Three Day Course
at the Wilde Kitchen
Below is a rough itinerary of what happens on a three day/four night course.
While all of the below is included (and more) nothing is written in stone. We generally work around local market days - Mondays and Fridays so arrival on a Sunday or Tuesday evening is preferable. However, we’re very flexible too - so please feel free to contact us to arrange a tailor made course to suit your requirements.
Day one
Afternoon arrival at La Blonderie. Time to relax a little and explore your surroundings. A first taste of France follows in the form of a cheeseboard with salad, crusty bread, pastries, and wine or some locally produced organic cider. While you enjoy your food you’ll also meet with your fellow ‘cooks’ – a perfect introduction to your cooking holiday.
Day two
Monday 8:15 AM – off to Bricquebec, a beautiful medieval town where a café au lait and a croissant is enjoyed before in-season, local ingredients are sourced at the weekly market. We’ll sample whatever we’re offered and enjoy the ambience before donning aprons back at La Blonderie
10:30 AM Cookery class #1
1:30 PM Lunch at La Blonderie
4:00 PM Visit to Le Père Mahieu Cidrerie where the best of Normandy’s organic apples are transformed into the most delicious drinks in the forms of cider, pommeau, calvados and apple juice. After a guided tour of the distillery the various ciders, calvados, pommeau and apple juice are sampled. A walk up to the orchards (weather permitting) is suggested to those who’d like a breath of fresh air.
Evening free – restaurant recommendations and reservations are made for you where necessary.
Day three
9:00 AM Continental breakfast
10:00 AM Cookery class # 2 in Sinéad’s Wilde Kitchen. Together we prepare a three course lunch which is enjoyed afterwards washed down with a glass of local, organic cider or wine.
4:00 PM Visit to La Maison du Biscuit where keen, foodie shoppers are spoilt for choice. ‘Disneyland for foodies’ was how one guest described this unique shopping experience. Soaps, souvenirs, cups and saucers, biscuits and cakes, herbs and spices, whiskeys and ciders and lots more are on offer in this fabulous épicerie fine, or fine food store.
Biscuits which made the Burnouf family fortune may be sampled over a cup of tea/coffee.
Dinner suggestion – reservations made where necessary.
Day four
9:00 AM Continental Breakfast
Food prep for a three course meal which will be cooked in the afternoon.
12:30 – 2:00 PM Lunch in a local restaurant
Built in 1789, the year of the French revolution, our boulangerie has been lovingly restored in recent years. The original four à pain, or bread oven, was painstakingly taken down, brick by brick, by skilled craftsmen, reduced in size, and rebuilt using the same methods as the artisans of 1789.
Today, we light the oven on average once a week and indulge in the special ambience of a wonderfully historical building.
Day five
All good things must come to end alas, so after breakfast we’ll say our goodbyes.
You’ll leave laden with recipes, tips and more importantly perhaps, an understanding of life in rural Normandy!
Included in the three day/four night course
• Four nights bed and breakfast
• Welcome supper of cheeses, wine, dessert, breads etc.
• Three fun, informative, hands-on cooking classes
• Recipe Folders
• After-class tasting meals
• One restaurant lunch
• All excursions – farmer’s market visit, organic cider farm and tasting, épicerie fine shopping trip