Jenny mixes a meringue recipe.

Jenny's greatest pleasure, however, seems to come from encouraging youngsters into the kitchen and giving them the confidence to cook.

Courses for younger people include making a proper Sunday lunch and helping youngsters fend for themselves - particularly useful for those who are going off to university for the first time.

Jenny remembers one of her students who, after going off to Bristol University called her in a panic.

"He'd been on my Student Survival course where we had done a recipe involving spicy pork balls in a chili sauce. One evening I got a call from him saying that he had three girls coming round for a meal and he'd forgotten how many bean sprouts were included in the recipe. Needless to say I was able to tell him what he needed - apparently, the whole thing went off really well!"

In 2003 Jenny hopes to offer more courses for those men who would like to know more about cooking but... are too afraid too ask!

The proof is in the pudding...

Jenny says, "Men like to do what I call 'party cooking' because they like to be stars in the kitchen! The fact that the place ends up looking like a bomb's hit it and people aren't sitting down to eat until 11.00 o'clock is irrelevant!"

And with so many cookery programmes now on TV more men are showing a greater interest in cooking good food. But Jenny says that the lack of cookery classes means people's efforts in the kitchen are being frustrated by not knowing the basics.

"At school children aren't taught basic skills anymore," she says, "the whole emphasis is more about getting out into the world to make a big sum of money - surely learning to fend for yourself is more essential?"

"With the Sunday lunch coursem for example, (which was suggested by a group of teenage boys) we're going to do the whole works, including making proper gravy and preparing a pudding.

But the main thing they're going to learn is how to serve the whole thing on time!"

Click here to move onto the next page