Liz Curry has always loved cooking for other people. New she's passing on her experise too.

THE trouble with buying a house that used to be a hotel is that you tend to get people on the doorstep expecting a bed for the night. That's what happened to Liz Curry. She was Catering Manager for Glaxo, playing plenty of golf, doing up her house just the way she wanted it. Life was settled.

Then her husband's dream house came on the market again - he'd nearly bought it twice before and on the third time felt it was meant to be - just when he needed more space to run his business from home.

Which is how Liz found herself living in Horsley Hall, in the remains of what had been a hotel. And why some Americans turned up in the rain at 7.30pm wanting to stay the night.

"At the time, the main room was like a builder's yard, filled with tools and rubble where we'd pulled the old bar out, but they'd got our address from an old brochure, and we couldn't turn them away at that time."

(The Americans also heard a ghost, a lady with a crinoline rustling across the floor. Nothing at all, of course, to do with the rain falling on a newspaper stuffed up a then still-to-be-repaired chimney...)

Now all the house has been restored to splendour - seven bedrooms, two enormous reception rooms - one with stunning views over Weardale. And a staircase that was just made for brides to have their photographs taken.

Bowing to the inevitable six years ago, Liz started doing bed and breakfast, dinners, functions, though all on a fairly small scale.

For a while, she did the day job as well. One night she dashed back from Glaxo in more than a rush than usual and briskly rustled up a three-course meal for the two guests, thinking there seemed something rather odd about them. It was only the next morning after she'd served them a farmhouse breakfast that they told her they were tourist board inspectors and she'd be getting one of their top grades.

Liz's first job had been as a nanny, but when she realised that what she enjoyed most was cooking and organising the birthday parties, she changed direction, trained at Newcastle College and was soon cooking at Durham School. Ultimately, she was school dinners queen, in charge of the catering at 97 schools in Durham before moving to Glaxo.

"I was very happy, but in the end it became more of a management job, or a personnel and training job rather than cooking. I realised that Horsley Hall a wonderful chance to get back to what I really enjoyed doing, which was hands-on cooking. Food is my passion. This was a perfect chance to get back to basics, if you like."

Horsley Hall is described as a country house and wedding venue, with - apart from those first Americans - everything pre-booked.

Everything was going well. They are licensed for civil weddings, catered for lots of functions, had lots of visitors, tourists and business, many of them regulars, over 50s who enjoyed walking in the Dale, and trips to Durham Bowes Museum, Killhope.

Then there was foot-and-mouth. And once that was over and the dale had barely started recovering, came the announcement of the closure of Lafarge Cement Works and Weardale Steel. Like just about everyone else in Weardale, Liz was severely affected.

But when she went to a meeting of the Farm Holiday Bureau, a number of people said they would like to offer evening meal as part of their package, as a way of enticing more visitors, but weren't sure how to go about it.

"Many of them were excellent basic cooks and had been doing it a lot longer than I had, but weren't sure about menu planning, practicalities, pricing or being a bit more adventurous."

And so the courses were born.

Liz aims to make them fun and relaxed ("wear comfy shoes and leave your diamonds at home") with small groups of about six people cooking and then eating what they've prepared and with courses tailored to what people want to know.

Cookery courses - while big business down south - are still a bit of an unknown quantity up here, but interest is growing - especially among the men. "I have some good menus for men who want to invite their lady friends home and cook them something simple and stylish. They want something impressive, but without too much to panic about."

Interestingly, a lot of women are buying their men Christmas vouchers for courses.

There are courses on Stress Free Entertaining, a day of breadmaking, vegetarian cookery, sugarcraft - one of her particular hobbies and specialities - and even a course for students, so they don't spend three years living on baked beans on toast.

She uses local produce wherever possible and hopes that in various ways, the courses will benefit the dale as well as her business. But, despite the paperwork, and while still running the country house accommodation, Liz is in her element with the courses, combining her passion for food with her love of explaining and teaching.

But no, she doesn't have time to play golf any more...

Horsley Hall, Eastgate,Weardale. country house accommodation, weddings and functions. Cookery courses from AA54 a day, including two course lunch; residential courses £300 including two nights accommodation.

Tel: 01388 517239, www.horsleyhall.co.uk