Meet the team
Share our passion for food
Immerse yourself in the world of cooking with a team that knows and loves good food – and has a passion for putting tasty dishes on the plate.
Get to know the team.
From baking to fine dining and private catering, our team is knowledgeable about food and has experience cooking in a broad range of settings.
Please click on the links below to find out a little more about the chefs who will be teaching you to cook, and get an insight into who Lizzie Marsh is and her background.
Lizzie Marsh
Managing Director
Lizzie Marsh
One day a ‘lightbulb’ moment propelled Lizzie into the world of cooking. She worked in the property business for 10 years and soon took stock of where she wanted to be in the future. From an early age, she has had a love for food especially baking and so in 2018, she took a break from the world of property and started a blog.As well as baking, another massive passion is running, and she is regularly seen in the Surrey Hills with her running club. She lives in Godalming and managed the cookery school for nearly a year prior to taking over the business in March 2020. Lizzie loves to grow her own vegetables, coming up with recipes using leftovers (nothing goes to waste in her house) and visiting her friends and family.
David Frear
Chef
David Frear
David is a classically trained chef with six years’ experience. He studied and graduated from Tante Marie whilst working as a commis chef in the academy and the restaurant. Once graduated, he became a senior CDP pastry chef in the Tante Marie restaurant. During those years, he learnt basic cooking and eventually how to make extremely advanced and beautiful dishes which he could only ever have dreamed of making before.After this, he realised he wanted more than to work in restaurants and became a patissier at Le Papillon Patisserie, working as a senior member of the kitchen. Here, he became infatuated with chocolate and the creativity that comes with it.
David’s chocolate journey has led him to some amazing experiences and connected him with so many unbelievable chefs all around the world. He has demonstrated and helped run classes internationally (including flying to the US to demonstrate to culinary students) as well as private teaching closer to home.
He has always tried to have a big online presence, whether it is through Instagram or making radio appearances on the BBC. Now, David is dedicating himself to teaching and helping people to develop their skills in food – something that gives him great pride.
- First Aid Trained
DBS Checked
Jake Pinn
Chef
Jake Pinn
Jake has been with the cookery school for a number of years and he is passionate about creating inventive and tasty plates of food. His career in cooking began when he was 19 and since then, he has enjoyed working in a broad range of settings – from bistros, fine-dining restaurants and high-end hotels to private catering and luxury yachts.Now settled in Surrey with a young family, he enjoys coming to work and sharing his experience and knowledge with people who have a similar passion for food. Outside of work, he likes to experiment in the kitchen while cooking for his wife and three young children as well as hosting supper clubs.
- First Aid Trained
DBS Checked
Fiona Giles
Guest Chef
Fiona Giles
Fiona can’t remember a time when she didn’t love cooking, but she didn’t start her career in the food industry. She was a corporate solicitor in the city for a number of years before deciding to leave in 2010 and pursue her passion for food, training as a chef at Leiths School of Food and Wine. Fiona graduated from the Leiths professional diploma with distinction in 2011 and has been cooking and teaching cookery ever since. She has taught at Leiths for over five years and began teaching at Abinger in the summer of 2019.
Fiona also works as a private chef and has enjoyed cooking for families in the South of France and Greece as well as closer to home. She regularly tests recipes and assists on shoots for food magazines and cookery books.
She loves to travel and explore new places (especially trying out the local food) and has done cookery courses in Turkey, Spain, the USA, Vietnam and Thailand. At home, she is often found in the garden growing vegetables and devising new recipes.
Stefano Imperiale
Guest Chef
Stefano Imperiale
Born in Italy, my passion and interest in regional Italian cookery began at a very early age. Surrounded by the aromas coming from my parents Trattoria I couldn’t wait to get into the kitchen and start experimenting myself. It was here that my passion to make cooking fun and my interest in making Italian cookery available and accessible to all was born.
I have worked in several renowned London restaurants, serving traditional and modern Italian dishes to top celebrities from around the world. I have also worked for many years developing award winning Italian food products including fresh filled pasta, sauces and soups for major retailers both in England and abroad. More recently I have been using my skills to teach traditional Italian cuisine to adults and children at both corporate and private events.
Hari Ghotra
Guest Chef
Hari Ghotra
I’ve always loved Indian food, cooking and creating spicy dishes. So I started running my own cookery classes, which grew and grew to the point where I started organising supper clubs and even pop-up restaurants.
Just so you know, I’m mad about spices and in my search for inspiration, I flew back and forth to India to breathe in the aromas and flavours and textures of authentic Indian food. I talked to friends and family about the meals they cooked, explored the local markets and visited the odd restaurant too. I brought home loads of new ingredients, interesting recipes and amazing herbs and spices to make even more delicious dishes for everyone.
I started to work at The Tamarind Collection of Restaurants which includes Tamarind of Mayfair – one of the first Indian restaurants (ever) to be awarded a Michelin star! But I needed to share my learnings and dishes with you in a bigger, faster, more flexible and interactive way and that’s when my website was born. Now instead of you coming to me to learn, I come to you through every digital platform from YouTube to Facebook to Google Hangouts.