insideSUSSEX Magazine Issue 05 - July 2015 | Page 35

food+drink Peter Bayless Pasta Demo which include one-day classes, corporate events, school visits, chef’s table events and foraging classes. Corporate team building days are all tailored to the clients needs. We have a range of activities on the estate which compliment the day nicely including vineyard and winery tour, fishing, falconry, foraging and plenty more.  What appealed to you about being involved in a cookery school at Kingscote Estate? Anyone who has visited the estate will know the answer to this, as the venue is really something quite special. The facilities and the setting at Kingscote Estate make the perfect venue for a new cookery school. Located in the beautiful tithe barn visitor centre at the heart of the 150acre Kingscote Estate, you are surrounded by the vineyard, fishing lakes, River Medway, Bluebell Railway and rolling countryside. The barn doors open out to a stunning outdoor area with a broad view of the estate. It’s a whole new food and wine education experience. I have been touring around the country setting up cookery schools at lots of prestigious locations but now I have somewhere to lay some roots and create something really exciting. Led by Melissa Waddingham, truffle and wild mushroom hunting expert, foraging for truffles and fungi and then learning to cook with them is an exciting new event on offer for small groups. The chef’s table events were one of the late-founder Christen Monge’s visions for the whole experience on the estate. Diners will be surrounded by the best food, wine, art and music. The tithe barn lends itself so well to being a place to sit and relax and to soak up all the arts including the culinary ones of course! We have some really talented chefs who will be creating a bespoke menu for the event. Where do you source the produce used in your cookery courses? We use a number of suppliers and the local offering is fantastic. Just a couple of weeks ago we did a corporate team building day for around 30 clients and got all our seafood from Veasey & Sons of Forest Row who were BBC Radio 4’s finalists for best local food retailer. Their Rock Oysters were amazing! Tell us about the courses offered at Kingscote, and how often are they offered? We have started with a schedule of one-day courses which are open to the general public, covering French, Game and Greek with Peter Bayless 2006 MasterChef Champion, Italian with Valentina Harris and also Ursula Ferrigno, Indian with Bea Das and also Street Food, Japanese and family days with myself. What’s been the most popular course/request at Kingscote so far? We are receiving a lot of interest in general but Italian and baking seems to be coming out top at the moment. Our cookery courses are designed to be accessible to all levels of ability from complete novice to accomplished cooks. The general format for day courses is a 9 for 9.30am start and finishing around 3pm. We aim to all sit down and enjoy the fruits of our labour with a glass of Kingscote wine by 1.30pm. With the vineyard on-site, we match the foods cooked with wines produced at the estate. Places are limited to 12 per class.  For details on forthcoming classes or bespoke events email [email protected] or visit www.kingscoteestate.com. 35