On Cookery School

This is a review for the beginners macaroon making class.
I feel a bit rotten writing this review, as I believe that this business does a lot of good work with disadvantaged kids, but here follows the information that I wished I had read before buying a class here.
I found this class while idly browsing through Groupon. It was £39 and I bought two vouchers. I then forgot about them and checked back to book a class about a week before the vouchers expired. There was nothing available, so I called the school only to hear a recorded message telling me not to leave a voicemail.
I sent an email — which to be fair, was answered almost immediately, they could get me into a class the day after my voucher expired — luckily that worked for me, so I said yes please! We then had a bit of email too and fro where I gave all the details of the vouchers and my sister’s name who was coming with me. After I had given all the details, they asked me to book it online. Since I had given all my details, I was (maybe a bit unfairly) miffed that they wouldn’t simply do it for me, but I went off to the website to book it. There was a text box at the bottom to enter the voucher codes, so I started to write them in, pressed ‘return’ to get a new line, and it submitted the whole form. So I wrote another email to explain this. I then got a reply telling me that I hadn’t put the voucher codes in… I replied again to say that I did know that, and I also mentioned that every time I emailed them, I got a very long auto reply email that was just a bit irritating. They replied suggesting that I had tension and bad energy and perhaps I shouldn’t attend the class… I explained that I really was only giving constructive feedback, and that although I had become very frustrated with the booking, I was in fact looking forward to the class.
We drove over and managed to park just up the street, as it is residents’ parking during the week, but free at weekends. (To be fair, the school responded almost immediately to the email I sent fairly late on a Saturday night asking about parking.)
The school is based in an internal courtyard, and it was a fairly warm, sunny day — which was useful as the kitchen wasn’t ready and we had to stand outside for about 15 minutes waiting. The assistant apparently hadn’t turned up, so the teacher’s son was helping out — he was around 9 or 10.
The kitchen is fairly small, and there were 9 of us, making it a little cramped when watching the demonstrations, and I could have done with just a tiny bit more elbow room when working at the big communal table.
We gathered round the demonstration table and the teacher started to explain macaroons and how they were made. She told us about the egg whites and why they need to be separated from the yolks a couple of days before you use them. At that point I asked if it was ok to use the ready separated egg whites you can buy in Waitrose (really a simple yes or no answer) and she spent a good minute telling me that she was not taking questions until the end and that I should not interrupt again. Some other poor woman also got the same treatment when she also asked a question.
We watched the teacher make the macaroons once. We had to commit it to memory and then replicate it. Luckily I had made them before and pretty much knew the process, so I helped a couple of people around me. We whisked the egg whites in two separate groups — my group went first, and took our meringue back to the table and waited… a while later, the teacher came over and was surprised that we hadn’t started folding — but she hadn’t told us to, and after the very public ‘no questions’ policy, none of us felt like being singled out again!
We made the macaroons, but the teacher just wasn’t able to help everyone — we really needed more supervision and possibly more encouragement. I had a hilarious moment when I asked for a touch more colouring so that my orange macaroons would be more vibrant. The answer was no…
We then had some time while the macaroons were baking, so we were asked to wait outside again.
We were eventually let back in to watch the ganache being made — no hands on experience with this part.
Then we had our macaroons assessed by the teacher. I’m sure (/​hoping) she washed her hands, but she also ran them all over the macaroons, which we were planning to eat at some point! Mine were the best I had ever made and I did learn some valuable tips, but I didn’t feel that I was particularly welcome in her kitchen. I went there for a giggle and to have fun, not to have the experience of being a sous-​chef under Gordon Ramsey.
I was very concerned about the hygiene. We were not invited to wash our hands at any point, although I insisted that I did. The towel to dry our hands in the bathroom was damp and a little suspicious. The sponge and water that we used to wipe down the macaroon mats after using them, was frankly disgusting.
I would not go back…