La Combe en Périgord - Sunday 17th - 24th July 2011 Join On the Ridge Cooking School in Perigord….at La Combe en Périgord in 2011, Sunday 17th July -24th July, where Tonya and her chef partner Angela Morris from Bellview Hill Country House Bed and Breakfast in Loch, Victoria, will teach you how to cook French food in that beautiful region of south west France.
Please email Tonya for more information ...
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 La Combe en Périgord is the only English language speaking cooking school in the Dordogne, south-west France. It is situated in the heart of the Dordogne, ‘the cradle of gastronomy’, and world-renowned for its extraordinary prehistoric cave paintings, spectacular medieval castles and villages. The French themselves revere the Dordogne for its unrivalled cuisine, using local truffles, walnuts, wild mushrooms and foie gras. La Combe is set in 40 acres of park and woodland, in the romantic, emerald green valley called La Vézère, near Les Eyzies-de-Tayac. It is a French country house, offering five elegantly appointed guest apartments, each with American-sized beds and an en-suite bathroom. The dining room seats 12 and there is always ample room for relaxation in the large drawing room or book-lined library.  Also in the main house is the 400-square-foot French country-style kitchen, custom-designed with European cooking ranges and the latest top-of-the-line American and European appliances.
La Combe is a very comfortable private home where you are a welcome guest, and where we strive to meet your every need. All La Vie en Périgord programs are created around culinary and cultural activities and visits, demonstrations from local chefs and artisans, and liberal sampling of local restaurants and wines. www.lacombe-perigord.com/vie.html  The eight-day program includes three "hands-on" cooking classes, in the La Combe kitchen, presented by Tonya using local produce, purchased from the morning visit to the local farmers' market.
We visit the markets in Lalinde, Perigueux and the famous Sarlat market where you may purchase a wide range of lovely French products, including French linen, Laguiole knives, baskets, china, kitchenware, painitngs, food such as locally made sausages, foie gras, cheeses, jams, fruit and vegetables as well as novelty items, like garlic 'crushing/scraping' dishes.
Highlights of the week, inlcude visits to local artisans producing regional specialties. These opportunities are only available to people such as Wendely who has local knowlegde and local friends. You meet the trufficulteur, Edouard Aynaud, who takes us truffle hunting, we experience a demonstartion of duck decoupage with Mme Michelle Boyer and we enjoy a walnut oil tasting at the Moulin de la Tour, in Ste Nathalene, and see the operation of the last working water-powdered walnut mill in south west France. A visit to the 12th century Augustine fortified abbey, includes meeting and watching the didandier, Patrick, a copper-maker in the village of St Amand de Coly at work making his beautiful copper pots and pans, some of which are available for purchase.
The program includes all meals and local French wines, in notable restaurants and at La Combe, so you are able to enjoy the best this culinary paradise has to offer.
Wendely Harvey and her husband Robert Cave-Rogers opened La Combe in 1999. Prior to that they lived in America for ten years, where they established a prized reputation in the publishing of superb cookbooks.  La Combe immediately attracted world-class chefs including Australia’s Stephanie Alexander, Maggie Beer, Di Holuigue, Valli Little from Delicious Magazine, Damien Pignolet, and now Tonya Jenning from On the Ridge, who all teach classes to no more than eight students.
Wendely and Robert now enjoy an international reputation as celebrated hosts, whose eight day cooking programs immerse guests in their idyllic bucolic lifestyle as well as offering a series of unique experiences in the Dordogne – a region that is also known as the Périgord. Wendely and Robert’s Périgord is a crammed itinerary of regional gems – many known only to insiders. www.lacombe-perigord.com/  Australian chef Tonya Jennings is passionate about food and cooking. Some years ago, she combined her talents and resources in establishing On the Ridge Cooking School in the hinterland of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland.
Her culinary philosophy is to cook fresh, locally produced, seasonal food, to share with participants an understanding of the fundamentals of cookery and to provide inspirational ideas for entertaining, as well as for easy, healthy midweek meals that the whole family will enjoy. Tonya’s excitement and enthusiasm for food and cooking is contagious; her classes are inspiring, very professional, with delicious food and great fun! Come and join Tonya at La Combe, where she will create, cook and celebrate the regional delights, where the focus is on using the wonderful local produce available in Périgord, and creating dishes that reflect her modern take on French classics.  Join us for an unforgettable week of culinary and cultural experiences, centered around our 18th century country home in Périgord Noir, in southwest France.
In 2011, the Guest Chef Program will again feature On the Ridge with Tonya Jennings - please email for more details. | |
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