COOK school staff had a challenge on their hands when they invited Inverclyde Now editor Jeremy Burrows into their kitchen.

It's not looking good to start with despite the fancy name badge.

ON paper, it was not my idea of fun – not only would I have to eat a meal containing three of my least favourite ingredients; I would have to cook it as well.

Cooking is not something I do for enjoyment and my repertoire is limited. But, after a night at Cook School @ Stepwell, I had added mushroom and spinach risotto, olive bread and tiramisu to my CV (which pretty much had only fried bacon and egg on it to start with).

Cook School @ Stepwell operates from a plush contemporary suite in Haig Street, Greenock. Six of us were on the Italian Cookschool evening, enjoying a home-made non-alcoholic limoncello in a comfortable sitting area before heading into the state-of-the-art kitchen.

Tutor Angela Darroch and host Norma Norris made us feel right at home -- with a couple of welcome differences; at home you don’t get all the ingredients prepared for you in advance in little glass containers or the washing up done for you.

Angela patiently guided us every step of the way as we created our meal. I got confused at one point when she said we were going to dip our fingers in coffee but it turned out she meant biscuit fingers, not the ones on our hands.

No more tears, even while onion chopping, under Angela Darroch's guidance

I like risotto but not spinach, mushroom or parmesan, all three of which featured prominently. There was a bacon option but my partner was vegetarian so I couldn’t disguise the taste with that.

The mushroom situation was compounded with the revelation that, not only were we using normal mushrooms but three speciality varieties were going into the mix as well.

However, once it was all simmering away nicely on one of Cookschool’s space-age induction heaters, I was intrigued to find I quite liked the aroma.

And when I took a seat in the well-appointed dining area to consume the results of our labour, I was pleasantly surprised to find it was all delicious. A recipe for success is definitely on the menu at Cookschool @ Stepwell.