Cooking holidays

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  • Scenic landscape with mountain views, trees, and a small white building in the foreground.

    Spain

    6 - 13 October 2024 (SOLD OUT)

    12 - 19 April 2025 (SOLD OUT)

    5 - 12 October 2025 (AVAILABILITY)

    We will be returning to the delightful Las Chimeneas in the Alpujarras, Spain to host a week of cooking classes interspersed with sherry tasting, visits to local producers, walking and a day in Granada.

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  • Historic villa with tiled roof and green garden

    Tuscany

    24 - 30 May 2025 (SOLD OUT)

    2 - 8 September 2025 (AVAILABLITY)

    12 - 18 September 2025 (SOLD OUT)

    Stay in a charming 17th-century house nestled in the lush Tuscan hills, close to the beautifully preserved city of Lucca.

    Enjoy 4 cookery classes, a guided tour of Lucca, and savour delicious Tuscan wines at a local vineyard, in the evenings sit by the pool with an aperitivo and take in the view

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  • Cornwall

    8 - 14 November 2025 (SOLD OUT)

    14 - 20 March 2026 (AVAILABILITY)

    Our newest cooking holiday in Cornwall, UK. Stay in a beautiful Georgian house overlooking Newlyn harbour.

    Cook with fresh seafood, pick your ingredients from the community farms, walk along the dramatic British coast and enjoy exploring this magical part of the UK.

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cooking holidays

SPAIN, ITALY & UK

“A fabulous week’s cooking, a stunning location, and great company. Henry and Laura were perfect hosts and brilliant teachers”

People shopping at an Italian street market with fruit and vegetable stalls.

Join us on one of our memorable cookery holidays in Italy, Spain, or the UK, where we will guide you through the delights of regional dishes made with seasonal local produce. Whether you're cooking traditional Spanish tapas, making authentic Italian agnolotti, or discovering the flavours of Cornwall and its produce from the land and the sea, our cooking holidays provide an immersive culinary experience. Enjoy cooking together, visiting local suppliers, farms, and vineyards, touring the city, and making new friends who share a passion for food.

Whilst traveling, we are always seeking new, unique, and idyllic venues that provide the perfect backdrop for our cookery holidays. From the dramatic coastline of Cornwall to the sun-drenched vineyards of Italy and the panoramic vistas of the Spanish mountains, our venues offer the ideal setting for exploring local culinary traditions.

Our cooking holidays vary slightly between each location, but we always maintain an intimate group size of no more than 12 people. Each experience is designed to be enjoyable, relaxing, interactive, and open to all levels of cooking ability.

Castle surrounded by dense forest and mountains in the background at Favorita Cooking Holidays

WHAT TO EXPECT

Each day of the cooking holiday there will be a class, led by Henry, where we will make 2 to 3 dishes from scratch, working as a group so everyone is involved. After the cookery 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 on these cooking holidays and is included in the price. 

You will learn new cooking skills and techniques from Henry sharing his chef 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, and the recipes you’ll learn are designed to be easily 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 authentic Spanish produce in the market, a trek up a mountain to forage and eat cheese in the Italian Dolomites, taking a guided tour around Lucca and tasting Italian wines in a vineyard 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.

Two women using a pasta machine to roll dough at a wooden table, wearing white aprons with a chalkboard in the background.
Person in blue apron cooking pasta with chicken, bell peppers, tomatoes, and olives outdoors.
Panzanella salad with tomatoes, mozzarella, basil, and croutons on a white plate.
Two people sitting in a historical building with ornate arches and columns.
A cooking demonstration setup with a person in an apron holding a sheet of paper, standing beside a table with cooking equipment and a large frying pan. The room features blue doors and windows, and there is an audience member visible in the foregrou
Table by window with fruit bowl, pie, quiche, pitcher, and bowl of biscuits; courtyard view outside.
Group of people posing outside a white building on a sunny day.
Man in apron pouring olive oil into a large pot on a stove in a kitchen setting.
Narrow alley with white buildings and red flowers on the side
Group of people standing outdoors near a stable with a cow visible; some are wearing hats and sunglasses, one person holding a phone.
Scenic view of a serene lake surrounded by green hills and trees with people relaxing by the shore under a cloudy sky.
Three women in aprons cooking outdoors, stirring pots on a wooden table, with greenery and a stone wall in the background.
Group of people at a table enjoying appetizers including sliced meats, cheese, tomatoes, olives, and wine.
Person picking leaves from a tree outdoors on a sunny day.
Man chopping green chili peppers in a kitchen setting, with kitchen utensils and ingredients on the table.
Outdoor dinner gathering with people seated at a long table, enjoying drinks and food in a garden setting.
Panzanella salad with tomatoes, mozzarella, basil, and bread chunks
Man in cowboy attire standing outdoors with hills in the background.
Pan of paella with rice and mixed vegetables on table indoors
Woman in white dress giving a speech outdoors, surrounded by trees and sitting individuals.
Rustic stone building with green shutters and ivy, surrounded by lush greenery and potted plants, a small patio area with chairs, and hanging flower baskets.
People sorting nuts on a table with bowls and bags filled with nuts and shells.
Medieval stone tower beside a garden with trees and a wooden bench, surrounded by a stone wall, against a backdrop of mountains and blue sky.
Medieval castle surrounded by lush forest
Person holding raw chicken, wearing an apron, outdoor cooking class, other participant grating in background.
Ornate room with decorated ceiling, wooden walls, a window, and a table with white chairs.
Plates of figs with goat cheese, greens, and edible flowers.
Shepherds with sheep on rocky hillside trail, mountainous landscape
A person standing on a stone balcony with archways and flowering plants.
Plates of grilled asparagus with creamy sauce and nut topping
Two chefs in a kitchen preparing food, near a window with natural light, wearing aprons, with a table set with utensils and ingredients.
Cozy living room with wooden ceiling, rocking chair, fireplace, bookshelves, and rustic furniture.
Chef demonstrating cooking techniques with a pan of colorful vegetables, surrounded by two onlookers in a kitchen setting.
Historic stone building with arched balconies and a tower, embellished with potted plants and greenery, outdoor courtyard view.
Vintage bedroom with ornate wooden bed frame, red area rug, patterned curtains, arched window, and classic decor.
Close-up of roasted eggplant dish with chickpeas, walnuts, and fresh herbs in a ceramic bowl.
Elegant dining room with a long table set for a meal, featuring white tablecloth, dishware, glasses, and cutlery. Ornate chandelier and traditional wooden decor with patterned wallpaper.
Group of people standing in a deli with hanging cured meats and spread on table
Group of people sitting around a dining table having a conversation, with cups and plates on the table in a well-lit room.
Château Mercier in Sierre, Switzerland, surrounded by green fields and trees with mountains in the background on a sunny day.
Chef preparing multiple plates with sliced figs and cheese on a marble countertop in a kitchen.
People holding a large mushroom in an outdoor setting with mountains and cloudy sky in the background.
Outdoor cooking class with a group of people in aprons gathered around a table, a chef demonstrating gnocchi preparation, surrounded by a scenic mountain landscape.
Outdoor fire pit with flames, surrounded by chairs, near a building with ivy-covered walls and lit lamps at night.
Two wooden bowls filled with roasted red onions, garnished with green herbs, held outdoors with blurred background of people sitting.

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 12 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)