This one is always a difficult page to write . . . where to begin and what to say without either being boring or pompous. So to make life a little easier I have broken the page down into what I think visitors to the site might want to know.

Who are we?

I'm David Jenkins, and I run not only this site, but also the hugely popular foodie site Hub-UK (www.hub-uk.com).

Hub-UK came into being in May 2000. I started it because I love anything to do with cooking and food. I am not a trained chef, but I do have experience of working in professional kitchens and of cooking with trained chefs.

Why cookingholidays.co.uk?

Four years ago I joined the travel industry at management level and it was my job to carry out research into cooking holidays. My brief was to select and market suitable venues, and to build their web pages.

But, I was so taken with the whole concept of cooking holidays that I left my position in order to concentrate on setting up my own cooking holiday promotion site, cookingholidays.co.uk. It struck me that, to learn at first hand the cooking of another country, in a very personal way, as part of a small group under the tutelage of a professional chef is a highly desirable commodity.

But there was a dearth of good easy to navigate cooking holiday directory sites out there. For instance, where does the average home cook or budding chef go to find the right course? Does an Internet directory that paints a picture and brings a cooking holiday to life actually exist?

Well, absolutely it does, and it's right here!