What to expect from chef Nick Nairn's newly reopened cook school

But today? We’re going back to school.

There will be thick aprons instead of shirts and ties, work benches kitted out with state-of-the-art cooking utensils in places of desks, and leading the class will be one of Scotland’s most famous chefs.

Yes, after three-and-a-half years, Nick Nairn has reopened his Stirlingshire cook school, with the team now tentatively accepting bookings for what is being called a "soft launch period".

READ MORE: Nick Nairn to reopen 'state-of-the art' cookery school after three year closure

Pictured: Chef Nick Nairn at the newly reopened cook school (Image: newsquest)

And what better Guinea pigs than a bunch of office dwellers who spend a great deal more time writing about food than making any efforts to prepare it for themselves.

Grateful to have been directed towards a taxi with the heater on full blast, we’re off, making the scenic journey from Stirling city centre to the site of Nairn’s restaurant and cook school by the Lake of Menteith.

It’s a picturesque location that has held a great deal of personal significance for the chef since his grandfather first moved there from the southside of Glasgow in 1958.

In the present day, Nairn and his wife Julia have just made it to the other side of a well-documented period of turmoil in which their Bridge of Allan restaurant was ravaged by fire and extensive flood damage forced the cook school to close.

To top it all off, there was the small matter of a global pandemic to contend with.

Although both businesses are now back and up and running, Nairn makes no bones about the hard work that has been done to get there.

Pictured: The cook school has partnered with Miele who have provided hobs and ovens (Image: newsquest)

After greeting his students for the day, he heads towards a demo bench to tell the tale of the school’s transformation, very much looking the part of a veteran TV chef who is used to speaking to audiences from behind a kitchen set-up.

“The whole of hospitality took a hit during Covid, and is still struggling,” he says.

“The cook school has been running since 2000 and we realised that it had become a little long in the tooth after rebranding the Bridge of Allan restaurant.

“It was all quite ‘chefy’ and industrial with lots of stainless steel.

“Jules has a good eye for design and knew that to bring it into the modern zeitgeist we should make it softer and more approachable.”

In the hope of creating a more relaxed experience, the cook school’s class sizes have now been halved to just 12 participants per session.

While the team has been used to providing pre-chopped vegetables and measured ingredients, Nairn says the goal is now to teach students how to master dishes from start to finish, so that they can be confidently recreated at home.

Pictured: Fresh langoustine and scallops await their fate (Image: newsquest)

As the chef tells tales about his "swallows and amazons" childhood spent in the surrounding area, he deftly whips up a restaurant-worthy plate of seafood tacos, complete with fresh guacamole, pico de gallo and a langoustine that’s sent to its maker with a few quick crunches of a sharpened knife.

It all seems simple enough to follow, right?

Seafood tacos whipped up by chef Nick Nairn (Image: newsquest)

Somehow, the morning’s jokes about returning to school for home economics class don’t seem quite as funny as we collectively begin to make a meal out of making our meals.

An unsalted taco dough here, a case of misplaced coriander there and an almost unanimous failure to dispatch the live langoustines with our own hands soon put any MasterChef ambitions to rest.

None of this matters, as throughout the morning our teacher makes his way around each of our benches to avert any crisis, offering advice and handy kitchen hacks that will see all of us achieve something that at least vaguely resembles his earlier plate.

Food & drink writer Sarah Campbell's attempts to recreate the dish (Image: newsquest)

Returning to our tables, and leaving an almighty mess of avocado peel and pulverised tomato behind us, he continues: “The cook school is where my heart is.”

“When we started in the 1990s, the people signing up were the ones who had never seen behind the scenes of a restaurant before.

“There had always been a sort of barrier between the kitchen and the front of house.

“It was a tiny little space and the person sitting next to the door would have to get up to open it from time to time and let the smoke out, but even then I got a very good vibe from it all.”

READ MORE: How serendipitous timing gave Glasgow's newest cafe its name

As entertaining as it is to play chef in a training space that’s designed to cater to all levels (or total lack of) ability, there's yet more work being done outside of the kitchen to establish a foodie destination that offers the full package.

The cook school has halved its class sizes to create a more relaxed environment (Image: Supplied)

Julia Nairn’s on-site homewares store, for example, sells all manner of carefully selected artwork and knick-knacks which helped it to become the most lucrative branch of the operation during the rocky post-lockdown months.

Nairn’s brother Topher plays his part too, overseeing the same lakeside cabins that the duo cleaned between bookings from holidaymakers in their younger years.

Stories of mischief come thick and fast as we’re shown around the Lochend Chalets, giving the siblings a chance to reminisce over ill-advised boat trips to the pub, visitors who returned each year without fail, and even a long-lost letter from Sean Connery who had been a fan of their short-lived smoked salmon business.

“It’s a bit of a mystery to me why people come here,” Nairn says “but I think it’s because the place feels special and there’s a sense that you’re getting away from it all even though it’s not far from Edinburgh or Glasgow.

“We’re a family, and having the cook school, the restaurant and the chalets feels very organic.

“It’s something we’ve talked about doing for a long time and I hope that people see how well it’s coming together.”

There will be no day jobs quit among our group this afternoon, but after just a few hours at the cook school, it’s easy to understand why Nairn is keen to share the magic of his childhood home with the world.

Should you decide to book a class, do so safe in the knowledge that all journalists will have long since scuttled back to their natural office habitats, albeit with a chef-approved recipe to fall back on if the next dinner reservation is cancelled.

For more information about the Nick Nairn Cook School click here.