Karen Wright: It’s never too late to learn some new cookery skills

Take baking for example, I do quite a bit of baking - I was on the Great British Bake Off - but I still have so much to learn.

Recently I was invited to a press day at The School of Artisan Food near Worksop to have a taster session of some of the activities that are part of their four week summer school. The school is a not-for-profit school dedicated to inspiring and helping people from all walks of life to learn about healthy, sustainable and delicious food.

I happily accepted the invitation and made my travel arrangements. I caught a train from Wakefield to Worksop. A very short taxi ride later, I found myself at the school which is set in the middle of 15,000 acres of rolling parkland on the beautiful Welbeck estate at the edge of Sherwood Forest.

After a tasty breakfast I was introduced to the tutors and the other ‘foodies’ who had been invited along. Then we all trooped in to one of the huge bespoke training kitchens and were set to work. We all made a batch of amaretti biscuits and a tray of honeycomb under the supervision of tutor Martha Brown.

Then it was time to wrap up warm and spend an hour outside in the courtyard with tutor Sally Hunt where we were shown lots of different BBQs, most of which were lit and cooking something plus some smokers that were filled with cheeses, butter, and heads of garlic. I discovered so much about the different techniques involved in successful BBQ cookery that I can hardly wait for spring to get one fired up in my garden.

Then it was lunchtime where we were spoiled with such an array of homecooked artisan food, it was quite breathtaking. Plus, platters of meat fresh from the BBQ including venison, pork and duck.

To burn off our lunch we had a workout making focaccia and grissini with bread tutor Kevan Roberts, a Yorkshire man through and through and very inspirational. We followed his lead and every one of us baked our breads to perfection and had an absolute blast.

I had the best day and can't wait to book myself onto a course to expand my baking repertoire!