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With Indian and Chinese vying to be the UK's favourite cuisine, most of us have tried our hand at a curry or a stir-fry, while pasta has quickly turned into an everyday staple. So why is it that tapas seems to send a shiver down our culinary spines?

More than half of us have never even eaten tapas - despite 16 million Brits visiting Spain every year - and only 6% have tried their hand at cooking it, according to a poll by Campo Viejo wines.

Worse, a third of us think that making it would be too time-consuming, despite tapas originally being intended as a quick, simple snack, while a quarter said they just wouldn't know where to start.

From tortilla and patatas bravas to seafood and chorizo, tapas has been influenced by everyone from the Romans to North African dishes and New World ingredients from the Americas. From the Spanish verb meaning to cover, the original tapas were usually slices of bread or meat used to cover glasses of sherry and keep the flies out, although the traditional recipes have become more and more sophisticated.

And Campo Viejo has launched a campaign, Viva el Vino, to help people feel more comfortable cooking and eating tapas.

As part of the campaign, they've started a string of cookery masterclasses in London with boutique cookery school Food at 52, teaching people how to cook eight different tapas dishes. Running until the end of May 2010, they're also hoping to expand the classes nationwide.