Meet the Cookery School Team: Chelsea Bodenham

Job Title/Role at the school: Junior Teaching Chef

When you joined Divertimenti: June 2024 

What you love most about your job:  

The variety in each and every day and constantly learning new skills, recipes and using new ingredients. I'm also very grateful to get to work with and be mentored by two amazing women (Jules and Jo), both with so much experience in the food industry, they're super inspiring.

What is your background in food:

I grew up with my mum's gorgeous home cooking, and we would cook and bake together from a young age, so I have her to thank for my interest in and understanding of food! 

I started my career after uni working in marketing for around 5 years before finally packing it in. It wasn't making me happy and I didn't feel the type of work suited my skillset. Not knowing what I wanted to do instead, I did a week at a cookery school in order to land myself a ski season job for the 23/24 winter season, so a few months later, off I went to chalet host in Val d'Isere and... I loved it! Everything from the baking and cooking, through to the entertaining and providing a luxury guest experience. 

Being an intrinsic part of people's holidays and food experiences gave me so much joy, and despite the hard work, the adrenaline of a busy breakfast/dinner service gave me energy, I wanted to find something that mirrored that back home. I landed on cookery school teaching/private cheffing. I applied to work at Divertimenti even before coming back from France and came to work with Jules not long after I got back to London.

What are you most excited for at the school for 2025: 

Personally, I'm excited to be getting more involved in teaching the classes, having done a couple of festive demonstrations towards the end of 2024, I'm excited to see what more I can get stuck into! I'm also excited to see what new talent, amazing chefs and exciting cuisines we will get to welcome and have available for our lovely customers.

Favourite class at the school to teach or be a part of: 

One definite favourite is the knife skills masterclass, it's an incredibly intensive skills class that you get so much out of, and I love seeing the guests get confident by the end of the session. Explaining to our customers what they need to do, how and why, and coming around to help them also in turn reinforces my own knowledge, it's very fulfilling. I also love our supper club format, getting to cook alongside an amazing chef for the guests is such great fun and there's always a great team energy.

Highlight at the school so far: 

SO many, but highlights have included learning from Jules and Jo, hosting my first few demos, having Monica Galetti at the school and watching her in action, Prue Leith's book launch and demo, and turning the store into a restaurant for Manon Lagrève's 'Chez Manon' Supper Club.

Where do you go for inspiration in the kitchen: 

I get inspired by every single guest chef that comes in but day to day I'm trawling social media. I have my own food Instagram account and only follow other food pages on that, so it's just recipe after recipe. I'm constantly saving recipes to recreate for dinner.

Cooking or baking? 

I cook more often than I do bake. I find with baking you need more kit (that I don't necessarily have at home), and it's more of a science, but baking is pure enjoyment. To some level you have to cook to survive, but baking is always for fun and feels therapeutic!

Sweet or Savoury? 

If I'm craving something, it's always something sweet. Love a hint of sweet in almost everything I eat, live for a coffee walk and sweet treat, and can't go to sleep without a little something sweet after dinner.