High Grange Fire Schools
Learn the art of real outdoor barbecue cooking
Learn how to cook outdoors over wood and charcoal with Luke Vandore-Mackay, chef, teacher, food writer and founder of High Grange. Our award-winning Fire School offers an immersive day of fire, food and feasting in our private woods in the wild heartland of East Devon.
No stress, no showmanship, just a real experience in a unique location. You’ll prep ingredients, light your own fire pits, and cook on a huge range of grills and barbecues – from Kamado Joes to open hearths. For beginners or barbecue obsessives, you’ll learn new skills, eat brilliant food, and laugh a lot!
Spend a day at Signature Fire School
Our flagship course in fire cookery
The original and still our most popular course. Signature Fire School Day covers a huge range of skills, techniques and ingredients – from butchery and shellfish prep to temperature control, smoking, and cooking direct on coals.
The day starts with coffee and breakfast and ends with a communal feast. In between, you’ll learn how to cook over live fire using the best produce from East Devon and the Lyme Bay coast. It’s hands-on but never high-pressure – and you’ll leave with new skills, new friends, and a very full stomach.
Learn the art of Kamado cooking
Master ceramic grill techniques with Luke
Kamado-style barbecues have become hugely popular in recent years – but most owners never learn how to get the best from them. This one-day course focuses entirely on ceramic cooking. Luke draws on years of experience with Kamado Joe and Big Green Egg to help you master low-and-slow smoking, grilling, rotisserie cooking, temperature control, and more.
Perhaps you’ve got a Kamado at home or are thinking about buying one, you’ll leave confident, informed and inspired to cook with it properly.
Asado cooking, the Argentinian way
Whole-lamb fire cookery in the Devon hills
The Asado Fire School is for those who want to take it slow. You’ll spend the day tending a whole lamb on a cross over an open fire, learning the balance of patience, smoke and flame that this ancient style of cooking demands.
You’ll prepare sides and snacks as the lamb roasts. You’ll eat as you go. And you’ll end the day with a proper firelit feast at our long table, looking out across the Blackdown Hills as the sun sets. What more could you ask for?
Masters of Fire
Our Signature Fire School on steroids…
A similar structure to our original Fire School day but using completely different ingredients, techniques, butchery and fire making skills.
The day will be a fun and an immersive experience with participants encouraged to get stuck in. There will be plenty to eat throughout the day and it will culminate in a feast sitting at our communal oak table.
Masters of Fire is best suited to those with some outdoor cooking experience who want a deeper dive into all things BBQ.
Seasonal & Special Events
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A similar structure to our original Fire School day but using completely different ingredients, techniques, butchery and fire making skills.
The day will be a fun and an immersive experience with participants encouraged to get stuck in. There will be plenty to eat throughout the day and it will culminate in a feast sitting at our communal oak table.
Masters of Fire is best suited to those with some outdoor cooking experience who want a deeper dive into all things BBQ.
Award-winning Fire Schools
We are thrilled to have received multiple awards for our Fire School! We have been awarded Best Training School and a Gold Award from Devon Food & Drink, and we won a Bronze Award at the South West Tourism Awards.
ICSA CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE
We are an Accredited ICSA Cookery School by our inspectors, achieving our highest award of ‘Centre of Excellence’ for Outdoor cooking and fire experiences.
““The depth, knowledge of outdoor cooking shared by Luke is second-to-non. Luke’s experience with a wide range of outdoor cookery at all levels provides him and the students with impeccable knowledge and skills to adapt, and deliver an excellent range of cookery classes and outdoor experiences. Experience does not always guarantee to make a good teacher, however Luke’s ability to adapt and deliver clear concise instructions to his students, with excellent two way communications, was evident during our intensive assessment.””
– ICSA Inspector James Day
High Grange Gift Vouchers
Give the gift of fire to a loved one!
High Grange is run by Luke and Sara Vandore-Mackay, who swapped city life for three acres of woodland and built something personal, rooted and award-winning.
With a background in food, wine, law, writing and wellbeing, they’ve created a venue where fire cooking, feasting and rest all come together to create something truly memorable. Learn about their story, their team, their awards and what it’s like to hire High Grange for private events or shoots.
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