Any cook worth their salt has a bit of a thing about September and the autumn months.

And we at Sophie’s Cookery School are no exception, all ready to dive into our new autumn classes, which kick off at the beginning of September – a fabulous blend of old favourites, and newcomers to look forward to.

Our most popular class, Lemongrass, Lime and Chilli, gets regular outings throughout the autumn. Its purpose is to familiarise our students with some of South-East Asia’s remarkable, aromatic ingredients – from tamarind and kafir lime leaves, to galangal and pandan, like nearly all our classes, it finishes with us all sitting down together to eat the fragrant dishes we’ve created.

Our trio of sweet baking classes begin with Old-timer Easy Patisserie – a sugary indulgence of a class, where we delve into the decadence of eclairs, and millefeuilles and crème patissiere, and cream. By the time we reach the last half hour everyone is on a sugar high as they contemplate their fine handiwork.

This autumn we’re adding the new Easy Patisserie Showstoppers, led by Rachel Grenville-Hunt, another sugar and cream packed evening of elegant baking. And number three is our Macarons class, where we dedicate the whole evening to making these beautiful, but notoriously tricksy, jewels of the patisserie display. Gaye Perry, incredibly knowledgeable and patient, of the Newbury-based Real Macaron Company is our secret weapon.

If sweetness is not your thing, that’s just fine,because our line-up of classes covers an enormous geographical swathe of the world. I take charge of many of our European classes, from the sunshine of Cuisine de Provence, where the Mediterranean melds into classic French cuisine.

Italy gets a look in, too, with our Autumn Pasta Class. We start from scratch, hand-kneading the dough to give the optimum texture, then rolling and twisting and filling to make ravioli, stained-glass pasta, and more.

We’ve gathered together an impressive gang of guest teachers, each of whom is a specialist in their own field of cooking. So. from Japan, we have Chika Hayashi who arrives with a bundle of painted fans to cool rice with, before showing us all how to make Sushi galore.

Samar Khatiwala is busy writing his first book on his native Gujarati cuisine, but has lived and cooked for a long time in Korea. His Korean Classics class is a must for anyone with a taste for kimchi.

Jumping to India, we explore the rich, spiced cooking of the Indian Mughals with the fragrant Anita Chipalkatty. More unknown, but every bit as enticing, is the marvellous cooking of Georgia, with its walnuts, herbs, spices and wine, taught by Lia Chokoshvili.

Our classes take place in Oxford, and are suitable for everyone, whatever their level of experience or culinary confidence.

See sophiescookeryschool.co.uk