Te Pahi

Gather friends, work colleagues or a family group. Book a private class and see how great food need not be complicated or time consuming or cost a fortune. 

Learn. Eat. Enjoy.

Dishes and dates can be tailored to suit.

Cooking classes always utilise seasonal produce from Te Pahi’s extensive garden and orchard. During summer months, we’ll often focus on outdoor cookery. Any time of year, we can use the purpose-built woodfired oven.

Welcome to Te Pahi. My cook school, home and garden on the rural outskirts of Tauranga shares its name with the family farm where I grew up. It’s the realisation of a long-held dream to prepare and share wonderful food on my own land. It embodies the place where I watched my father garden to grow nourishing food for mum to cook her wonderful meals. That’s where we ran, chased, played, caught eels in the creek and had the freedom to explore and be kids. It’s the place mum patched us up, cleaned and fed and cared for us.

I am a passionate and highly qualified professional chef, a chef trainer and consultant with decades of experience at every level of the industry. I’ve worked in grand international kitchens and taught cooking to everyone from young mums to large crowds. However, my culinary journey begins and ends on the stove at home. Starting with my mother’s wholesome cooking and ending here, in my purpose-built home kitchen (with a few fancy commercial tweaks).