Telewest Broadband has joined forces with Aldo Zilli --London's renowned Italian chef and restaurateur - in a bid to revolutionise home cooking with the country's first online cookery class.
The award-winning chef, known throughout the UK for his award winning and innovative restaurants, cookery books and many television appearances, gave a master class to a clutch of wannabe cooks - showing them how to rustle up a delicious and healthy treat at his renowned Zilli Fish restaurant.
But, unlike his standard classes, he used a camera, high-speed internet link and laptop computers to instruct pupils on the art of creating pasta dishes.
Aldo's interactive tutorial formed part of a pilot scheme to help amateur chefs who have neither the time nor confidence to develop their culinary capabilities through more traditional resources.
The experimental webbased lesson was soon seen in kitchens across the country, after the video footage was made available on Telewest Broadband's blueyonder.co.uk website.
Visitors to blueyonder.co.uk/ broadbandcookery received the same step-by-step instructions from Aldo and the company is already in negotiations with TV production companies to host further cookery content in the near future.
By using the remote connectivity, high-quality video and interactivity offered by broadband internet, students will be able to use the lessons at a time and place that suits them.
The format will also allow them to pause and re-watch sections of the virtual tutorial if they are interrupted or need more time, adding a new dimension to the world of cookery in books and TV programmes.
Philip Snalune, director of product management and marketing at Telewest
Broadband, said: "We strive to give our customers innovative products which fit with their lifestyles. Cookery has never been so popular and broadband can give aspiring chefs expert help they can control."
Aldo Zilli added: "Telewest Broadband really is ahead of the game in exploring new ways to learn how to cook.
"People today lead busy lifestyles and web-based cookery lessons where they can follow professional advice at the click of a button is a fabulous new way to learn for even the most inexperienced of cooks."
For the pilot tutorial, Aldotaught his students how to prepare pasta, from scratch with clam sauce.
Telewest currently provides multi-channel television, telephone and internet services to
1.8 million residential customers - many in the West Midlands.
The group's content division, Flextech, is the BBC's partner in UKTV. Together they are the largest supplier of basic channels to the UK pay-TV market with a portfolio that combines wholly owned and managed channels, including the ten joint venture channels with the BBC.
