Scottish Cookery Weekend and Short Break Cookery Classes with Cooking Courses

Cookery

At just six years old Mathew De Franco thought he could make better pancakes than his mother could! A veil must be drawn over this first culinary attempt.  However, from this inauspicious start, Mathew's career pathway was clear - he would become a chef.  Since then his guiding mantra has been "things can be better" and where better to learn his skills than with top chefs, including Albert Roux, in a variety of five-star hotels and restaurants, among them The Dorchester in London, Gleneagles and Turnberry.

This code of practice served Mathew well as he progressed from serving bar lunches to winning - among other prizes - a gold medal, a trophy and a diploma for meat dishes at the International Hotel and Catering Exhibition in 1984, and at the Cookery and Food Association Silver Medal First, Trophy and Diploma in 1991 for hors d'oeuvre. 

Mathew was for a time Executive Chef to Albert Roux and worked as Premier Sous Chef in 5-star hotels such as The Dorchester in London.  His training developed through the world-famous Gleneagles Hotel, the Old Course Hotel in St. Andrews (in the year when Seve Ballesteros won The Open) and Turnberry Resort when Greg Norman was the champion golfer. He has also prepared and served private dinner parties for many celebrities, including Sir Andrew Lloyd Weber.  During this time Mathew enjoyed passing on his knowledge and skills to trainees in USA and Australia..  His next career move was to open his own restaurant in Edinburgh. Now he is a freelance chef and we are lucky to have him join the team at The Real Retreat.

Mathew's philosophy is to source fresh food each day and prepare and present it as a feast for the eye as well as for the taste buds.  He favours slow cooking over longer periods of time in order to retain the full natural flavours, using unexpected combinations of different ingredients.

Having returned to his roots in Broughty Ferry near Dundee, Mathew is thoroughly enjoying the less hectic pace of life at The Real Retreat where he has taken on the preparation and serving of dinners - and he is in a chef's paradise where he can choose fresh organic fruit and vegetables daily from the garden at Duntrune House and put together a menu based on the freshest of seasonal ingredients.

Our new cookery course:  would you like to refresh your culinary skills and learn from Mathew?
Look out for news on our new cookery course.  (July 2011) .

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 To contact Mathew email: cookery@therealretreat.co.uk

Scottish Cooking Courses Weekend and Short Break Cookery Classes Scotland