Founders of an award-winning cookery school have made the decision to close its base after 10 years.

The Chequers Kitchen Cookery School in Deal shut last month - with classes now going mobile.

Children and adults will now be taught in their own schools and places such as community centres.

Director Stephanie Hayman said: “The time was right to change our business model and move to a mobile service.

“We will now take our classes into communities rather than asking people to come to us.

“We will focus on our mission to teach people to cook from scratch on a tight budget, so they can access a healthy diet or work-related skills.

“We will continue to teach adults, children and families in community settings and schools, and offer a support service for new food businesses and social enterprises.

“We are looking forward to this new way of working.”

Chequers Kitchen is run by Cinque Ports Community Kitchen CIC (community interest company), a not-for-profit group.

That organisation continues as a mobile service offering classes, off-site catering, business and training support for small food enterprises.

Chequers Kitchen, based in Golf Road, was founded by Ms Hayman and chef Pieter van Zyl.

Its base provided free or subsidised lessons as a social enterprise also offering high quality recreational cookery classes, team building and dining events for the members of the public.

The centre enjoyed visits from celebrities in its time.

Last January Frankie Bridge, a singer from the girl band The Saturdays, was there for a three-hour evening of pizza making.

She shared photos of the cooking class to her 1.5 million followers on Instagram.

In 2014 Chequers even beat Jamie Oliver to the Best Community Focused Cookery School top prize.

The celebrity chef’s Jamie’s Ministry of Food was the runner-up in that category for the the UK Cookery School of the Year awards.

The kitchen also won awards such as Kent Life Food and Drink Hero 2013 and was a finalist in Kent Excellence in Business Awards in 2018.

Those wanting more information about the future service can email info@chequers.kitchen