The Hillside Experience
 - a dash more than a cooking school

Nestled in the bush-clad hills of Governors Bay and overlooking the calm waters of Lyttelton Harbour is Hillside, Michael Lee-Richard's private home and boutique cooking school.
From here the city of Christchurch is an easy 20 minutes away over the Port Hills, a drive yielding, on one side, stunning views if the harbour and on the other, the Canterbury Plains and glittering Southern Alps.

Hillside offers and eclectic programme of practical, demonstration, and theory classes not only on food and cooking but on a vast range of subjects; entertaining, cheese making, pottager design, winter preserving, the art of coffee, wine appreciation, gardening, music, art, and many, many more. These classes, lectures and symposiums are often a unique opportunity to learn from both local specialists and visiting international experts and lecturers.

From the enthusiast wishing to further his or her knowledge to the professional looking for inspiration and guidance, the Hillside experience is as diverse as the people who seek it.

Being the home of a cook the kitchen is the true heart of Hillside. At one end stands a gleaming black, four-oven gas Aga, at the other, a much-loved two oven Bocuse. Between them lies the familiar sweep of burnished stainless steel benches (always a sign of a serious kitchen), cascades of hanging pots and cooking utensils, and clusters of silver cutlery in window boxes.