Chef Samantha Pack is passing on her Italian culinary skills – as well as her passion for food –to a growing number of customers after launching her north-east cookery school earlier this year.
What started as a few guests learning how to cook pasta in her kitchen has grown into a fully-fledged cooking school business.
Ms Pack, who was born in Italy and settled in Scotland with her family in 2012, has already had more than 350 people taking part in lessons at Cook’s Day Off.
Her success has helped to fill the void created by celebrity chef Nick Nairn closing his Aberdeen cookery school in June.
She said yesterday her aim was to inspire and teach the art of cooking but most of all have fun in the kitchen.
Working from two kitchens, one in Kintore, Aberdeenshire, and the other in Aberdeen, Cook’s Day Off offers a range of cookery classes, plus masterclass options, for groups of up to 16 people.
The hands-on experience is interactive, taking budding chefs through the preparation and techniques of classic Italian dishes including pasta and sauces, pizza, ice-cream and macarons. Ms Pack said: “I have always been passionate about cooking and teaching others to really appreciate and have fun whilst cooking. It is a life skill that everyone should embrace.
“I am very proud to welcome people to my very own cook school and looking forward to helping more people across Aberdeen and the shire to take the time to cook, enjoy and appreciate preparing quality food and discover that Italian food is easy, healthy and delicious.”
Ms Pack taught for several years in Egypt and the US before moving to Scotland.
She has worked in school catering, delivering daily meals for hundreds of youngsters, while also developing her professional skills through a diploma in advanced professional cooking at North East Scotland College.
She also took part in the Confidence to Cook: Training for Trainers scheme which was set up in 2004 by NHS Grampian and Aberdeen City Council.
Aberdeen-based health and wellbeing charity Community Food Initiatives North East (CFINE) is supporting her new venture by allowing her to hire its training kitchen and its eight fully- equipped cooking stations.
CFINE development work manager Dave Kilgour said: “We are delighted to support this new cook school.
“It is great to see a chef like Samantha share her wealth of culinary expertise and experience with others, helping them to develop their cooking skills in a relaxed and fun environment. We have really appreciated the opportunities that working with Cook’s Day Off has brought our staff and volunteers.”
“The school has a very bright future ahead with its wide range of classes and unique service offering and we are delighted to be part of it”.
Mr Nairn’s business welcomed more than 60,000 customers during the six years it operated from premises in Aberdeen city centre.
It shut as a direct result of the oil and gas downturn, with Mr Nairn saying the business was “no longer sustainable”.
He later closed his pizza restaurant on Back Wynd, Aberdeen, insisting it was “simply not viable” after the slump in the north-east economy.