Truro School Cookery and Truro Food Festival announce first-ever partnership to bring exclusive chef masterclasses to Cornwall
A new collaboration between two of Cornwall’s leading food organisations will offer festival-goers an experience unavailable anywhere else in the South West.
For the first time, Truro School Cookery and Truro Food Festival have joined forces to create a new festival experience, bringing renowned guest chefs into the cookery school’s professional kitchens for two exclusive, hands-on masterclasses during this year’s festival.
The partnership marks a significant collaboration between two organisations committed to celebrating food, learning and Cornwall’s growing reputation as a culinary destination. While Truro Food Festival transforms the city into a celebration of food and drink, Truro School Cookery will offer visitors the chance to step beyond the demonstrations and into the kitchen alongside nationally recognised chefs.
Unlike traditional festival demonstrations, these intimate sessions are fully interactive. With just 20 places available on each masterclass, participants will cook alongside the chefs, ask questions throughout the experience and sit down together to enjoy the meal they’ve created.
On Saturday 26 September, MasterChef favourite and cookbook author Nisha Parmar will lead a family-inspired Indian cookery masterclass, teaching guests to make her signature butter chicken, fresh naan, kachumber salad and an Indian dessert.
On Sunday 27 September, acclaimed Māori chef Matt Burgess (matblak) will guide guests through an immersive exploration of Māori food culture, combining Truro School Cookery’s professional kitchens with outdoor fire-cooking spaces to showcase indigenous ingredients, live-fire techniques and traditional storytelling around food.
The two masterclasses form part of the wider Truro Food Festival, taking place from Wednesday 23 to Sunday 27 September, creating an additional premium experience for visitors looking to extend their time at the festival.
“This partnership is about creating something genuinely different,” said Stewart Girvan, Festival Organiser. “Truro Food Festival has always been about bringing people together through great food, and this collaboration lets us take that one step further. Alongside the incredible atmosphere on Lemon Quay, we’re now giving people the rare opportunity to get into the kitchen with chefs who have travelled to Cornwall especially for the festival. It’s a brilliant way to extend the festival experience and create something visitors simply can’t get anywhere else.”
Joanna Wood, Head of Enterprises at Truro School, added: “We’re looking forward to welcoming guests to Truro School and showcasing our Cookery School – a fantastic facility that supports our pupils during the school day and opens its doors to the wider community beyond that. We’re always looking for ways to make our offering welcoming and accessible, and this partnership is another exciting addition to the diverse programme of events we’ve built alongside our core educational provision.”
The collaboration also reflects a growing appetite for experience-led food tourism, combining the accessibility of a city-wide food festival with the depth of hands-on culinary education in a professional cookery school setting.
Places for both masterclasses are strictly limited and are available to book through the Truro School Cookery website.
About Truro School Cookery
Truro School Cookery is a state-of-the-art cookery school within Truro School, combining first-class educational facilities with a thriving commercial programme that opens its doors to the wider community outside school hours.
By day, the professional kitchens support pupils’ culinary education. Evenings, weekends and school holidays see the space transformed into a vibrant destination for hands-on cookery experiences, welcoming renowned guest chefs, nutritionists and food professionals to deliver masterclasses for adults, alongside children’s cookery experiences as part of Truro School’s extensive holiday activity programme. Income generated through these activities helps support the school’s wider educational mission.
The venue is also available for business hire, offering a central Cornwall location for food testing, product development, tastings, content creation, corporate hospitality and team-building events. Light-filled, contemporary and fully equipped to professional standards, Truro School Cookery provides a unique setting for brands, agencies and businesses working in the food and hospitality sector.
Find out more about Truro School Cookery and Truro School’s commercial venues on our VENUES page.
"I wish to say a massive thank you for the help and support we were given. Everyone looked after us splendidly and without a doubt a good time was had by all. The facilities were excellent and the evening a great success, please take a deal of the credit for that outcome."
"Thank you so much for your hospitality in providing such excellent facilities for the AOTOS Access Day. We were very happy with the arrangements. The caretakers and catering staff were so approachable and willing to help."
"Wow! So many achievements and things to be proud of. We are delighted to have sponsored." Feedback when seeing printed edition of Terraces Magazine.
"We couldn't have asked for a better first night. The staff, were absolutely on top of everything even to the point of sending us all messages on Instagram to see what our needs were. Brilliant. Great venue, well run, nice crowd!"