Weston Park’s head chef is leading a series of culinary workshops designed to de-stress mealtime prep and encourage best use of seasonal ingredients.

Dan Winter joined the stately home, located on the Shropshire/Staffordshire border, just over 12 months ago bringing an exceptional blend of culinary expertise, creativity and leadership to the Weston kitchens.

From working at renowned hotels including Lower Slaughter Manor and Stonehouse Court to being a self-employed chef, Dan’s vast experience includes everything from luxury event catering, bespoke tasting menus to large scale food preparation for weddings and corporate functions.

Passionate about using fresh, locally sourced ingredients and known for his meticulous attention to detail, Dan has been working closely with the garden team at Weston Park to further embed its ‘Estate to Plate’ ethos.

Now he’s sharing some of his top tips at a newly developed series of workshops featuring live cooking demonstrations.

Taking place in The Granary – Weston Park’s award-winning restaurant – the series kicked off on September 12 with a fresh fish focused demonstration.

The well attended event will be followed by an Autumn in the Walled Garden demonstration on October 10 and completing the series will be a stress-free Christmas demonstration on November 14.

Dan said: “I’ve always loved cooking from an early age – it was all I ever wanted to do!

“I love the different foods you get across the seasons and experimenting with flavours, dish components, sweet, savoury, texture, acidity and figuring out what works well together.

“I’m really excited about this new series of cookery demonstrations and sharing my passion for cooking and creating in the kitchen.

“I’ll be passing on some of my top hints and tips which will hopefully help to de-stress mealtime cooking for people particularly when it comes to prepping that all-important Christmas dinner.”

Across Weston Park, visitors can experience a diverse mix of dining from exquisite, formal dining in the House to relaxed, social dining in The Granary to grab and go classics in the visitor cafe.

It’s an approach that suits Dan to a tee.

He said: “Outside of the kitchen, I’m a huge fan of food that I can eat with my hands such as tapas and sharing boards but when I’m in chef mode, I have a real passion for refined cookery and stand out flavour. It’s why I love Weston so much. There’s something to suit everyone’s taste whether they like fine dining or a picnic on the grass.”

Since joining Weston Park Dan has been gently adding his culinary stamp to its catering offer. This summer he revamped the Granary Cafe layout and menu adding a new range of homemade pasties, toasted ciabattas, warm flatbreads and classic bakes that have been proving popular with visitors. To book on one of Chef Dan’s Demos visit https://weston-park.com/whats-on/.

Each of the workshops include coffee on arrival, the demonstration, tastings, recipe pack and a two-course lunch based on the theme in the Granary Restaurant.