Victoria O'Neill's
COOKING CLASSES at PYON HOUSE

New Cooking Class Schedule

Class dates & topics up to December 2010 are now here on the website. Check out our current schedule or go to our contact page to give us address details if you'd like a printed copy by mail.

Cooking with Class is based in Victoria O'Neill's home in the lovely countryside North of Hereford, just a few miles from Wales.  Born in Sydney, Australia, where she developed her programme of demonstration and practical classes for the keen home cook, Victoria moved to England in the mid-1980s, and following ten years or so in and around Oxford, set up her present Herefordshire base in 1996. 
Pyon House is a an old mainly red-brick farmhouse with its origins in the 17th century or before, but much enlarged and extended over the centuries. Victoria's classes are all held in her own kitchen, itself extended and modernised when she and her family moved here. Students arrive to meet and take coffee in the Victorian sitting room and break for lunch in the middle of the day in the dining room looking out over the rolling Herefordshire countryside.

Demonstration classes can accommodate up to 25 people in comfort and all the recipes of the day will have been cooked and tested on a variety of cookers, including gas, electric and heat storage (AGA, Nobel or similar).

Practical Classes, including Victoria's well-known "Men in the Kitchen" package, are limited to a maximum of 10 to allow detailed supervision and guidance.

"Getting a Feel for it" Classes - this is a recent format devised by Victoria to combine the best features of demonstration & practical classes.   She demonstrates cooking on a particular theme in the morning, then after lunch the students try their own "hands-on" skills under her supervision.  A fun and easy ways to improve skills in areas that may have seemed difficult in the past.
Cookware Sales A selection of quality cookware and cookbooks, as personally used and recommended by Victoria, is on sale at all the classes.  Visitors are offered the chance to browse at their leisure before and after the class sessions, and during the lunch break.

Bed and Breakfast We can now offer Bed and Breakfast at Pyon House for class customers. Please ask Victoria for details.

Group Bookings   If you can get together enough friends, workmates or fellow members of an organisation, we can run a class specifically for your group.  Demonstrations are a bit shorter (typically 1½ hours) and there is plenty of food & wine to taste at the end.  A demonstration for 20 people will cost from £400.00 (minimum), or a practical class for 8 will be £400.00 – a considerable saving over normal rates.  Do ring 01432 830185 to discuss what you have in mind.