Kenton Hall cookery school at Debenham scoops accreditation

The Food Hub Cookery School at Kenton Hall Estate, near Debenham, was awarded an accreditation for its quality teaching standards and facilities by the Independent Cookery School Association (ICSA).

The school - housed in a converted cow byre and recently revamped - is set on a working 180-hectare mixed arable and livestock farm owned by the McVeigh family.

It was founded by cookery school manager Emily Aitchison (formerly McVeigh) - who trained at cookery schools in London - in 2014 and underwent a major refurbishment in 2023.

It is headed up by lead chef tutor Sophie-Rose Glover - who graduated with a full professional diploma from the world renowned Leith's School of Food and Wine.

Sophie has worked for various restaurants and hotels and travelled the world as a private chef. 

The school is now a Miele partnership cookery school and is home to a Weber BBQ Academy. A new on-site glamping site enables guests to immerse themselves in the rural setting.

It shares space with a butcher featuring a smokehouse and curing facilities - along with a commercial kitchen and houses dedicated workstations for up to 12 people. It also includes a chef tutor station with a camera and screens.

The ICSA's rigorous assessment awarded high marks for the centre's up-to-date professional teaching equipment, facilities and high standards of animal welfare and sourcing of local produce.

ICSA standards include environmental sustainability criteria and support for British farmers and seasonal produce.

ICSA director of operations James Day said they were "thrilled" to welcome the Food Hub Cookery School and its team into ICSA.

"Both ICSA and The Food Hub were established in 2014, so it’s a fitting start to our joint 10th year that we can work closer together to further promote our shared ethos of training and inspiring the current and next generation of aspiring domestic cooks," he said.

The hub embraced sustainable home cookery and further understanding the importance of animal welfare and seasonal nutritional produce and its team was dedicated to promoting regenerative farming and sharing its knowledge and experience with students, he added.

Emily said it was "a real honour" to have been awarded our Accreditation of teaching from ISCA - "a regulatory body whose teaching values align closely with our own here at the Food Hub Cookery School".

"We’re extremely passionate about teaching people the importance of rural hands-on skills-based learning as well as using professional standards of kitchen equipment.

"We put a huge amount of care into shaping and executing our cookery classes, utilising our wide range of local suppliers to ensure we utilise the freshest seasonal ingredients from our own land and the surrounding area.

"It’s a reassuring honour to see this hard work reflected in our team award.”

Sophie - who has worked at the Food Hub for just over two years - said the estate runs a number of events including summer monthly "foodie weekends’" which feature a burger night and farmers' market.

"These events showcase wonderful local suppliers and bring the community together," she said.

"The school is based on Emily’s family farm in the Suffolk countryside which means we have access to incredible produce and very inspiring scenery.

"Suffolk is known as the foodie county and the produce is really incredible. We also work with a range of specialist guest tutors and host a wide variety of classes such as Dim Sum and Sushi.

"We collaborate with Weber and teach their BBQ classes. In March 2022 we set up our Outdoor Kitchen which means we have further expanded our courses."