If you're single, have always wanted to learn to cook and are headed to Florida, Jane Doerfer's 19th-century home in Apalachicola, southwest of Tallahassee, may be the place for you.

From omelettes and grits to oven-braised pot roast, recipes for one or two are the specialty of Doerfer, a cookbook author who offers just what many vacationers try to escape: a week in the kitchen.

But the kitchen is no ordinary kitchen -- it's been custom-designed by Washington architect Hugh Newell Jacobsen to teach up to 12 pupils the fine points of food preparation.

And Doerfer's class, "Going Solo in the Kitchen,'' is custom-designed from personal experience to provide experiences as well as cooking skills tailored to single travellers.

Since her divorce in 1991, the cooking instructor says, "I've learned through publishing a newsletter (`Going Solo') that the travel industry is not geared to the single traveller. What happens with a lot of group trips that single people go on is they don't get enough spare time.'' So students who think cooking school is no day at the beach can still salvage half a day.

"In the morning, they come to class. They have all afternoon off to go to the beach. In the evenings, we have a do-ahead easy party meal,'' Doerfer says.

"I invite people from the community who I think are interesting people -- area artists, a boat builder, the man who designed my pond and his girlfriend.'' The price tag for the week is $975. That includes classes from Monday through Friday, rooms and breakfast at the renovated 1907 Gibson Inn and lunches, dinners and evening wine-tastings at the school.

Visitors almost unanimously like the pace of the old fishing community, where most businesses and even the post office continue a tradition of closing on Wednesday afternoons.

"A 25-year-old student from Georgia in my February class told me: `I feel like I have all these friends in town,''' Doerfer says.

Formerly a resident of Cambridge, Massachusetts, Doerfer tells students that solitude needn't stifle culinary style.

"I think people get very hungry when they live alone for flavours they had as a child, like pot roast or brisket or spaghetti and meatballs. And they don't think they can cook those for themselves.'' Instead of shoving a chicken pot pie in the microwave, for instance, Doerfer tells her students to think chicken with sweet potatoes and onions, chicken with bread stuffing or chicken barbecued or Basque-style.

Having published a book on the subject as recently as May, she also offers these tips on food storage and shopping strategies to the budding single gourmand: Establish friendly relationships with a market's key personnel. "I began by introducing myself to the store manager, explaining that I liked the store and wanted to shop there, but that as a single cook I needed to buy meat and produce in smaller amounts than his market offered ... The response has always been positive.'' Refrigerate most vegetables as soon as possible. Exceptions include potatoes, onions and winter squash, which should be kept in a cool, dry place.

If meat or poultry is tightly sealed in plastic wrap, loosen wrap before refrigerating. Loosely wrapped meat stays fresher longer.

Anyone who is interested in attending Doerfer's classes can obtain information on them by calling Regatta Travel at 1-800-445-7685.