Wonderful food, a warm welcome and a beautiful location.

Wood Fired Oven Cooking

Wood-fired Ovens for Woodfired Oven Cooking Classes at Manna from Devon

 

Our Wood Fired Oven Cooking classes are full of information, inspiration and confidence building cooking. Whether you are an experienced woodfired cook, catering professional, have a new woodfired oven at home or are just thinking about getting one, you’ll find plenty to learn.

We’ve been cooking on wood fired ovens for well over 12 years and teaching wood fired cooking since 2008. Our relaxed, informative courses are hugely popular, with students coming from all over the country and increasingly further afield, Tasmania being the furthest!

“…without wishing to gush, if you are getting a wood burning oven you really should do the Manna from Devon course. In fact, I’d say it’s essential” Xanthe Clay, Daily Telegraph

Our classes take place in our purpose built, year-round wood fired kitchen and on our summer terrace. You’ll learn everything you need to know about using your own wood fired oven. If you haven’t got one yet, don’t worry – lots of students come for research before investing in their own. We also run courses in Suffolk if you can’t get to Devon.

We also have very popular phone consultations – 30 minutes one-to-one chat with David our woodfired expert or 60 minutes if you want to get really indepth. Fantastic if you can’t get to a course or want to revisit what you have learnt.

Why should you learn wood fired cooking with us?? –

  • We are the leading wood fired cooking school in the UK with loads of experience of working with many different wood fired ovens, over 14 years of teaching students about them and really want you to get the best out of your oven.
  • We aren’t trying to sell you an oven; we’ll give you some pointers on what might be the best for your situation and what you’d like to cook if you haven’t got an oven yet and how to get the best out of yours if you do have one already.
  • We have 10 different ovens here at the school from 6 different manufacturers and we’re happy to talk you through their differences. We’ve also worked with many different ovens both manufactured and homemade at lots of different venues so we know the ins and outs of a wood fired oven, how they behave and how to look after them.
  • We have written 3 wood fired oven cook books and have a woodfired cooking youtube channel with lots of recipes, ideas and technical advice.
  • Our courses all run at weekend so you don’t have to use your well earned holiday to come to us. We are well connected to the rest of the UK by road, rail and air so you can access us easily.
  • If you can’t get to us, you can download our online woodfired courses so we can come to you, if only virtually!
  • You can always phone or email us before or after your course if you have any wood fired queries; we love wood fired cooking and we’re always happy to help!

We can run private classes at the school or at your own home or commercial premises at a mutually convenient date, ideal if you are short of time or you would like to learn on your own oven.

To book our classes, you can do so online or just  email us or call us on 01803 752943.

 

Read a Lovely Review from David and Elizabeth
David and Elizabeth came all the way from Tasmania (!) for our wood fired cooking classes and this is what they had to say –

“We found Manna from Devon on the internet. Our primary focus was a course to learn more about cooking in a woodfired oven. Such courses, apart from the 2-3 hour type aimed at tourists, are thin on the ground. While there are quite a few in the USA, Australia doesn’t seem to have anything serious. Even Italy, which would have been our first choice, doesn’t have much in this specialised area.

The website was very informative and, probably most importantly, believable. When you are sourcing woodfired oven schools you don’t start out thinking Devon! So initially there was a credibility hump to get over and the website achieved that. We really had the confidence after doing some research that David and Holly knew what they were about. We try and visit Europe each year, so it was relatively easy to plan our annual holiday around the two courses. It was very convenient to have the breadmaking and wood oven courses on successive weekends.

When we started talking with Holly at the end of 2016 she hadn’t yet finalised their programme, so was able to accommodate us when we explained what we were interested in. The booking process was very easy. The website is easy to use and together with email correspondence it all went smoothly.

Our expectations were high and they were exceeded. Both courses were everything we hoped and we learned so much. The style of instruction is good and it was a very friendly and congenial atmosphere. David is so relaxed cooking three or four dishes at once in two wood fired ovens that it inspires you. Holly prepared ingredients, sauces and dips, drinks and bottomless teas and coffees, and cooked wonderful pastry-based dishes in the ovens. Her easygoing attitude was embodied in her comment “What can go wrong? It’s only cooking!”

It was a bonus staying in their very comfortable accommodation, and we enjoyed our time with them, both in and out of school. Dartmouth is delightful and has many good restaurants, although we weren’t very hungry after eating all the food that was cooked.

We would recommend Manna from Devon to anyone who has a genuine interest in cooking good food particularly in a wood fired oven. David and Holly appear to have a huge repertoire and I doubt there is anything they can’t cook – and they make you believe you can, too.”

 

Woodfired Cookbook

Our first wood fired book, published in 2012, will provide everything you need to use your oven to its full potential. Lots of information as well over 70 inspirational recipes.

You can order it from us or pick up a copy from the school priced just £9.99.

Alternatively get it online from Amazon.

Wood Fired Flatbreads

Our second book was published in December 2016. In it we have explored the amazingly varied world of Flatbreads and Pancakes from around the world, many of them discvered during our own travels.

You can order it from us or pick up a copy from the school priced just £9.99.

Alternatively get it online from Amazon