's specialist training rooms.
What is the School of Artisan Food
The School of Artisan Food is a unique school, based near Worksop in Nottinghamshire (S80 postcode), dedicated to inspiring and helping people from all walks of life to learn about healthy, sustainable and delicious food. They offer a wide range of hands-on courses - from day courses to full degrees - taught by world-class tutors, in a unique environment in the middle of 15,000 acres of rolling parkland on the Welbeck Estate, at the edge of Sherwood Forest.
I first attended the school a few years back on a week long Artisan Bread & Viennoiserie course and loved it. I stepped up by skills massively on that five day course, and was immediately taken with the skill, knowledge and passion of everyone at the school.
I've attended a number of cookery schools over my years of working as a chef, and I feel that The School of Artisan Food is quite a different environment from some of the cooking classes you may have attended in the past - in a good way!
There's not much standing watching the tutor demonstrate, instead, courses are all about getting hands on and learning by doing together - there's very little passive learning and a lot of elbow grease!
The School of Artisan Food Summer School
The brand new Summer School has launched with a small group of students, allowing for plenty of time for tutors to come round and speak with everyone individually, making sure no one is left floundering or with gaps in their knowledge.
The course is suitable for beginners and people with some experience of baking and cooking - some of the students on this year's intake have little baking experience, while some are attending with a view to going on to open micro bakeries of their own, or expand existing food offerings.
I am attending The School of Artisan Food Summer School as a food writer and photographer, documenting my experiences honestly in return for my place.
I've been here a few days and already have so much to share with you - recipes, tips, techniques and more - but for now, I just want to introduce you to the course, and then we'll move onto the juicy stuff as the course progresses.
Training includes a range of traditional food production skills, including baking bread, patisserie and viennoiserie, pizza making, outdoor cooking and cheesemaking.
Suitable for beginners and people with some experience of baking and cooking, the Summer School is a chance for students to develop skills, technique and confidence, as well as forming invaluable connections with other people who are passionate about traditional food.
Follow along on my social channels and here on the blog as I train alongside fellow Summer School students and report back on my experiences - I'll have lots of learning to share!
The Summer School schedule
Week 1 Introduction to Artisan Baking
- Learn about wheat and other grains, including heritage grains.
- Make woodfired pizzas.
- Make tinned loaves and bread rolls.
- Make brioche.
- Introduction to sourdough making, including preferments and starters.
- A visit to a local flour mill.
Week 2 Advanced Baking Techniques
- House sourdough.
- Rye and seeded sourdough.
- Sourdough with inclusions.
- Seed soaker.
- Gluten-free buckwheat and gruyere straws.
- Chia and linseed boule.
- Japanese milk bread.
- Enjoy a foraging walk and the opportunity to visit the historic Welbeck Abbey Staterooms.
Week 3 Introduction to Artisan Patisserie
- Learn the fundamentals of artisan patisserie with Lance Gardner and Angharad Conway of Ty Melin Bakery.
- Profiteroles.
- Classic scones.
- Lavender shortbreads.
- Goats cheese and caramelized onion swirls.
- Learn how to make traditional English pies, including how to make hand-raised hot water pie crusts.
- Visit the Stichelton Dairy and farm.
- Make ice cream, butter and yoghurt in the school's dedicated teaching dairy.
Week 4 Viennoiserie
- A variety of sweet and savoury laminated pastries including croissants, pains au chocolat and pains au raisin.
- Zaatar and gruyere croissants.
- Danish pastries.
- Tour of the fascinating artisan producers.
- Create a lavish barbecue in the courtyard, a unique experience in a unique setting.
Throughout The School of Artisan Food's Summer School, students are supported by a team of technicians and hospitality staff.
The Summer School timetable
The School of Artisan Food Summer School runs from Monday-Friday each week for four weeks, and each day (with the exception of excursion days) looks like this:
- 9:30 Arrival, registration and refreshments
- 10:00 Course starts
- 13:00 - 14:00 Lunch
- 17:00 Course finishes
About the tutors
Kevan Roberts
Kevan Roberts is the School of Artisan Food's Head of Baking and the main tutor at the Summer School.
Yorkshire-born Kevan has been working in the bread industry for over thirty years. During the early stages of his career, Kevan spent time working as a baker in France, before moving back to the UK to work at numerous bakeries before co-founding his first bakery in Yorkshire.
His journey led him to work in product development for large supermarkets, and he then went on to successfully establish Chestnut Bakery in the heart of Belgravia. More recently, Kevan has shared his skills, passion, knowledge, and enthusiasm in a number of teaching roles, including teaching practical courses at Bread Ahead Bakery in Borough Market, London before going on to teach as a Bread Science Lecturer at the National Bakery School at London South Bank University.
Kevan is no stranger to sharing his skills with a wider audience, having taken part in podcasts, speaking about real bread with the media, and appearing as a technical advisor on the BBC programme, The Apprentice. In 2020 Kevan had his first book published, ‘Baking Sourdough’ and he is currently working on his second.
As well as teaching on the Summer School, Kevan also leads the school's Advanced Diploma in Artisan Baking, Foundation Degree (FdSc) in Artisan Food Production and upcoming BSc (Hons) Artisan Food Production.
Sally-Ann Hunt
Sally Ann-Hunt teaches a number of short courses at the school, including how to make sausages, pork pies and scotch eggs, how to work with BBQs, and the skills behind smoking and curing, as well as tutoring on the Foundation degree and Summer School.
After spending 20 years working in the financial sector, Sally decided it was time to take the plunge and pursue a career she was passionate about, that career is teaching others about good food.
Sally began to appreciate how inter-related food, lifestyle, family, and health are whilst working on the Estate she lived on, and the importance of learning the traditional food production methods which are being lost. This newfound relationship with her new lifestyle made her want to learn more artisan skills and to delve into the knowledge of crafts long past.
From foraging for wild food, honing her dairy and butchery skills, Sally spent the next 6 years living a simpler way of life, connected to the food she was eating and loving the journey she had embarked on with her family.
In 2018, Sally began working at The School of Artisan Food as a Course Technician, and fell in love with the School's ethos, ethics, and vision. Having spent most of her time in the butchery, learning new skills and refining the ones she already had, Sally made the leap to becoming a tutor in 2021. Sally's passion for meat shines through, as she continues to research different ways to flavour, preserve and cook in the most ethical way possible, and sharing her knowledge with her students.
Lance Gardner and Angharad Conway
Baking (and a love of classic cars) brought Angharad Conway and Lance Gardner together as a couple, and together they have opened their own bakery in Cardiff, Ty Melin Bakery.
Their love and enthusiasm for baking shines through into their products, and as a team they continue to develop their skills visiting bakeries all over Europe where ideas for new products flourish.
Lance began his baking journey under the direct pupillage of master baker, Richard Bertinet in Bath, where he worked his way up the ranks. He then furthered his career by heading up Harts Bakery in Bristol and then Harrods Bakery in the newly refurbished food hall. He has since been a teacher at Bread Ahead in Borough Market and now has returned to Wales, Angharad’s birth place.
Angharad studied languages at Cardiff University and decided to pair her love of different cultures with her love of baking. Angharad began her career in the hospitality industry working for Rick Stein in Cornwall. Angharad went on to attend The School of Artisan Food in Nottinghamshire, where she studied for the ‘Advanced Diploma in Baking and Patisserie’ and achieved a distinction. She then went on to work for Hobbs House Bakery in the Cotswolds as an in-house pastry chef, followed by heading up the pastry section in a hotel in France as a pastry chef in a 4* hotel. Since returning to the UK, Angharad has helped to set up a number of Artisan bakeries in the UK.
The couple’s most recent combined venture before setting up Ty Melin Bakery was heading up Pavilion bakery in Hackney, London.
Commuting or Staying on Site
The Summer School comes with the option of accommodation.
This means students can opt to book the course without accommodation if they wish commute in (either from home, or by staying in one of the many nearby holiday rentals, Airbnbs etc) or they can book to stay on site, within the Wellbeck Estate itself, in student accommodation just yards from the school.
I've opted for the latter, so I'm in a lodge less than 1 minute's walk to the school. The lodges have shared living room, kitchen and bathroom facilities, plus three bedrooms with bedding, clothes storage and desks. The accommodation is used by the fulltime students during the academic year and is clean and comfortable with access to wifi.
Staying on the estate also means plenty of chances for gorgeous weekend and evening walks and bike rides in the surrounding areas - Sherwood Forest, Creswell Crags and more are within walking distance.
If you want to find out more about The School of Artisan Food's Summer School, visit and come back soon to see how I'm getting on .
And if you have any questions, please leave me a comment, or drop me a message on socials!
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