About us

Kate Hughes is the founder and Director of Cook Academy Ltd. She trained at Leith's School of Food and Wine in London graduating with a Diploma and then went on to gain restaurant experience at various restaurants including The Wykeham Arms in Winchester and Launceston Place in Kensington (head chef Rowley Leigh). Kate then returned to Leith's School to become a senior tutor there.

Kate was a finalist for the Entrepreneur of the Year Award in the 2008 and 2010 Winchester Business Excellence Awards. The award states: "Kate established this successful cookery school in September 2005 after identifying a clear gap in the local market. Cook Academy runs one day cookery workshops, evening class courses, private lessons, cookery parties and corporate team building workshops. Kate's creativity and determination has resulted in continued expansion for this young company. Judges were impressed with Kate's ability to turn a passion into a viable and successful business."

Our teachers are fully trained professional cooks with a wealth of experience in restaurant and catering businesses. That is not all however! Kate believes that knowing how to cook and being able to teach people how to cook are entirely different skills. Our teachers must therefore have the right personality and people skills to communicate their knowledge effectively - no shouty Ramseyesque antics here (at least from our teachers - pupils are an unknown quantity!). We either employ teachers who have previous teaching experience or train people to teach.