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AS SEEN IN
French
Cooking Holiday
Some things can only be learned by hand.
The Walnut Grove Cookery School is an immersive, small-group French cooking retreat set in a 19th-century farmhouse in the heart of western France.
Each week, six guests gather to cook the way French chefs have always cooked — with patience, with reason, and with complete attention to what is happening in the pan.
This is not a holiday with a cooking class attached. Every morning begins in the kitchen. Across the week you will cook daily alongside Chef Eric, learning the foundations of French cuisine — from knife skills and kitchen organisation to stocks, sauces, butchery, and pastry — always with an emphasis on why techniques work and how to apply them confidently at home.
You will leave with more than recipes. You will leave with clarity, confidence, and a deeper understanding of French cuisine.
Forty years of classical French cooking. Six guests. One week. No shortcuts.
More Than Cooking.
A Way of Discovering France.
From the farmhouse kitchen to the heart of France's most remarkable regions.
Join Chef Eric for hands-on cooking experiences at our countryside farmhouse, or journey further into France to discover its remarkable regions, local markets, celebrated tables and hidden gems. However you choose to explore, experience France through the pleasures of food and culture.
A Unique Experience
Before anything goes into the pan, it has to be chosen.
One morning, the group visits the local market together — a lesson in seasonality, in quality, in what French cooks have always known before they reach the kitchen.
You work at the stove alongside Chef Eric — some techniques demonstrated first, then yours to practice.
Classical French method, learned the way it was always meant to be: by doing it yourself.
The plate is the final decision.
You will learn to read a dish — its balance, its temperature, its honesty — and to present it with the precision of a professional kitchen.
Every evening, the kitchen becomes a table.
Guests gather over a glass of wine, sharing the day's work around the table.
A natural end to a full day.
The Copper Kitchen
Step into a kitchen where tradition meets craftsmanship.
Learn why generations of French chefs have trusted copper cookware for its exceptional heat control, precision, and durability.
Under Chef Eric's guidance, you'll discover that cooking with copper is surprisingly simple, rewarding, and a joy to master.
Alongside classic French techniques, you'll cook over our traditional wood-fired oven, experiencing the authentic methods that have shaped French country cuisine for centuries.
Chef Eric's passion for copper extends beyond the kitchen. Through French Copper he carefully curates beautifully restored vintage and antique copper cookware from the renowned artisans of Villedieu-les-Poêles—the historic home of French copper craftsmanship.
These timeless pieces combine beauty, heritage, and performance, inspiring every meal you create.
Your Journey
6 Guests Max
Personal instruction
Farmhouse Kitchen
Authentic rustic setting
Daily Cooking
In the kitchen every morning
Market Visit
Cook with local ingredients
Farm to Table
Walnut Grove is a working farm as much as it is a kitchen. Herbs come straight from the garden, eggs from our own chickens, and much of what lands in your dish has been growing a few steps from where you'll cook it. Guests are welcome to get involved — clip herbs, feed the goats, see how the hives are kept — before carrying it all back to the Copper Pot Kitchen, where wood-fired and gas stoves sit side by side and Chef Eric matches the pan to the process.
It's farm to table in the most literal sense: you'll know exactly where your ingredients came from, because you picked some of them yourself.
Meet
Chef Eric
Eric Duvin began his culinary training in France at fifteen.
What followed was forty years in professional kitchens —
classical French training, private chef service at Badminton House, seat of the Duke of Beaufort, and the German Ambassador's residence in London, and a career built entirely on technique, precision, and the belief that cooking is something worth understanding properly.
At The Walnut Grove, the kitchen begins in the garden. Herbs, vegetables, the rhythm of the season —
these are not decoration.
They are the starting point.
Eric teaches the way he learned — by doing, by explaining, and by insisting that every guest leaves with something real.
Bring the French Kitchen Home
The art of French cooking, taught by a chef with a lifetime of experience.
Discover the techniques, recipes and traditions of classical French cuisine through carefully guided online lessons with Chef Eric. Whether you're taking your first steps in the kitchen or looking to refine your skills, learn at your own pace and bring a little of the French culinary tradition into your everyday cooking.
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More than i ever could have expected! I was shocked and surprised at the technique we were shown. Hands on, thing that you can use to help in your culinary adventure. Touching on ingredients that are locally produced was a bonus. I have taken many culinary instructional course throughout the world. Chef Eric is patient and thoughtful. The advance course I participated in was worth every dollar. His home is beautiful along with being in the countryside. Loved every minute.
Sara P.
I spent five days in Chef Eric's kitchen with my three companions and had the best time ever. I learnt fabulous new cooking skills and, more importantly, learnt how to manage and create complex dishes. Chef Eric also took us to see the area around his cookery school and spent time explaining the beauty of the northern part of the Loire district.
I would happily spend another week there.
Bruno M.
Having always wanted to learn more about French cuisine from a French chef, Walnut Grove Cookery School did not disappoint. The range of food we prepared everyday and the hands on nature of the training has given me the confidence to try the recipes at home, to the delight of my family. Thank Eric, your team and Mac the dog for providing a wonderful experience that I will never forget.
Robyn P.
