About High Grange
Family-run fire cooking and feasting in the Devon hills
High Grange is an award-winning barbecue cooking school, catering business, and feast venue. We run Fire Schools for real barbecue learning, feast nights and fire suppers in our woodland kitchen, private catering for families and businesses, wedding catering across the South West.
We’re a family-run business in the rolling hills of East Devon, run by Sara and her husband Luke – a chef and wine merchant with over 20 years of cooking and teaching experience. We live here, we work here, and everything we do is shaped by this place.
Our Story
A Clapham date, a dodgy bar and a leap of faith
We met online in 2010 and spent our first date in a questionable bar called B@1 in Clapham Junction. Fast forward a decade or so, and we’ve added three kids, a sociopathic cat, two Labrador chaos agents, seven ducks, nine chickens, and a corn snake. Plus the house, the woodland, and the whole mad, beautiful High Grange life.
After five years of talking about it, we finally sold our tiny terrace in South West London in 2019 and moved to East Devon. It was a leap of faith – leaving behind the familiar for three acres of woodland in the Blackdown Hills. But it’s worked.
“It’s been a leap of faith to leave the familiar life we had in London for a life unknown in East Devon – but we’ve been really excited to see where it’s taken us.”
Meet Sara
Lawyer, organiser, yoga nut and part-time chicken wrangler
Sara is the organisational brains behind High Grange. With 20 years as a lawyer under her belt – including time at Channel 4 on shows like 24 Hours in Police Custody and Naked Attraction – she now works freelance from home, advising on TV, film, podcasts and books.
She heads up our back-of-house and sustainability programme, runs our wellbeing offer, and is training as a Level 3 counsellor. Originally from Scotland, she’s now a full Devon hippy at heart, happiest with muddy boots, her yoga mat, or mid-sea swim.
Meet Luke
Chef, fire cook, food writer, chaos enthusiast
Luke has been a chef and food writer for over 20 years. He’s run the Borough Market Demo Kitchen, taught at the London Barbecue School, and cooked for weddings, private dinners and corporate events. He also founded Brompton Food Market and The Hour Glass in Kensington, both still going strong.
He’s full of ideas – some great (moving to Devon), some questionable (wild swimming in winter, getting the dog). He’s the heart of the High Grange Fire School and writes regularly about food and fire.
“Luke is more ‘relaxed’ on the organisational front…”
Meet the High Grange team
We’re incredibly lucky to have an amazing team at High Grange.
Luke Vandore-Mackay - Owner
Until very recently Luke has planned, shopped for and cooked every plate of food that HG has ever served and taught every single class. Now that he has a brilliant team around him it is his mission to make HG an even better business. He’ll still be cooking over fire though, at every opportunity.
Meg Robinson - Operations Manager
Meg is the oil that keeps the HG machine running. Ferociously organised and fond of a spreadsheet she keeps Luke in order and ensures that every customer experience at HG or on an outside event, is perfect.
Known to local schools as ‘Forest School Meg’, when she’s not at HG she’s teaching the next generation of fire starters how to have fun in the woods!
Chiara Tomasoni - Head of Feasting
The newest addition to the HG family, we feel really blessed to have Chiara on board. Italian by birth but with East Devon very much in her heart, you might recognise her as one of the finalists on Masterchef The Professionals 2024. She will be leading the feasting side of the business and helping out with her own fire school courses too.
The rest of the gang
Kids, dogs, ducks, snake – and a very angry cat
Murdo is 11 and barely speaks to us. Sula is 8 and prefers shouting. Skye is 6, climbs trees and thinks farts are hilarious. Ruby the cat hates everyone. Ghillie and Murron (the Labradors) are systematically dismantling the house. And somewhere in there are nine chickens, seven ducks, and a corn snake.
This is home. And it’s where we cook, grow, teach, share, write, and welcome people from all over the country to eat something good in the woods.
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Recent press & awards
Some lovely things people have said about us
- Best Fine Dining Restaurant in Devon – Food Drink Devon
- Best Training School – Food Drink Devon
- Bronze for Best Experience – South West Tourism Awards
- One of the Top 5 BBQ Schools in the South West
- Featured in The Telegraph – on moving to Devon and building High Grange
Producers & suppliers
The growers, butchers and makers who make our food what it is
We rely on brilliant local suppliers to make our menus sing. They include:
- Lyme Bay Fishermen – day boat fished landed just down the road
- Pipers Farm – grass-fed meat and ethical farming in Devon
- Exeter Cheese Co. – local cheese from proper cheesemongers
- The Real Cure – award-winning British charcuterie
- Local growers – organic veg, flowers and fruit from nearby farms
- Otter Brewery & Heron Valley – brilliant local drinks
Our goal has always been to cook what grows and grazes here – and to support the people who raise, grow and catch it.
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