About Us

The School of Artisan Food is an award-winning charity, dedicated to enthusing and helping people from all walks of life to learn about healthy, sustainable and delicious food.

The School of Artisan Food was founded in 2009. Its founder had started a bakery in the courtyard that was to eventually house the school, but it proved very hard to find skilled bakers to make the long-fermentation bread that she was determined to sell. The school was thus created from a wish not to lose traditional artisan food skills, to teach a new generation of artisan food producers, to promote alternatives to highly processed food, and to think about all aspects of good food.

Whether you decide to enrol on our Advanced Diploma in Baking or FDSc in Artisan Food production, or you decide to participate in one of our many short courses, you’ll experience a warm welcome and be among friends.

The School is based on the beautiful Welbeck Estate in the heart of Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire. It is unique to the UK food industry; a hidden gem of specialist skills and knowledge, state-of-the-art facilities, and a heartfelt belief in the power of healthy, sustainable food.

We offer bursaries and subsidies to make artisan food accessible to as many people as possible; we work closely with local schools, colleges, voluntary organisations and social enterprises; we offer practical routes into employment in the artisan food sector; we preserve traditional methods of food production which might otherwise be lost.

Above all, at The School of Artisan Food we hope to change lives for the better – encouraging confidence, raising aspirations, and improving attitudes to delicious, sustainable food.