Ashburton Cookery School & Chefs Academy

I have attended TWENTY courses this year at this Cookery School, plus two Dining Club evenings. All courses have been exceptionally well run, with superb learning. All Chef Tutors give demonstrations, clear explanations and are supportive to each attendee. Great team including those doing prep, kitchen portering and reception. Excellent value for money, superb produce mainly locally sourced. I hope on my 21st course I get a free apron!!

I absolutely loved the bread-making course at Ashburton Cookery School, I highly recommend. Darren, the course chef, was fantastic at explaining all the recipes, kneading techniques and was super helpful when I needed some support. I came away with four amazing breads and enjoyed a tasty pizza I made myself for lunch - including a glass of wine! The cookery school is very well equipped and organised. The people are very friendly and no question was a silly question. I came home with a sour dough starter kit and recipe and I’m looking forward to making more bread as soon as I can. Will definitely be booking onto another course. Thanks to everyone at the cookery school, including Simeon, who did a fantastic job with the washing up all day!

Absolutely loved my Italian cookery day with head chef Darren Smith! He was absolutely amazing at demonstrating the dishes we made all with a good sense of humour and positivity! I feel that I have learned to make some wonderful dishes! My fave were the pear and wild mushroom risotto and the basil pesto! Thanks to Darren!

Superb experience! My partner and I did the Pasta Making morning this past Saturday with Olivia as a birthday celebration for him. I was over the moon with the whole thing. Olivia is super friendly, knowledgeable and a great teacher. Value for money wise is just unbelievable, not only is it 3.5 hours with a professional chef teaching, but we took away 5 portions of fresh pasta each which has been feeding us for days haha! Really can't state enough how impressed I was with the whole experience, from booking through the website/support team, to finding the place, the session itself and the end results. Fantastic experience overall and I would definitely recommend it. We'll probably be back for another one of the amateur courses in the future. Huge thanks to everyone involved!

We had a wonderful half day course, Thai To Go, at the weekend. Our instructor, Liv was very professional and friendly and ensured I could access everything and was comfortable at my workstation in my wheelchair. The kitchen is of course very well equipped and I had plenty of room to move around. Phil also paid great attention to us all and ensured we had everything we required. I will very happily book another course, many thanks Kerry.

I attended a one-day fresh bistro cookery course with my dad, and it was such a blast! The whole experience was clean, well-organized, and the tutor was both hilarious and incredibly knowledgeable. The atmosphere was relaxed and welcoming, so don’t feel intimidated to attend solo or bring a friend. Best part? Someone else does all the washing up—now that’s my kind of cooking!?

I attended a weekend Chefs skills plus course and had an amazing experience. The course was brilliant, our tutor fantastically knowledgeable and very patient. The course was great value for money and as a home cook I came away feeling so much more confident to try out new techniques and recipes.

Absolutely first class teaching. Kitchens spotless and the support from Darren and his team faultless. Ingredients are excellent and seamless pre-prep and used utensils whisked away to return by magic (all spotless and ready to go) leave the pupil free to focus on skills and technique. Our third visit to Ashburton for a weekend class and we have again come away inspired to practice new skills and cuisine. We will definitely be back! Mike and Helen