Student Story: Meet Lauri Lawrence

Lauri Lawrence (AKA @lauris_larder) is a student on the Two Term Diploma at Leiths School of Food and Wine in London. She began her Leiths journey with Leiths Online. Here’s her story.

Who are you and what do you do?

“I’m Lauri. I’m a mum of two. My background is finance and accountancy. I started the Leiths Two Term Diploma in January.”

What was your first experience of studying with Leiths?

“My daughter was diagnosed with Coeliac disease which sort of sparked an interest in nutrition and gut health. I was looking around for a course that combined the theory with the practical side and the Leiths one came up. I actually enlisted for Nutrition in Culinary Practice at the school itself but as I was researching a little bit more, I came across the Essential Cooking course online and decided to do that first as I thought it would give me a really good grounding before doing the Nutrition course.”

Had you been interested in cooking previously?

“I’ve always really loved cooking and especially so before having kids. I love cookbooks! There’s nothing better than sitting down and reading a cookbook and looking at different recipes. After leaving university, you get on one path, so cooking was very much a weekend activity. I was fortunate to live in London so Borough Market was around the corner. I’d go down there and make something nice for dinner. It’s only subsequently – I’m in my 40s now –  when you’re able to reflect a little bit more, you see there are other opportunities out there.  The Leiths course seemed a new avenue to explore that and a way of getting better at cooking.”

Your first course was Leiths Essential Cooking online. How was that?

“It was so lovely. We had a really nice bunch of people online, all very supportive, and encouraging. Our mentor Angela was, again, very encouraging. It was a really positive experience. The videos are really clear and they’re step by step so you can pause and look at things again. It gives you the time and opportunity to really look at what’s going on. Ideally, I think I would have done it in person at the school but time commitments didn’t really allow that. It was just coming into Covid when I did it, so it was great having this kind of release, thinking ‘what have I got to do this week?’”.

What did you do next?

“I did Nutrition in Culinary Practice in person, then did the Plant-Based course last year online. The plant-based course is only six weeks, so it’s quite manageable. It’s another skillset; my daughter has dietary needs and dairy and eggs haven’t been great for my son at different times, so I felt it was a great way of expanding my repertoire. I’ve done the food-styling course at the school as well. The problem is, once you do one Leiths’ course, you’re like, ‘ooh, what else is there?’ The Diploma had been a pipe dream. I started to wonder, actually could I do this?”

You are now studying for the Diploma at Leiths. How is it going?

“I jumped in for the Intermediate Term in January. I’m doing the Two Term Diploma, because I’d done the online course and Nutrition in person. In an ideal world, I would have done the Three Term Diploma but time was not here really. It is a big change. It’s a lot of hard work. You don’t really have a moment to think but I’m really loving having the opportunity to be there. Everybody has been very welcoming. The teaching quality is really, really good. There’s a reason I’ve kept coming back.”

“After the Nutrition course, it was in the back of my mind to do the Diploma if the opportunity presented itself, but it’s tricky, supporting a family. I was able to finish my job back in Decemeber and take the six months to do the course. It’s with a view to a career pivot, maybe looking to do something with finance at some stage, perhaps helping businesses to start up. At the minute, I’m just loving the opportunity of being in the kitchen each day, learning new skills and challenging myself again. So far, I’ve loved the fermenting side, that’s a lot of fun, and they do so amazing patisserie demonstrations, and bread was pretty amazing too. Every day you’re learning something totally new.”

The pace is quick. Each day you’re writing a time plan for the next day, so when you go home, you don’t stop thinking about it. My weekends are spent trying to plan for the next week, trying to maybe test things. Jumping into the intermediate course, there’s a big assumed knowledge there. The teachers are really good at helping you if you say ‘I’ve only done this once before, could you make sure this is right?’ but it is pacey. In the intermediate term, you do a wine course so you’ve got a theory exam in a couple of weeks and a theory exam for the practical assessment. It’s a proper commitment. It’s definitely not a jolly! It’s taken very seriously but in a positive, nice way.”

What are your future plans?

“At this stage, I’m open to ideas. What’s lovely about Leiths is the network they have. When you speak with Leiths List, the in-house careers service and recruitment agency, she seems to know everybody!’ I’m very excited about the possibilities. My interest is probably recipe development and testing, costing, that side of things. Gluten-free products is an area I’d love to explore more. I feel I’m learning skills that are transferable no matter what I end up doing.”

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