Te Pahi

Simple. Satisfying. Sensational.
Experience the joy of preparing delicious food and eating well, without fuss.

Cooking Classes

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.

Find out more

WHAT IS TE PAHI?

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.

ABOUT ME

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).

Contact James

“We had a wicked time at James’ wood-fired cooking class!! We loved wandering around his garden, picking fresh produce, and learning the best ways to use a pizza oven and smoker. He shared many great tips on how to whip up delicious meals and we came away with lots of new recipes. James himself is an amazing guy and we 100% recommend booking a cooking class with Te Pahi!!”

Brydie and Joseph

“James is executive chef at Ridge Country Retreat where he cooks for international Guests, wedding groups for up to 120 persons, corporate clients (where he also takes cooking classes) and for health and wellbeing guests who have special food requirements. James is a team leader and has a wonderful way with people of all ages. He is passionate about food and that shows in his presentation”

Jo – Ridge Country Retreat, Tauranga NZ

Had a great day at Te Pahi covering seasonal summer salads. great class, informative, fun and well put together. Thanks James

Pete and June

A group of 8 of us attended Te Pahi as a social club event in April.

We all had a variety of cooking abilities ranging from very little, to a couple of real foodies.

The entire experience was planned extremely well, very informative, relaxed, interactive, and genuinely fun.

Our host is an absolute man of passion that is a master of his craft.

The afternoon we spent was thoroughly enjoyed and the meal and leftovers were too 😊

Deborah R.

I was gifted a voucher from my ex work colleagues at Waimakariri District Council for a cooking class with James Broad of Te Pahi. Some time had passed since receiving the voucher and James was really great about being able to use the voucher for an upcoming class. Being someone who dabbles a bit in cooking I was really looking forward to the class and I was not disappointed. The class covered a whole menu including gathering produce from James’s vast garden.

These ingredients were used in a variety of dishes with James guiding the class members in preparation of the produce and then encouraging us to each make part of the meal. I really like learning by doing and this was a great way to learn things about the various menu items. I am now pretty good at making flatbreads which was one of the items on our menu.

At the end of the class all class members sat together and ate the meal we had all helped create. I found the class really good with James being really knowledgeable and encouraging answering all manner of questions from the class members. I highly recommended these classes.

Kees Swanink