cooking holidays
“A fabulous week’s cooking, a stunning location, and great company. Henry and Laura were perfect hosts and brilliant teachers”
During the Covid-19 pandemic, we started to run online cooking classes as a way of socialising with our family and friends during the lockdowns. From these we put on classes for paying customers and also free classes for local charities.
We enjoyed connecting through food and cooking so much we decided to take it further and create cooking holidays, seeking out unique and idyllic venues that would provide the perfect backdrop for cookery vacations.
Our cooking holidays vary a little between each venue, but we always have a maximum of 12 people and they all produce experiences that are enjoyable, relaxing, interactive and open to all levels of cooking ability.
Each day there will be a cooking class, led by Henry, where we make 2 to 3 dishes from scratch, working as a group so everyone is involved. After the class, we sit down to enjoy the food we have created for lunch, talking, laughing and getting to know each other. Breakfast and dinner is always provided and is included in the price.
You’ll learn new skills and techniques from Henry sharing his knowledge and passion for food, whilst cooking dishes and creating recipes that are both traditional to, and inspired by the region. We always use fresh, seasonal and local ingredients, but the recipes you’ll learn will always be able to be recreated at home.
Around the cooking classes are trips and excursions that add to experiencing sights, flavours and history of the local area. This might be a visit to Granada, to sample the produce of the market, a trek up a mountain to forage and eat cheese in the Dolomites, or a fascinating tour of the Carrara marble quarry in Tuscany.
We believe that our cooking holidays are a brilliant way of connecting like minded people, who can relax through the experience of enjoying food, learning new skills and making new friendships.
UPCOMING retreats
Click on a destination for more details
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Spain
13 - 20 April 2024 | 6 - 13 October 2024
We will be returning to the delightful Las Chimeneas in the Alpujarras, Spain to host a week of cookery classes, sherry tasting, visits to local producers, walking and a trip to Granada.
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Tuscany
4 - 10 May 2024
Villa di Spada, a charming 17th century house nestled in the lush Tuscan hills, close to the beautifully preserved city of Lucca. Cookery classes, tour of the Carrara marble caves and a visit to Tenuta di Valgiano winery.
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Trentino
23 - 28 May 2024 | 11 - 16 September 2024
Castel Campo is a community refuge in Trentino surrounded by the breathtaking Dolomites. We will be collaborating with the Rasini family for cookery classes, foraging and wine tasting at their medieval castle.
Testimonials
"I had been wanting to take a cooking holiday for years and finally got around to booking Favourita’s cookery retreat at Las Chimeneas. I couldn’t have made a better choice. The experience is richly rewarding. Each class is around two/three hours, preparing either a delicious lunch or dinner, which we then enjoyed feasting together. What could be more pleasurable than spending days creating original and mouthwatering dishes and then eating them in wonderful company. Laura and Henry make it such an amazing experience. If the mark of a good teacher is having expertise in the subject, having a passion for sharing that knowledge and an ability to get you engaged then Henry is the perfect teacher. Each day you learn new skills, how to combine flavours, how to prepare ingredients, how to refine dishes, how to cook with skill. Henry and Laura are warm, friendly, fun to be with and work as a great team. They have a genuine calling for this, generous and warm hearted they are a pleasure to spend time with and you will dine on some of the best cooking ever, every day, knowing that you have played a role in preparing it. I could enjoy one of Favourita’s retreats anywhere but the amazing setting of the Alpujarras made it even more inspiring. And with everyone on the course sharing a passion for food meant we formed a strong community from the outset, making friends for life”
- Alex Ely (London, England)
“A week in rural Spain with Henry and Laura was one of the most inspiring and happy weeks I’ve ever spent. Learning to cook with kindest, most generous teacher and then getting to eat it was about as perfect as it could get.”
- Martyn (London, England)
“A fabulous week’s cooking, a stunning location, and great company. Henry and Laura were perfect hosts and brilliant teachers – freely sharing their knowledge and skills with equal measures of olive oil and good humour! The menus were flexed to reflect locally available ingredients and the different needs of group members. A brilliant, intergenerational mix of foodies with eclectic tastes in music, art, design and life in general. With photos shared in a WhatsApp group from day one, enduring friendships were quickly forged and then reinforced as we seized opportunities to explore the terrain, it’s produce, and producers. We absorbed local history in the synagogue adapted as a mosque and then a church as successive waves of invaders put their stamp on the region. We learnt about local silk weaving crafts and experienced traditional jamon making. We will always remember the fun we’d all had enhancing our culinary skills,experiencing new recipes and trying new combinations of ingredients!
As we said to Laura, when’s the next retreat? How do we sign up?”
- Chris and Clare (Shropshire, England)
What a truly wonderful experience in every sense!
The wonderful family of Castel Campo opened up their ancient and charming home to us with such warmth and generosity. They integrated the castle stay with Henry and Laura’s cookery retreat as an exemplar of the hospitality and refuge that the previous generations had always provided to their local community over the centuries.
Henry and Laura had researched (and sourced) local produce to demonstrate regional recipes, alongside teaching hands-on techniques in making pasta, gnocchi and focaccia .
The small group of 11 of us enjoyed great camaraderie and joy in such beautiful surroundings. A memory to treasure.
Highly commended!”
- Michele Barrett (West Sussex, England)
“What a wonderful few days in Castel Campo! It truly was a magical experience staying in the castle and preparing meals outside in front of the farmhouse in such spectacular surroundings - I learnt loads of new recipes and top tips and thoroughly enjoyed the trips out. We were so well looked after- I truly felt I was away for so much longer and would thoroughly recommend this retreat.”
- Alison Cloote (Bristol, England)