GILL OLIVER speaks to an Oxfordshire chef passing on the gastronomic secrets of Burgundy at her French cookery school

Family holidays to France when she was a child marked the start of a love affair with the country that is still going strong for Katherine Frelon three decades later.

Now an experienced chef, Katherine passes on her passion for French food and wine by running themed gastronomic holidays based at her beautiful gite in the Burgundy region.

Guests are encouraged to try their hand at French cooking, given the chance to explore the fruit and vegetable markets in nearby Dijon and enjoy exclusive wine tastings.

“I like to keep everything informal, so when people arrive they have a glass of local Champers and relax while I do a cooking demonstration,” she explained.

“They can just chill out and watch, or get involved if they want to. Later, we all sit down and eat together.”

Courses normally run for a week but she also offers long weekends and enjoys tailoring the activities to suit a specific group.

“I like to base it around my clients and make it more special for them. If people are more interested in wine than food, or white rather than red wine, I take that into consideration,”

she said.

“If they want to learn to make pastry we focus on that, or if they are more interested in al fresco suppers, we opt for that instead.

“It is all about using the freshest produce I can find and making people feel confident and comfortable,” she added.

Despite her long-running association with France, Katherine spends most of the year in the Oxfordshire village of Alvescot, and is in great demand as a chef for private lunches, dinners and shooting parties.

She also has a strong link with Brize Norton-based Foxbury Farm, having created the recipes for many of their ready-made meals.

When not hopping over to France, she jets off to other countries on freelance chef assignments but all this is firmly fitted in around her two children, Charlie, 11, and Matilda, four.

Both are at school in France and spend time with their French father, so are growing up to be truly bilingual.

“I can work comfortably in both countries because the transport links are so good,” she explained.

“I drive to London, catch the Eurostar and five hours later I am in Burgundy. It is fantastic,” she smiled.

But life has not always run so smoothly for Katherine. When she first moved to France at the tender age of 22, things were very different.

“I came over on my own, had no money and spoke virtually no French,”

she recalled.

She scraped together enough to buy an almost derelict bakery in the Loire Valley and set to work restoring it.

“It had no running water or electricity.

I used to go down to the river with two buckets, one to do the washing-up and the other to cool the beer.

“All I had was candlelight and Radio 4 to keep me going in the evenings. I’d be there with my rolling pin because a mouse or some other creature would have wandered into the house.

“My poor parents, I don’t know what they must have thought. It was terrible really,” she laughed.

Being a young girl on her own attracted quite a lot of attention.

“I was a curiosity with my long blonde hair, tan and very short shorts. I was working on the roof of my house, so obviously created quite a stir.

“There were all these curious Frenchmen riding up and down on their bicycles twice a day. It was quite amusing,” she laughed.

Men enjoy going on her gastronomic holidays as much as women, according to Katherine. “We have golf courses around us and, obviously in Burgundy, we have fabulous wine. I organise wine-tasting excursions where we have lunch and taste about 14 different wines.

“Then there is the wonderful wine auction Hospices de Beaune in November, run with Christie’s. I have contacts who can get us in there, in spite of the fact it is so exclusive.

“The week before, we go and taste out of the wine barrels that are going to be auctioned, it is very, very special,” she said.

Katherine’s enthusiasm for cooking is incredibly strong: “I am passionate about what I do and I want people to share that and be inspired to have a go at cooking and tasting new foods.

“In the future, I would love to take my cookery school on tour — maybe down to Provence, or even Florence, or Spain. Who knows?”

■ For more information about Katherine Frelon and her gastronomic vacations, visit www.frelonsfabulousfrance.com