Chewton Glen, The Kitchen: James Martin’s menu with prices, and the cookery classes

The Kitchen is, in its own page’s words, the more informal side of dining at Chewton Glen, and it stands apart from the house: the hotel’s Good to know page puts it 5 to 7 minutes on foot from the main house, and in July 2026 a guest noted a complimentary buggy ride as the other way there. The cookery school’s about page calls it the estate’s relaxed, lively place to eat, set beside the school and close to the Kitchen Garden, where herbs and vegetables are grown for the chefs. On James Martin’s own site the room is light and open-plan, so diners can watch the chefs and the class next door, and the terrace looks over the 130-acre estate. The menu is his, and the menu page opens with his note: «As a young chef, I started my culinary journey right here at Chewton Glen».

The menu on the hotel’s site carries no date and, read on 18 October 2026, still lists burrata with a summer tomato salad and a bowl of English strawberries; its prices are the ones that follow. Rosemary focaccia or a pot of olives and pickles is £6.50, salt and pepper squid £16.50, and James’ Classic Thai Crab Risotto £18 as a starter or £36 as a main. Mains go from fish and chips at £24, with mushy peas and curry sauce, through butter chicken curry at £34 and roasted cod at £35 to West Country lamb rump at £42 and the 10 oz dry-aged sirloin at £52, which costs £10 more when paid with the hotel’s Signature Selection voucher. Burgers are £26, or £28.50 for the Sloppy Giuseppe; the 4 wood-fired pizzas cost £18 to £20, sticky toffee pudding £12.50, and the cinnamon churros made for sharing £24.

Vegetarians have more than pizza on the current menu: it marks the Plant Power pizza, with vegan mozzarella, and the Moving Mountains burger as vegan, and 2 mains carry no meat or fish, a polenta-crusted aubergine at £35 and honey-roasted butternut squash at £28. A guest in October 2025 had found mostly pizza and one other vegetarian dish. The children’s menu, on a tab of the same page, starts with fish goujons at £7 and a mozzarella and garlic flatbread at £6, then a chargrilled chicken burger at £10, a cheese burger or fish and chips at £11, and homemade pasta, a Margherita or mac ’n’ cheese at £8; a knickerbocker glory, a brownie or ice cream is £6. For children staying in the hotel, the terms make breakfast and dinner from the children’s menu free under 5, and charge its prices from 6 to 12.

The cookery school is led by Chef Tutor Gerard Molloy, and its booking page sets the terms of a class: 12 cooks at most, each at a workstation of their own with Gaggenau induction hobs and Robert Welch knives, the team doing most of the washing-up, and what you do not eat boxed to take home. The calendar prices classes by their length. A Supper Club is 2 hours for £85 and cooks one dish: the Steak Night on 20 November 2026 at 6.30pm makes seared sirloin, peppercorn sauce and triple-cooked chips, eaten at the Chef’s Table with a craft beer or a glass of wine, and the Lunch Club at noon the same day cooks chicken madras, jeera rice and chapati. Half days are £140 for 3.5 or 4 hours, Greek meze on 20 October, a Korean kitchen on 29 October and a Mexican fiesta on 10 November among them; full days are £225 for 6 hours with a break to eat at midday, such as The Indian Kitchen on 26 November. Family & Friends classes, 3 hours for £85, take cooks from the age of 6 with a paying adult; Junior Chef, 2.5 hours for £85, is for 8 to 16-year-olds, whose parents sign them in and leave; every other class is for 16 and over.

James Martin teaches one class only, the one that bears his name, says the booking page; every other is taught by the resident Chef Tutor. Cook with James Martin costs £550 a person: refreshments on arrival, his demonstration, cooking with his help at your station, then the dishes at the Chef’s Table with a glass of wine, a recipe pack and an apron to keep. The next date is 2 November 2026, from 9.30am to 12pm and from 2pm to 4.30pm, and on 18 October both sessions showed 0 places and a waiting list. New dates are sent to the hotel’s newsletter as soon as they are released, and the cookery gift vouchers exclude celebrity chef classes. Those who got a place remember it: in January 2026 a guest called the class an experience to keep for life, and in September 2026 a couple who came for «The Kitchen Takeover by James Martin» wrote that «James himself had time for everyone».

Guests are split on the food. In April 2026 a guest found dinner pretty outstanding for the price, in March 2026 a guest called dinner at The Kitchen excellent, and in July 2026 a guest wrote that it outshone the more formal dinner in the house that evening. In January 2026 another had expected something a little more special, in December 2025 a guest rated it about average, and in January 2025 guests enjoyed the crispy squid and the crab risotto, too rich as a main for one of them, and thought it a little overpriced. The room is casual: a couple there on Valentine’s evening in 2022 found it canteen-like, with diners in vests, while a couple staying in a treehouse that September found the meal and the service just perfect, and great fun. The school draws warmer words. A guest on the outdoor class in May 2026 was one of 5 cooks, and guests in 2024 and 2025 praised the tutor, the teaching and the value.

Hartnett Holder & Co at Lime Wood, 1.5 miles from Lyndhurst in the New Forest, is the other chef-led hotel restaurant nearby: Italian cooking by Angela Hartnett and Luke Holder, lunch from 12pm to 2pm, until 2.30pm on Sundays, and dinner from 6pm to 9pm, with a weekday set lunch of 2 courses from £39.50.

THE PIG in the New Forest, at Brockenhurst, cooks a 25-mile menu from its kitchen garden and serves all day from 12pm to 9pm from Friday to Sunday; until 29 October 2026 its set lunch, Monday to Thursday, is 2 courses for £30.

For a hotel cookery school with a famous chef’s name, Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons in Oxfordshire has the Raymond Blanc Cookery School, closed until summer 2027 while the hotel is redeveloped.