TEST REPORT
Cookery classes make great presents, and one of these – a photography or curing class – might be just the thing for the food lover on your list. We’ve rounded up Christmas-themed courses around the country, too
delicious.
A dramatic place to learn farm-totable skills
PHOTOGRAPHS: HEIDI FINNANE AND HUGH THOMPSON. ADDITIONAL RESEARCH: BENJAMIN MILLAR
FOR MEAT GEEKS
THE COURSE Roth Bar & Grill A Day in the Kitchen: Butchery and Curing, £150 (including lunch, wine, bacon to take home, a Roth apron and an Opinel boning knife)
TESTED BY Hugh Thompson
WHAT IT’S LIKE Roth Bar & Grill (RBG) is part of the Hauser & Wirth estate in Bruton, Somerset. Even if you know H&W own art galleries around the world, encountering the vast granite torso by sculptor Paul McCarthy in a rustic farmyard setting comes as a shock. Inside, there’s a glass-fronted meat store like a Damian Hirst art installation, lined with glowing pink Himalayan salt bricks, holding everything from whole carcasses to individual pork bellies curled up like pink swiss rolls.
Our group of four was led by head chef Steve Horrell and Paul, his sous chef brother. We ate home-cured bacon rolls while Steve explained the set-up. The farm has free-range Oxford Sandy pigs as well as wool-shedding Exlana sheep, Hereford cattle and Angora goats. Herb and vegetable beds, planted with herb-growing guru Jekka McVicar’s help, are used to grow produce for the kitchen.