Student Stories: Taoufik on his Leiths Online Experience

Leiths Online student Taoufik has completed a number of courses with us. He chose the courses in order to tackle what he saw as gaps in his knowledge such as learning how to fillet a fish (a skill that intimidates many an otherwise confident cook). Here he explains why Leiths Online learning methods work so well for him.

Why did you decide to start studying with Leiths Online?

The first course I took was Basics to Baker because I’m into it – I make sourdough and all that stuff. What I found is their method is the best method so far. They’re very precise; they really tell you everything from A to Z. I still use their recipes and their method for making sourdough. I’ve stuck to that method because the result is much better. From there I took the fish course, Fish Fundamentals. That was very interesting. Fish is not like meat; with fish, you’ve got to choose the fish, if it’s fresh or not fresh, then you’ve got to scale it, gut it, fillet it as well if you want. The course is good because they really tell you exactly what to do from the start to the finish.

Why did you decide to do Fish Fundamentals?

I decided to do it because although I originally come from an island where my ancestors were all fishermen and I like fishing myself, I wanted to know how to fillet fish. You can go on the Internet and watch what they are doing but they never really tell you the secret. It’s like cooking; they give you the recipe, OK fine, but there are certain things they won’t tell you or they don’t tell you exactly. That’s what I liked about the course: the mentors are very good; they go into the details and are good at passing information to the student. I really recommend [Leiths Online] to everybody.

How was your experience of the course?

I definitely feel more confident cooking fish. You're having to deal with flatfish like lemon sole and different fish like sea bass or sea bream, how to fillet and gut and scale the fish. Fish is very tricky when you cook it; it can stick to the pan if you don’t know what you’re doing. The method of teaching makes a difference. The teachers are very good at explaining things. They’re really precise. That means even a novice, somebody who has never dealt with fish, can do it. It’s not really simple to fillet or scale a fish if you’re doing it for the first time but the way they show it makes it simple. They really show you everything. You don’t miss a thing.

Did you have a favourite recipe?

The sea bass with the potatoes, that was a very good recipe. I gave it to some neighbours and they really liked it. I’ve done that recipe again and the lemon sole. All the recipes I did were good.

Do you want to do any more courses?

I don’t have any time for the time being but I’d like to do a meat course; that would be very interesting. I’m not young anymore but if I were young, I would take the full course with them!