River Cottage Cooking Diploma: Next Level

The River Cottage Next Level Cooking Diploma takes your kitchen skills to new heights across 12 courses and 48 lessons. Led by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and the River Cottage team, it covers baking, charcuterie, pasta, fish, fermentation, wood-fired cookery, preserves, cheese-making and more.

Aimed at those with reasonable kitchen confidence, all courses are grounded in River Cottage's core principles of ethical, seasonal and local sourcing. Tutors include Gill Meller, Rachel de Thample, Andy Tyrell and Executive Head Chef Gelf Alderson.

Complete all 12 courses to earn a Certificate of Completion from Learning with Experts and River Cottage. Courses can also be purchased individually. Approved by the Independent Cookery Schools Association (ICSA).

River Cottage’s Next Level Cooking Diploma expands your culinary horizons and takes your kitchen skills to new heights. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and the River Cottage team share their incredible knowledge and passion to boost your confidence and ability in baking, charcuterie, fish and veg skills, pasta making, wood-fired cookery, preserves, fermentation and much more besides.

This 12 course, 48 lesson Next Level diploma is a complete cookery course aimed at those who already have reasonable kitchen confidence or have completed some or all of the courses in the original River Cottage Cooking Diploma.

You’ll explore and acquire an amazing range of skills, recipes and knowledge, all grounded in the River Cottage core principles of ethical, seasonal and local sourcing, and cooking with optimal health in mind.

Hugh introduces all the courses and tutors and his own Next Level Much More Veg course is aimed at helping you create amazing plant based dishes worthy of formal entertaining and professional menus.

This is the level of aspiration for most of the courses, along with a few that will give you a thorough grounding in subjects not covered in the original diploma, for example the basics of making cheese at home, learning a range of fantastic home-made paste recipes, and optimising your gut health through embracing variety in your sourcing and cooking.

River Cottage’s chef-tutors are nationally recognised experts in their fields, and include award winning writer and outdoor cookery expert Gill Meller, best-selling fermentation author Rachel de Thample, long-standing River Cottage bread and baking guru Andy Tyrell, and of course River Cottages Executive Head chef and Lead Tutor, Gelf Alderson.

As well as teaching his Next Level Much More Veg course, Hugh has teamed up with Gelf to create a ground-breaking Ethical Meat Course, expounding River Cottage’s ethical and sustainable meat sourcing policy and demonstrating “nose to tail” recipes that show ultimate respect for this most precious ingredient.

Each River Cottage course in the diploma can be bought separately, or you can enrol for the full 12 courses to complete the River Cottage next level Diploma.

You will be issued a Certificate of Completion by Learning with Experts and River Cottage on finishing the 12 courses.

This course has been approved by the Independent Cookery Schools Association (ICSA), recognising the highest standards of training.