There are cookery schools that teach you how to cook, and there are schools that teach you what and why to cook as well. Kumud Gandhi is the founder of http://www.thecookingacademy.co.uk/, a cooking academy that puts ingredients and their beneficial properties at the heart of everything it teaches.

Trained in food sciences, Kumud’s passion is the combining of nutritional value and the imagination of taste. So that means healthy food which tastes great. You can’t argue with that.

Kumud has embarked on specialised training and has developed a range of recipes that originate from the coastal region of Gujarat in India. However the school encompasses food tuition from all over Asia – Indian, Thai, Chinese and Japanese. Heading up the academy, Kumud and her cheffing team teach people the health benefits of all the different spices used in Asian food and she has a wealth of nutritional advice that she shares. I asked her for a few tips.

‘We deal with a lot of the common complaints people have. For example, if you’re suffering from indigestion or heart burn then try incorporating fennel – both fresh and seed – into your diet.  Or if you suffer from poor circulation, increase the use of chillies and ginger into food. Ginger is packed with antioxidants, it is an anti inflammatory, circulation stimulator, and an antiseptic.  It is also hugely beneficial for nausea.’

Kumud went on to explain that working herbs and spices into your diet can not only provide relief for existing ailments, but can be preventative. ‘Cardamom, cinnamon and cloves are a key part of Indian spices. Fragrant and flavoursome, they are used for their digestive properties and are excellent for calming for the stomach. Cardamom can be used to stimulate appetite; cinnamon is used for stomach upsets and the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome; cloves are a powerful antioxidant, antihistamine and contain mild anesthetic properties.’

A half or full day course in Asian cookery will see students start by learning about how foods interact with each other and following a fascinating spice trail, learning about the health benefits of different herbs and spices. The session will then become hands-on with students learning to make their own spice blends. Finally, there is time to use these spice blends to create some delicious dishes – like chilli chicken, Goan salmon bites, Paneer tikka and the real Bombay potatoes and vegetable bhajia’s – Kumud tells me these are nothing like the ones we may have eaten in restaurants!

Spend time at The Cooking Academy and you’ll return home ready to look at your spice rack in a whole new way and have the confidence to cook fantastic and healthy food.

Cookery classes are small (generally no more than 6 people) and prices start at £99 for a half day course. The academy also offered courses on how to get the best out of classic British food, and also classes for teenagers before they fly the nest.

For more information, visit http://www.thecookingacademy.co.uk/.

Thanks to UKDevon for the photo of chillis.