‘Right, now I’m going to demonstrate the filling. First of all, your meat is important and you should go for quality, although you always want a pair of good-sized, plump breasts.’ There was a ripple of amusement through her students, but Adrienne seemed oblivious and carried on talking. ‘I like these ones; they’re from a local butcher who specialises in rare breeds. This one is Plymouth Rocks.’

Once she’d finished the demonstration, they all returned to their own workstations to make the chicken and leek filling. At least this didn’t require much skill, thought Hannah in relief as she carefully chopped her leeks. Behind her, Jason was demonstrating admirable knife skills as he sliced his vegetables at top speed.

‘Impressive,’ she said, watching in envy.

‘Misspent youth,’ he said with a grin, lifting the knife and spinning it with dextrous fingers.

‘Careful. You’ll chop your fingers off.’ She winced in alarm.

‘Nah, got to live dangerously.’ Jason flipped the knife, caught it, and began chopping again.

‘This isn’t a circus.’ Adrienne’s reproving voice had Jason giving her a cheeky grin. ‘But excellent knife skills, Jason.’

To Hannah’s surprise he blushed with pleasure and ducked his head shyly. It was rather sweet and the opposite to his usual cocksure confidence.

‘Idiot,’ said Fliss, who was chopping with neat and speedy precision at the bench in front of him.

For once he ignored her and carried on working.

‘Hannah,’ Adrienne grabbed her hand, ‘you want to slice through vegetables with a good hard thrust, slicing down and forwards. It’s all in the wrist movement and the way you handle it.’

She heard Jason sniggering again and even Fliss glanced up with a smirk, but once again Adrienne appeared completely oblivious to her double entendres.

By the time it came to the morning break, they’d all made chicken pies of varying standards. Meredith’s was decorated with pastry leaves, Jason’s had beautiful, fluted edges, Alan and Fliss’s were both neat and workmanlike, Izzy’s a bit wonky and Hannah’s… well, the less said the better. She’d worked hard but her pastry had been a bit slippery and shiny and she certainly didn’t have any decorating skill. When it had cooked, the pastry had shrunk away from the edges and sunk onto the top of the filling. It wasn’t quite a disaster but it didn’t compare to the others. Thank goodness it wasn’t like the Bake Off, otherwise she’d definitely be going home.

When Adrienne looked at her pie, she smiled kindly. ‘I think you know where you went wrong.’

No, Hannah didn’t. She’d followed the recipe, the same as everyone else. Thankfully Adrienne moved on down along the line. ‘How long have you been cooking, Jason?’ she asked. The others had obviously been cooking for a long time.