An intimate fine dining evening celebrating wild ingredients, fermentation and rich flavours of the Autumn.

Following the immense success of our inaugural Summer Wild Dining Experience, we are delighted to welcome guests back for an exclusive autumn evening at Ground Up Cookery School.

This isn't a cookery class. It isn't a demonstration. It's simply an opportunity to sit back, relax and enjoy Colin's food at its best.

Built around the ingredients, techniques and philosophies that define Ground Up Cookery School, wild food, fermentation, preservation and seasonality, each evening offers a carefully curated tasting menu inspired by what nature is providing at that moment.

14 guests dine together around one large shared table while dishes are finished and plated in the open kitchen around them. Throughout the evening, Colin will introduce each course, sharing the stories, ingredients and techniques behind the dishes, creating an experience that is both immersive and relaxed without ever feeling formal.

Expect refined seasonal cooking featuring carefully foraged ingredients, house-made ferments and preserved flavours, all served in the warm and welcoming atmosphere that Ground Up has become known for.

As the seasons change, so too does the menu. Autumn brings game, wild mushrooms, hedgerow fruits, orchard harvests and the deep, comforting flavours that make this one of the most exciting times of year to cook. The October menu will showcase ingredients such as venison, mackerel, wild mushrooms, pheasant and orchard fruits, alongside ferments and preserves that have been quietly developing throughout the year.

Your evening includes

A welcome hedgerow-inspired aperitif on arrival.
A five-course seasonal tasting menu followed by coffee and petit fours.
An intimate shared-table dining experience.
The opportunity to experience Ground Up Cookery School after hours.

A beautiful wine flight carefully curated by Regency Wines is available to pre book. Wines from the wine flight (while stocks last), Huxbear Wine, beers and additional drinks, will be available to purchase throughout the evening.

We are delighted to be partnering with Huxbear Vineyard for our wine offering. Just across the valley from the cookery school. So local that they are almost visible from our windows, Huxbear is a small family-run vineyard producing award-winning still and sparkling wines in the Teign Valley. Their low-intervention approach to winemaking, fully off-grid winery and strong sustainability ethos make them a natural fit for Ground Up Cookery School.

Sample October 2026 Menu - ingredients and dishes may evolve with the season and availability of ingredients.

With only a small number of guests at each sitting, these evenings are designed to feel personal, relaxed and immersive. Rather than visiting a restaurant, you are invited into a working chef's kitchen, where every dish reflects the season, the landscape around us and the techniques that have become synonymous with Ground Up Cookery School.

Please indicate any dietary requirements at the time of booking. This is a set tasting menu. We hope to be able to accommodate most main requirements, however, if it is not possible we will notify you and may refund your booking.

If attending as a group, but booking separately, please let us know, at check out, so that we can ensure that you are seated together.

The dishes photographed are examples of Colin’s food and are intended to give a sense of the style, creativity and level of dining you can expect from the experience. As this is a seasonal wild food event, menus and ingredients will naturally vary throughout the year.

Previous menus:

Summer 2026

Our First Wild Dinner; Certainly Not Our Last

We spent a wonderful evening in August at Ground Up Cookery's Summer Wild Dining Experience. Drinks and canapes in the delightful walled garden was a great way to start (and the weather helped, too). Then we moved inside for a brilliantly prepared five-course meal. A communal table for 14 people was large enough for lots of different conversations without being too big. The service was perfectly judged. It felt like having dinner with friends. And like all such experiences, we can't wait to go back. Thank you Colin and Tasha.

Thank you Kate. We can't wait to welcome you back in October for more.

What a tasty evening !

We went along to Colin's Seasonal Wild Dining Experience which really showed off local seasonal produce. All very tasty and some surprises in a lovely setting. Big thumbs also for making it gluten free for me. Really hope Ground Up Cookery School will do something like this again.

Thank you for joining us on what we hope will be the first of many such evenings. We loved doing it as much as the guests appeared to enojy being there. Thank you for your feedback.

What a fantastic experience

What a fantastic evening! This was the cookery school's first fermented and wild foraged food event, and we felt it was a huge success. The food was absolutely delicious, with a wonderful variety of dishes, and we learnt so much about foraging, fermenting, and how to incorporate these into everyday cooking.

The atmosphere was warm and welcoming, helped by a lovely group of fellow guests who made the evening even more enjoyable. We really hope this is the first of many events like this—we'll certainly be back!

Thank you Jane, it was such a lovely evening, made so much more special by the guests, we look forward to welcoming you back in October.

Absolutely incredible!

Our meal was a complete treat from start to finish.
The setting of the school is fantastic, overlooking the fields of Chudleigh. We started with drinks and delicious apertisers in the garden. The preserved peach served on a teaspoon with burrata was heaven .
The meal was served around the table indoors. Each course was heavenly. For us the nettle gnocchi and the delicate magnolia cured trout were stand outs as were the beef.
It was an amazing meal , served with a wine flight for many of the 14 diners.
The whole evening was a delight.

Thank you so much for joining us and taking the time to review. It was a fantastic evening, made even better by the company. We hope to see you both again soon.