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UK supermarket Waitrose, keen to cement its reputation as the food connoisseur's chain of choice, is opening its own cookery school.

The school, which will be located above the retailer's Finchley Road branch in north London, will offer themed cookery sessions on different national cuisines such as Indian and Italian, alongside specific skills-based classes in butchery, baking and knife-skills. Classes will incorporate seasonal ingredients and cover how to get the best out of cheese, meat and fish.

Waitrose has long courted the favour of the nation's foodies. Earlier this year, the supermarket enlisted household names Delia Smith and Heston Blumenthal as 'food ambassadors', offering recipes, home-cooking tips and posing on promotional material.

Rupert Thomas, marketing director at Waitrose, said: 'Our position as a supermarket gives us a unique understanding of the part food plays in people's everyday lives and special occasions. We want our customers to leave the school feeling it has made life richer, inspired them into the kitchen and been fun!

'The school also provides an opportunity for us to forge even stronger relationships with its customers and gain a better understanding of what shoppers are looking for from a modern supermarket.'

Neil Nugent, executive chef for Waitrose who will devise the cookery classes, said: 'This exciting new venture for Waitrose echoes the strong appetite for food education as a result of the growth of celebrity chefs and food programming, coupled with the lack of nutrition education since it was removed from the National Curriculum in 1984.

'We want to inspire the nation to move from just watching cookery programmes to actually cooking and experimenting with new ingredients.'

The school is due to open in mid October this year.

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