Welcome to COOK’S INSTINCT
Cook’s Instinct is the never-ending home cook’s manual for better home cooking, written by professional chef and cookery instructor, Anthony O’Shaughnessy.
By subscribing to Cook’s Instinct, you will receive new recipes every week straight to your e-mail inbox. Every recipe will include a visual guide to creating a specific dish, so you can feel reassured that you’re on track as you cook.
Watch out for ‘Know Your Way Around’ guides, in which Anthony will take you on a deep dive into a new cuisine, ethnic food market or style of eating.
What’s more, you will also receive a weekly ‘Insight’ into new cuisines and ingredients that will inspire you to upgrade on your usual way of cooking and eating.
You will also find ‘(BEST BUY)’ recommendations included through each recipe, which are Anthony’s own product recommendations that offer the best value price to you as a home cook and are chef-used and approved.
Fancy a go? Subscribe below and I promise you by this time next year, you will be a better cook!
About Anthony O’Shaughnessy
I began my professional cookery career 7 years ago after reaching the semi finals of BBC’s MasterChef UK. Before that I was a very keen home working in the NHS. I left my job in the NHS and relocated to Yorkshire where I began my restaurant training at a small Punjabi restaurant in Leeds city centre. I would host cookery demonstrations at food festivals in my spare time and I loved the live thrill and entertainment of cookery. Then I found my real home: cookery education.
I went on to teach full time at Jamie Oliver’s Ministry of Food, then became a resident chef tutor at the award-winning Leeds Cookery School. During my time in Leeds, I also designed and taught a mobile community cookery programme ‘Get Families Cooking’ for parents and children in the city’s most disadvantaged neighbourhoods. In 2022, I returned home to Newcastle, where I ran Blackfriars Cookery School, a unique cookery school set within the historic walls of Blackfriars monastery in Newcastle city centre. During my time as head chef there, I developed a catalogue of 80+ cookery classes, furnished with carefully curated recipes that illustrated a distinct cultural origin story. It was a busy, exciting environment and I loved introducing people to different cuisines and ingredients every week. My 7+ years of teaching experience incorporates my intensive research and training into almost every discipline of cookery that a home cook would be keen to explore, including patisserie, butchery, fishmongery and every key world cuisine. And there’s was always so much more to learn! The cookery school won an Experience of the Year award by NE England Tourism in 2024 and continues to be an asset of cookery education in Newcastle.
In May 2024, I began working freelance as a chef and cookery instructor. I still like to teach cookery classes at various locations and deliver demonstrations at food festivals around the country. I adore developing recipes and sharing my expertise with a bigger audience, which is why I love the idea of Cook’s Instinct. I called it ‘Cook’s Instinct’ because it’s the phrase I use so much when I teach cookery classes.
Whichever project I work on, I want to spread the joy of home cooking and appreciation of world cuisine, explaining the fundamental science of cookery techniques and revealing restaurant hacks for smarter home cooking.
It’s a wonderful thing.
