Entrepreneur cooks up recipe for success with latest venture

A Yorkshire-based entrepreneur whose business was impacted by Coronavirus and lockdown has bounced back with a new venture borne of his own passion for cooking and quality ingredients.

With the launch of mychefskills.com, Jonny Ross, who has successfully run a live music and artist booking service for the past 10 years, has served up an online cookery portal designed to develop and improve cooking skills, helping budding chefs to attempt dishes made famous by Michelin starred chefs including Nathan Outlaw.

Ross, 33, from Harrogate, had faced an uncertain future as the boss of a live music event business.

Like thousands of events-based businesses, Jonny Ross Music, experienced a nosedive in demand in 2020 when almost 1,500 confirmed event bookings were reduced to just eight as the pandemic hit home.

Temporarily shelving that business and determined not to let lockdown get the better of him, Ross channelled all his efforts into making mychefskills.com happen.

After convincing some of the country’s most exciting chefs to come on board and showcase a number of their own treasured recipes for the public, the idea was brought to life.

Nine months on, it boasts a comprehensive bank of content, and an impressive roster of chefs fully committed.

Ross said: “For years I wanted to develop my own chef-based cookery course as I’ve always had a personal interest in ambitious amateur cooking at home.

“With what was going on around us, combined with the growth in online video content and the desire to acquire new food-related skills, I seized the opportunity to bring my initial idea to life.

“It was obvious people were keen to learn to cook, bake or develop new talents during lockdown and thankfully, many are building on these new found skills as life gradually returns to normal.”

“By enlisting such a varied team of talented chefs, we’re able to cover off the whole skill set, not only teaching how to be a technically proficient cook but what to look out for when sourcing ingredients and making sure the ingredients are treated with respect.”

mychefskills.com  offers a series of easily accessed online video tutorials that teach professional cookery techniques and share industry secrets from over 20 chefs fronted by a host of high profile professionals such as double-Michelin starred Nathan Outlaw, The Great British Menu’s Andrew Sheridan and Masterchef, the Professionals finalists, Matt Healy (2016) and Philli Armitage-Mattin (2020).

With over 80 different classes already filmed and available on-demand, lessons range from knife skills to cooking restaurant-quality posh fish and chips or a selection of dishes selected by Outlaw, who runs his self-titled two Michelin star restaurant in Port Isaac, Cornwall.

A wide menu of recipes and techniques are also available for people to attempt.

New chefs will be added to the on-demand video roster over the coming months with an increasing number of recipes to try and new techniques to learn.

It is also planned to incorporate international chefs and dishes suited to overseas audiences, giving the site a truly global appeal.