Orchards Cookery is run by Isabel and Lucy Bomford. Both sisters have studied cookery to a high standard and Lucy has been trained as a chef in Paris by the Costes Group and worked in two of the most prestigious restaurants in Paris (Chez Georges and Café de L’Esplanade). Their team of tutors and cookery assistants enables the school to train twenty-four students at one time, eight students in three separate kitchens (June to December only), making the break times very social and the cake competitions between the three kitchens extremely competitive! From January to May the courses are taught by Isabel and Lucy while their staff are abroad enjoying themselves in the mountains before returning for another season of cookery at the Orchards. The school has well equipped kitchens, with Miele appliances throughout. The original, purpose built kitchen is set in an Eighteenth Century butler’s pantry and domestic kitchen that forms part of the Georgian family farm house. The two new kitchens, built in 2006, are located just a few metres away, in beautiful converted Bidford-on-Avon stone stables. The school is situated on a farm in the heart of England, in Shakespeare country, eight miles west of Stratford-upon-Avon. It is the perfect location for beautiful country walks and for enjoying local attractions such as the Royal Shakespeare Theatres in Stratford, Warwick Castle, the Cotswolds, Cheltenham Spa, Ragley Hall and Sudeley Castle, just a few of the favourites.