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Keynote Speaker, Food Scientist, Author, and Founder of The Cooking Academy
Kumud Gandhi is a renowned food scientist, keynote speaker, published author, food writer, broadcaster, and founder of The Cooking Academy. Her unique approach to food, which blends science with the functionality of food, has made her an expert in cooking with herbs and spices for nutritional and medicinal benefits. Kumud’s passion for great tasting food with high nutritional value has led her to combine her expertise in food and nutrition with public speaking, cookery classes at The Cooking Academy, corporate events, and seminars.
A Blend of Science and Spices: The Inspiration Behind The Cooking Academy
Kumud’s inspiration for The Cooking Academy comes from her mother’s family, who are chemists in India, and her father’s, who are spice merchants. This blend of science and an appreciation of spices stimulated her unique approach to food, which she calls her “Alchemy of Food.” With over a decade of professional experience in food and nutrition, Kumud works daily to educate others in the ways of creating vibrant, flavoursome, body-benefiting foods that both replenish our immune systems and keep the heart healthy.
(Check our Organic Spice shop)
From Corporate World to Food Science
Kumud graduated from the London School of Economics and started her career in the corporate world at The Bank of England as a fast track graduate, working in banking and international finance. However, food was always at the forefront of her daily life and interests. In 2002, with two young children, Kumud decided to leave the world of grey suits and city offices and took the opportunity to combine her love of cooking and tasty, healthy food by studying food science at The London Food Centre.
Catering for the Stars: From Spice Queen to Founder of The Cooking Academy
Kumud built her reputation by catering for many well-known clients including The Prince of Wales (now King Charles 111), Nelson Mandela, Madonna, The Royal Academy, and Fashion TV. Her status as ‘The Spice Queen’ (a nickname coined by Nick Coffer at the BBC) and the fact that many of her clients asked about cookery lessons for themselves or for their personal chefs was the impetus to create The Cooking Academy.
Expert Teaching Chefs
At The Cooking Academy, Kumud is joined by a team of expert teaching chefs who have a passion for food and a desire to share their knowledge with others. Their background and understanding of food is a combination of professional training from world-renowned culinary schools such as Leiths and Le Cordon Bleu. They include:
- Sarah Leary
- Sophie Jarman
- Becky Szczpka
- Charlotte Vinken
- Sally Codling
- Kumud Gandhi
Join us at The Cooking Academy
With Kumud’s expertise and her team of expert teaching chefs, nutritionists, and food scientists at The Cooking Academy, you’ll learn how to create vibrant, flavoursome, and body-benefiting foods that both strengthen and replenish your immune system and keep your heart healthy. The Cooking Academy offers a range of wellness and team-building services in the corporate sector as well as classes and nutrition events. Come and share our love of food at The Cooking Academy!
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What people say.
"This is my second course (first a Christmas present, second a birthday present), taken at the Cooking Academy - the Full Day Thai Cookery Course.Sarah is a brilliant tutor and delivered the course perfectly. We learned to cook a range of Thai food and got to eat the green curry we prepared for lunch in the beautiful garden. In the afternoon session Sarah took us through the tricky task of making spring rolls and with her guidance, we all produced stable and delicious examples to take home and share.Why do I like the Cooking Academy? Because you get top quality tuition and unlike some other cookery courses where it's a fight to take part as participants exceed the availability of preparation and cooking facilities, the academy teaches small groups and everyone gets to prepare, cook and produce food."
One Day Thai Cookery Class-Keith Routledge
"Karin and I had a truly memorable day, super fun and relaxed and we were impressed with everything about the day; the pace, the tone, the results! Wow. A real game changer.. lovely group too. Expect us back again!"
One day Indian Class – Matthew
“Thank you so much for sending the additional notes and reading pack over. I’ve been meaning to write to say a massive thank you for the session last Friday. I thoroughly enjoyed the day and learnt so much.You have really inspired me to do more in the kitchen generally and I’ve been thinking a lot about the ingredients I use and what goodness (or not!) they contain.I’ve been experimenting with the oat and berry smoothie and will made the egg muffins over the weekend for the kids. The turmeric latte has been a big hit with my daughter. I will definitely be returning in the new year to do another event/workshop”
Menopause Cookery Class – Melanie Leader Cramer
"Thank you very much for helping us to organise what was the most talked about Christmas party, all my colleagues were buzzing – it was such a lovely experience.To actually be involved with the food you’re going to eat makes the whole experience and dinner so much more delicious… I thought the food was outstanding – I think we all surprised ourselves so much lighter and healthier. Your hosting and cheffing team were so friendly and helpful, please pass on our thanks.A number us of are going to use the recipes for our Christmas dinners over the holidays – so thank you for sharing them with us." (Kasia Kuscuski – AWS)
Christmas Cookery Parties-AWS
"We had a ball last week and the team really enjoyed our Christmas away day and especially the cooking challenge with yourself and Charlotte. Thank you so much for looking after us and sharing your skills and expertise. We really appreciated your steer on the different menusThe cookery book is fabulous, and I have my eye on making the Rogan Josh. It looks great. "(Carlo-Learning & Development Manager)
Christmas Cookery Parties-CFC
"It was a fantastic Christmas party, everyone loved it thank you! It great to do something different from the usual, your team were great they looked after us so well and did such a good job – the food was delicious and under their guidance we were amazed at being able to produce such great dishes in such a short time. It was good fun, real team building experience with healthy competition and great feedback from the chefs.Thank you we've already been recommending it around the office here at Dentons!Thanks for all your help in organising this and please pass on our thanks to the chefs." (Sally – Dentons)
Christmas Cookery Parties-Dentons
"I would like to send a heartfelt thank you to The Cooking Academy and everyone involved for my Vietnamese Course I attended today. I absolutely loved the course it was so informative; the food was outstanding and so tasty and authentic, and Sarah was a brilliant teacher. The group were lovely, and I had such a fun day thank you so very much. I hope to return and do the Indian course later in the year"
Vietnamese class-Karen Peacock
"All of your recipes are very minimal ingredients yet so much flavour."
The Garlic Story Book – Rita G