The provenance of food served in restaurants has been big news in the last decade – any decent menu will show off its sourcing. Hotel restaurants, in particular, have made an effort to support more of the food and drink producers local to them.
These restaurants often make a great place to get a taste of the food scene in any given area. Some hotels go the extra mile when it comes to giving their guests access to outstanding food and drink.
Experiences to look out for in UK hotels range from guided foraging trips that explore the local countryside to exclusive chef’s table experiences where guests can watch the country’s best culinary masterminds at work. There are also tastings galore – from wine to whisky and gin – and workshops that help guests improve their own skills in the kitchen.
Here are 11 of the best workshop, tasting and cooking experiences offered at British hotels.
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Vineyard tours and tastings
Lympstone Manor, Devon
Offering quite possibly the most luxurious vineyard stay in the UK, Michael Caine’s Lympstone Manor offers food and wine with a sense of place. Just outside the restaurant door, the hotel has its own vines, stretching down to the Exe estuary. Planted in 2018, these grapes can produce an entire flight of excellent wines. From the rich cuvee, with hints of baked apple and brioche, to a dessert wine and a gin to finish, guests start with canapes, then dine at Caine’s Michelin-star restaurant knowing that every drop drunk comes from the hotel’s own vineyard. The restaurant’s meticulous dishes use many locally sourced ingredients, such as beef from nearby Dart Farm. Luxury shepherd’s huts lie just beyond the vines and the hotel is easily reached by train from London.
Doubles from £277, vineyard tours from £45, dinner paired with wine flight £370; lympstonemanor.co.uk
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Butchery courses
The Newt, Somerset
Learn how to French trim a set of fore ribs from The Newt’s British White Cattle, one of Britain’s oldest breeds. The luxury hotel has a light-filled, architect-designed oak and glass building for its butchery courses, which are hugely informative and put a focus on using every part of the animal. Each guest has their own butchery table and set of quality knives. You’re given advice as you tuck and trim, while the friendly head butcher fields any question you might have – from where different cuts get their name from to how long to cook your Sunday joint.
Doubles from £625, butchery £275, around twice monthly, including lunch and meat to take home; thenewtinsomerset.com
Hedgerow foraging
The Angel, Abergavenny
The verges, hedgerows and gardens of Wales teem with wild and wonderful produce from March-October, which is when guests at The Angel can explore the Abergavenny area with a foraging guide. Abergavenny itself is a bustling market town and a bona fide foodie hotspot, with bakeries and delis galore. Adele Nozedar, the author of Foraging with Kids, will introduce hotel guests to cleavers, pennywort and milkmaids – aka lady’s smock – among other plants in this part of the Brecon Beacons.
Doubles from £365 a room, including foraging for two; angelabergavenny.com
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Chefs at work
Aulis Cartmel, Cumbria
If you enjoyed watching chefs plate up with tweezer-gripping precision on Netflix’s The Bear, pull up a seat at Aulis. Six diners can sit “backstage” to watch chef Simon Rogan at work at his three Michelin-starred restaurant L’Enclume, in Cartmel on the edge of the Lake District. The experience is available over lunch or dinner and it’s a great way to learn about the skill and development that goes into every dish. When not open to diners, the space is a lab for testing new culinary creations. L’Enclume’s rooms are dotted about the riverside village of Cartmel.
Doubles from £280 a night, experience from £250; aulis.co.uk
Mackerel fishing and feasting
Glebe House, Devon
Take a small fishing boat out from the beach at Beer, between May and August, and try your hand at mackerel fishing. It’s easier than you might think in the healthy waters of Lyme Bay. This is a private, expert-guided trip that’s subject to weather conditions, so expect a fair bit of bobbing about. The fresher the mackerel, the better it tastes when grilled. After the fishing, a table is laid out on the beach for aperitivos and a twilight dinner, featuring your catch.
Doubles from £153 a night, fishing and dinner £130; glebehousedevon.co.uk
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Whisky pairings and farmhouse cooking
The Fife Arms, Braemar, Scotland
Budding cooks can enjoy a drive through dramatic Highland scenery to Glenlivet and the farmhouse kitchen of chef and food writer Ghillie Basan. There you’ll cook dishes like jerked venison with rowan jelly and flash-fried scallops. There’ll be a range of whiskies to sample also, including a Glenlivet (naturally), a Braeval and a Benriach. During autumn and winter, guests at the hotel can also try the seasonal fondue hut, bringing Swiss traditions to Scotland.
Doubles from £434, pairing experience from £250; thefifearms.com
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Cookery school
Northcote, Langho, Lancashire
The Northcote is a contemporary, 26-room hotel in the sweeping Ribble Valley that specialises in gourmet experiences. Its Cookery School offers a calendar of kitchen-based courses for everyone from novices to experienced cooks. Classes might cover seafood and dinner party fare, meat grilling, patisserie skills and bread making. For special occasions, the Chef’s Table, from Lisa Goodwin-Allen, places diners close to the action in her Michelin-star kitchen, where guests can witness the theatre of Northcote’s dishes being created.
Doubles from £240 a night, day’s course from £235; northcote.com
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Foraged cocktails
Heckfield Place, Hampshire
Gin lovers can craft their own concoctions from foraged botanicals at this refined manor house hotel. During the experience (available April-September), guests will be taken on a guided walk into the woods to gather fresh ingredients and pick and learn about seasonal plants, herbs and flowers. The group will then gather in The Glass House to try different gins while learning to taste individual ingredients. The secrets of the distilling processes will also be revealed while guests create their own gin, infusing it with what they’ve collected.
Doubles from £600 a night, cocktail foraging £150; heckfieldplace.com
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Afternoon tea and pasta-making
The Langham, London
The Langham claims it was the world’s first hotel to serve afternoon tea, back in 1865. This Grand Dame in the West End now offers a tea inspired by the Victorians who first enjoyed dainty sandwiches and cute pastries in its elegant rooms. London has lots of fabulous teas to try but this one is designed by Michel Roux Jr, in partnership with executive pastry chef Andrew Gravett. Single garden British tea brand, JING, is delivered to guests sat on pearlescent, button-back chairs in the hotel’s Palm Court. The hotel also has a cooking school, Sauce, which runs pasta-making courses, as well as puddings and steak cooking sessions, plus day-long cookery masterclasses with Michel Roux Jr.
Doubles from £494 a night, champagne afternoon tea £115; langhamhotels.com
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Mushroom hunt
The Montagu Arms, Hampshire
In the New Forest village of Beaulieu, guests at the 33-bedroom Montagu Arms can join the Wild New Forest company to learn about mushrooms and fungi. An illustrated talk is followed by a guided nature walk through the woods in Culverley. The guide will point out the different species of mushrooms growing in the national park. A two-night break, including these activities, ends with dinner at The Terrace restaurant, feasting on dishes made with ingredients from the hotel’s kitchen garden.
Wild New Forest Break from £538 a room, based on two sharing and including breakfast; montaguarmshotel.co.uk
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Picnic in Hyde Park
Royal Lancaster, London
A traditional picnic hamper is stuffed with specially-curated goodies for guests to take across to Hyde Park, which the hotel’s floor-to-ceiling windows look onto. The spread includes all the elements of an afternoon tea, including finger sandwiches, a bottle of Bollinger champagne and a Bakewell tart. Guests can also hire bicycles from the hotel for a leisurely wheel around the Serpentine and back.
Double room and picnic hamper from £474; royallancaster.com
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