The Cookery School team

Waitrose Cookery School Course Manager

• Gordon is a professional chef with 16 years experience under his whites.
  
• One of the highlights of his career was Head Chef Teacher at Rick Steins’ Cookery School in Padstow. He taught 16,640 people in four years. He also established and ran the Anton Mosimann Cookery School in London.
  
• Living in London for over ten years, Gordon worked at some of the capital’s best restaurants including the Savoy Hotel, Bank Restaurant London, Quaglino's restaurant London and the People’s Palace Royal Festival Hall London.
  
• Gordon is an accomplished TV chef with experience comprising Good Food Live, Taste (Sky 1) and South West Television.
  
• He has even cooked for The Queen on her Birthday as well as working on various cookbooks.
  

Cookery School Head Chef

• James followed his passion for food from an early age. Leaving University in his native North East, James came to London in 1997 where he began his career in professional kitchens.
  
• He started as a kitchen porter for Group Chez Gerard and quickly gained experience at restaurants including Bertorelli’s, Scott’s and Cafe Fish.
  
• In 2001 he joined the critically acclaimed, Michelin starred restaurant, Chez Bruce in Wandsworth. After two years at Chez Bruce, James became Senior Sous Chef.
  
• His big break came in 2005 when he became Head Chef of La Trompette, which at that time did not have a Michelin star.
  
• After three years leading this popular West London restaurant, James achieved his biggest success to date gaining a Michelin Star in 2008.
  
• He continued to hold the star at La Trompette until he left this summer to join the Waitrose Cookery School.
  

Waitrose Cookery School Head Chef Pastry

• James is a pastry chef with over 20 years experience in five different one-star Michelin restaurants.
  
• As a young Scot, James left school at 17 years old to commence his career at Cameron House Hotel, Loch Lomond.
  
• Since then his cooking career has taken him all over the world, including working for Restaurant Bathers Pavilion in Sydney.
  
• He worked under Gary Rhodes for five years, becoming Group Head Pastry Chef at just 24 years old. Championing the dessert menus at five restaurants - two with one Michelin star, he managed a team in charge of delivering 300 puddings a day.
  
• He has catered for some of the world’s biggest stars including Sting, U2 and Yoko Ono.
  
• He was also Head Pastry Chef at the award-winning Mandarin Oriental Hotel. As part of the role he ran cookery courses and did cooking demonstrations as far afield as Malaysia.
  
• He has recently been made a member of the Academy of Culinary Arts.
  

Waitrose Cookery School Sous Chef

• Wilson is a warm, friendly Australian chef.
  
• He has had the opportunity to work across magazines, TV and in some of Australia's best restaurants as a chef, bar manager, food stylist and writer.
  
• His passion for food began growing up in a family of chefs and foodies, with almost every member of the family still in the food industry.
  
• After a short stint in the world of marketing and advertising, the world of hospitality beckoned and Wilson quickly gained experience running bars and nightclubs.
  
• What followed was a foray into the world of food, organising and managing the food for Ready Steady Cook and Masterchef Australia amongst food styling for TV commercials, writing for magazines and running private and corporate cooking lessons and demonstrations through his company Home Cook Hero.
  

Waitrose Cookery School Chef Trainer

• Jon fell in love with cooking at school and was voted most likely to become the new Naked Chef, which he says is a "work in progress".
  
• He gained a place at Bournemouth College on the Specialised Chef Scholarship, sponsored by Waitrose, which took three years to complete.
  
• It was a work-based course and he did his apprenticeship at Langans Brasserie in Mayfair. After gaining a distinction on the Scholarship he went to work in Ibiza for eight months.
  
• On his return to England, he started to work at Fortnum and Mason. Within two and a half years he worked his way up to become Junior Sous Chef and also got to the final of the Academy of Culinary Arts awards of excellence.
  
• After he worked for outside catering, events and parties before moving to Whitechapel Dining Room, a two rosette restaurant as a Junior Sous Chef.
  
• At Whitechapel he learnt a lot about local seasonal produce using modern and classical techniques.
  

Waitrose Cookery School Sous Chef and Trainee Pastry Chef

• For the past five years Eleni has been a part of the catering industry, working in a number of kitchens, expanding her knowledge and love for food.
  
• Her love for pastry began at home due to her mother’s passion for cookery.
  
• She began her pastry career in her home town Leicester where she worked for a small pastry shop for one year.
  
• She then moved to London in order to further embark on her passion for cookery. She worked at the Ritz Hotel for three years and learnt a great deal.
  
• She then joined Pierre Koffmann at Selfridges where she worked at the Restaurant on the Roof.
  
• Her last role was as part of the team to launch the new restaurant opening at Bistro Bruno Loubet.
  

Waitrose Cookery School Chef Trainer

• Claire was brought up in the UK but her Italian father has instilled in her a love of good food.
  
• As a child, Claire spent every summer at her family home in Lombardy Italy where she got a taste for Italian food.
  
• She studied Modern Languages at Bristol where she spent a year based in Italy’s gastronomic heart Modena.
  
• In 2010 Claire travelled around Italy working as Gary Rhodes personal Sous Chef for his Good Food Channel television series ‘Rhodes Across Italy’.
  
• Claire worked in the wine trade before committing to a career in catering.
  
• Since it is one of the best places to train, Claire then signed up to gain the Leith’s Diploma in Food and Wine.
  
• After Leith’s Claire joined the John Lewis Partnership where she was part of a team of chefs to debut the John Lewis Food Hall format.
  
• Claire recently spent one year as a Chef at Recipease, which is Jamie Oliver’s cookery school.
  
• She is perfectly placed to encourage home cooks since she has also worked as a live-in private chef.
  
• Skiing is Claire’s other passion and she has also been a Chalet Manager, which involved training Chalet Girls to deliver menus for guests.
  

• Gordon McDermott
• James Bennington
• James Campbell
• Wilson Chung
• Jon Jones
• Eleni Tzirki
• Claire Lanza