Learn to cook good mood food with British chef Jim Fisher at his French cooking school.

Apparently, 75% of UK women stop cooking proper meals for themselves after their children have left home to start university.

British chef Jim Fisher, chef proprietor of Dordogne-based cooking school CookInFrance.com noticed family friends became quite depressed once their children had fled the nest. Having looked into it further, he found it was mostly women who suffered from empty-nester syndrome, often neglecting to eat properly.

Highlights of his research, which involved 500 families throughout the UK who became empty nesters in 2010, included:

• 75% of women no longer want to cook a meal from scratch during the week
• 50% of women will opt for a supermarket rather than their local shops when they become an empty nester
• 90% of couples don’t sit down to eat together once their children leave home
• 95% of women stop enjoying shopping for food

If you've lost it, you can get back the fun from food

Jim believes that food and drink is the cement of family life and has created a course to beat the 'empty-nester cooking syndrome' that puts the fun back into food. He's welcoming couples to attend the course together which will involve exciting ideas to add a frisson to mutual cooking. You'll learn techniques for creating fast, nutritional meals with the focus on mood food.

Jim: “When it comes to food, it’s not just about getting the right nutrients, it’s also about making you feel good.

"Many foods have a direct effect on how you feel. Everyone knows that oysters, for example, are an aphrodisiac but not that turkey can be an effective anti-depressant thanks to the tryptophan it contains. And foods likes strawberries, melons and citrus fruit can help to combat stress”.

Inspired by the French approach to food and the sense of community it inspires, Jim is hoping to get the Brits to follow suit.

*Cost for the courses are €220.00 EUR for a day course (per day for 1 or 2 days excludes accommodation) and €995.00 EUR for the full, all-inclusive five nights.

More info at www.cookinfrance.com

*Costs shown at time of publication - September 11