Why Cooking Together Creates the Strongest Bonds
There is a reason that some of the strongest friendships are forged in kitchens. It is not just about the food — though obviously that helps — it is about the shared effort. When you chop, stir, taste, and plate alongside someone, you are collaborating on something real. There is no pretending, no performance. You are just two people trying not to burn the garlic, and that kind of vulnerability is oddly bonding.
Cooking classes have become one of the most popular social activities in Devon over the past few years, and it is not hard to see why. They offer everything a good social experience should: a clear structure (so you do not have to carry the conversation), a shared goal (dinner), built-in talking points (why does your pastry look like that?), and a satisfying ending (eating what you made together). As we have written about before, shared meals have a unique power to change your social life, and cooking together only amplifies that.
Supper clubs, meanwhile, take the communal dining concept and strip away the formality. You sit with strangers, eat food prepared by passionate cooks, and leave knowing people you did not know three hours earlier. Devon has a quietly thriving scene for both, and Exeter sits right at the heart of it.
Here is our guide to the best cooking classes and supper clubs in and around Exeter.
Where to Book a Cooking Class Near Exeter
One thing to know up front: the city itself no longer has a dedicated cookery school. The quayside school that used to fill that role has gone — its parent company is in liquidation and its website no longer resolves — so anyone booking a class from Exeter is now looking at a short drive out. The good news is that three of the best options are only twenty minutes away, and the countryside is half the appeal.
Ashburton Cookery School
Drive thirty minutes south-west from Exeter towards the edge of Dartmoor and you reach Ashburton Cookery School, one of the most established and highly regarded cookery schools in the South West. The programme is broad — from short, fast-paced evening classes to full-day immersions and week-long residential courses.
The three-hour classes are particularly good for a social outing. They focus on cooking an authentic meal with the freshest ingredients, and you take home a delicious meal for two at the end. It is essentially a cooking lesson and a date night rolled into one. Check their site for current prices and any two-for-one style offers, which change through the year.
Group classes here are larger than at some of the more intimate schools, but the school manages the dynamic well. The atmosphere is energetic and collaborative, and the instructors are experienced at making beginners feel comfortable alongside more confident cooks.
The range covers everything from Thai street food and Indian curries to patisserie, fish cookery, and bread making. If you have a specific interest, chances are Ashburton runs a class for it.
Ground Up Cookery School
For something completely different, Ground Up Cookery School near Chudleigh — on the edge of Dartmoor National Park, about twenty minutes from Exeter — specialises in foraging, fermentation, and cooking with wild ingredients. This is cookery education with mud on its boots.
Their signature experience is the Wild Food Foraging and Cookery course. It begins at the school with refreshments before you head out on a guided walk to identify and collect seasonal fruit, nuts, leaves, roots, or fungi — depending on the time of year. You then return to the kitchen to transform your haul into a meal. It is deeply satisfying in a way that buying ingredients from a supermarket simply cannot replicate.
Other courses include Seashore Foraging along the South Devon coastline, a pasta workshop, artisan baking, Asian street food, and an introduction to fermented foods and drinks. Prices and dates are on their live course calendar; the instructors bring genuine passion and expertise to every class.
What makes it social: there is something about foraging together that accelerates friendship. Walking through woods or along a coastline, identifying plants, sharing discoveries — it strips away the usual social barriers. By the time you sit down to eat what you have gathered and cooked, the table feels like a gathering of old friends.
Devon Cookery School
Based at 2 The Hayloft East, Newlands Park in Cullompton, about twenty minutes north-east of Exeter, Devon Cookery School offers a broad range of hands-on classes in immaculate, well-equipped facilities: Mexican street food, Japanese cooking, sushi, fish filleting, pastry, and bread making all feature on the calendar, with 2026 dates live and bookable.
Sessions are half-days — the sushi class runs three and a half hours — and are designed to be accessible to all ages and skill levels. The sushi class is particularly popular: you get hands-on experience making your own rolls and nigiri, and you leave with skills you can genuinely show off at home.
The staff are consistently praised for being knowledgeable and friendly, and the atmosphere is relaxed without being disorganised. It is a good option if you want structured learning in a professional environment without the intensity of a full-day course.
Manna from Devon Cooking School
If you are willing to travel a little further south — to Kingswear, overlooking the River Dart near Dartmouth — Manna from Devon is one of the most special cookery schools in the region. Run by Holly and David Jones, it specialises in bread making, fish cookery, and wood-fired oven cooking.
What sets Manna apart is the intimacy. Class sizes are small, which means genuinely personalised attention in a relaxed, home-kitchen atmosphere. Classes are held in the Jones' Victorian home with views over the River Dart, and the setting alone makes it feel like a proper escape.
The current programme is built around the wood-fired oven, bread and sourdough, pizza masterclasses, and their Fabulous Fish course. Prices are on their class diary. If you want an experience that feels more like spending a day in a friend's kitchen than attending a formal school, Manna from Devon is hard to beat.
For the full Devon experience, combine a cooking class at Manna from Devon with a visit to nearby Dartmouth — one of the most beautiful harbour towns in England. It makes for a brilliant day out or overnight trip, especially paired with lunch at one of Dartmouth's excellent waterfront restaurants.
River Cottage
No guide to Devon cookery would be complete without mentioning River Cottage. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's famous cookery school near Axminster — about forty-five minutes east of Exeter — has been championing seasonal, sustainable cooking since 1999, and the courses remain some of the most immersive food experiences you can have in the UK.
One-day cookery courses run from £195 to £245 depending on the course, and typically have you creating a seasonal starter, main course, and pudding using ingredients from the farm and local suppliers. The range extends across classic cookery, artisanal skills, baking, foraging, gardening, gut health and fermentation, and meat courses.
The setting — a working farm in the Axe Valley — is as much a part of the experience as the cooking itself. It is a full day out, and one that tends to leave a lasting impression.
Supper Clubs and Pop-Up Dining
The Turf
The Turf is one of Devon's most remarkable pubs — an isolated waterside pub near Exminster that can only be reached on foot, by bike, or by boat. Getting there is half the experience. But beyond its famous location, The Turf runs supper club evenings that are among the most sought-after dining experiences in the Exeter area.
The menu is seasonal, built around local producers, and served as a set multi-course affair. The atmosphere is communal and convivial — you are eating in a pub reached by a canal path, surrounded by people who made the same deliberate journey to be there.
Two practical points. The Turf is seasonal: it opens from early May to the start of November and closes for the winter, so this is not a year-round option. And supper club dates are published as they are set rather than fixed to a monthly rhythm, so check their listings before you plan around one.
The Nobody Inn Supper Club
The Nobody Inn at Doddiscombsleigh — the 17th-century Teign Valley inn better known for its whisky list — runs its own supper club, listed on its What's On page. It is the same proposition as The Turf in a different landscape: a set menu, a room full of people who made a deliberate journey down narrow lanes to be there, and, usefully, rooms upstairs if you would rather not drive home. Note that the pub's kitchen is currently working around fire damage, so call before you book.
Dinners With Friends
We would be remiss not to mention what we do ourselves. At Dinners With Friends, we organise regular group dining events across Exeter — curated meals at some of the city's best restaurants and gastropubs, designed specifically to bring together people who want to meet others over great food.
Our events are built around the same principle as everything in this article: that cooking together and eating together are two of the most powerful ways to build genuine connection. If the idea of a supper club appeals but you want something with a bit more structure — where the people, the venue, and the conversation are all part of the design — our events are worth exploring.
Why This Matters
There is a growing body of research suggesting that cooking and eating together are among the most effective ways to build social bonds. It is not complicated psychology — when you collaborate on something physical, share the results, and break bread together, the barriers between strangers dissolve faster than they do in almost any other social setting.
Devon is unusually well placed for this. The county has world-class produce, talented chefs, and a culture that values food as a social activity rather than mere fuel. Whether you choose a half-day class at Devon Cookery School, a foraging adventure with Ground Up near Dartmoor, or an intimate supper club at The Turf, you are investing in something more valuable than a new recipe. You are investing in connection.
As we explored in why shared meals ground us, the dinner table has always been a place where relationships deepen. Learning to cook — and choosing to eat with others — is simply the most delicious way to build a social life you actually enjoy.
New to the idea of cooking with strangers or attending a supper club? Start small. A half-day class at one of the schools above is a low-pressure way to test the waters — you will learn something useful, eat something good, and almost certainly leave with at least one new acquaintance.
What's New for 2026
The Devon cookery scene has continued to evolve, with a few notable updates worth flagging.
River Cottage — 2026 Season
River Cottage near Axminster continues to run its celebrated programme of one-day and multi-day courses, with seasonal foraging, sourdough baking and meat courses all live with 2026 dates. One-day courses are priced between £195 and £245 depending on the subject — a premium, certainly, but for many people it is a once-in-a-lifetime food experience on a working organic farm. The school holds an ICSA Centre of Excellence award and took gold in the training school category at the Food and Drink Devon awards.
Eventbrite and Pop-Up Classes
Exeter's food scene increasingly uses Eventbrite for one-off cooking classes and pop-up events. Pasta-making workshops, Thai cooking evenings, and sourdough sessions run by independent teachers appear regularly. These tend to be smaller, more informal, and often cheaper than the established schools. It is worth checking Eventbrite a week or two ahead if you want something spontaneous.
Insider Tips for Booking Cooking Classes
Book early for weekend classes. Saturday sessions at every school on this list sell out first. If you have flexibility, weekday classes are easier to get, often quieter, and sometimes discounted.
Consider it as a gift. A cookery class voucher is one of the best experience gifts you can give. Ashburton, River Cottage and Devon Cookery School all offer gift vouchers, and they consistently rank as one of the most appreciated presents for foodies, couples, and anyone who is hard to buy for.
Go with a friend — or go alone. Both work brilliantly. Classes with a friend are fun and give you a shared experience to talk about afterwards. Going solo is a surprisingly good way to meet new people in a low-pressure setting, because the cooking itself provides the conversation. If you are new to Exeter or looking for ways to expand your social circle, a cooking class is one of the most effective first steps you can take.
Pair it with a day out. Ashburton is on the edge of Dartmoor, so a morning class pairs perfectly with an afternoon walk. Manna from Devon in Kingswear sits above the Dart estuary — combine it with a river ferry crossing and a wander through Dartmouth. Devon Cookery School in Cullompton is a short drive from the Exe Valley, where you can stop at a country pub on the way home.
If you have tried a cooking class and caught the bug, the next step is hosting a supper club at home. It does not have to be elaborate — a single course from what you learned, a table of six to eight friends, and a bring-a-bottle policy. The best dinner parties are the ones where the host is relaxed, the food is honest, and nobody is trying too hard. For more ideas on building regular social rituals around food, our guide to the art of the midweek catch-up might be useful.
Already running your own cooking classes, supper clubs, or food experiences? We have recently launched Dinners With Friends Host Partners — list your events on our platform, keep 80% of ticket sales, and reach a community of people actively looking for exactly what you do.