Our Team

Rachel Demuth has been a professional vegetarian chef since the early 80s. She was a founder member of Neals’ Yard Bakery in Covent Garden, London and in 1984 opened Broad Street Bakery in Bath pioneering organic, vegetarian and vegan cooking. In 1987 Rachel opened Demuths restaurant, which she owned for 26 years and sold it in 2013 to her Head Chef Richard Buckley. In 2000 she started the Demuths Cookery School to teach people how to cook the ‘Demuths’ style of innovative vegetable dishes.  She was awarded Best Cookery Tutor in 2013.

Helen is Demuths head tutor and has led the teaching at the school for 8 years. She was Head Chef at Demuths restaurant, a post she filled for 5 years. She is a trained chef and has trained in classical French cooking and is now an expert in Vegan cookery training, also an expert in knife skills and chefs tips. She enjoys the creativity of plant-based and vegan cooking, lifting vegetables to the central position, they deserve in our diets.

Lydia is one of our lead tutors and specialises in World cooking.

Lydia comes from a food loving family and learnt to cook from an early age with her Chinese mother. She has spent all her working life involved with food.  Lydia is an excellent teacher, with a wealth of knowledge and creativity to impart alongside a warm personality. 

Jan is one of our lead tutors and has been teaching at Demuths Cookery School since it began in 2000. She also worked at Demuths Restaurant for many years. She specialises in World cookery and is an accomplished food stylist. 

Erin Baker is a lead tutor on our Diploma Courses and has been a professional plant-based chef and cookery tutor for over 15 years focusing on whole food, world flavours and seasonal ingredients.  Prior to living in the UK, Erin was co-owner of an award winning vegetarian restaurant in California. She currently resides in Stroud and runs the Natural Cookery School in Nailsworth. She is an avid fruit and vegetable gardener with a passion for edible flowers.

Lucie teaches our Fermentation and Vegan Cheese classes at Demuths.  She runs her own business the Bath Culture House where she creates artisan and handcrafted raw, vegan and gluten free food and drink. Her interest in the ancient art of fermentation began during a career as an award-winning cheese maker on the north Cornish coast. It became clear that honing this craft was her calling, Lucie now teaches the art of fermentation to others as a way to better health through simple, good quality ingredients and probiotic goodness.

Simi Rezai is an Iranian from the Azerbaijan region of Iran who lives in Bath.  She is an experienced cookery teacher and has a passion for exchanging food knowledge and particularly teaching about the authentic food of Iran.

"TJ Waterfall is a registered nutritionist specialising in vegan nutrition. He's the founder of meatfreefitness.co.uk where he provides trustworthy and unbiased information to help people get the most out of their vegan / vegetarian diets in order to reach their health and fitness goals. He also creates delicious vegan recipes, nutrition guides, fitness tips and lifestyle hacks to help people on their meat-free journey. Check him out on Instagram @tj_waterfall and Twitter @tjwaterfall

Christopher Robbins is a forager, medical herbalist, nutritionist and lover of wild plant food. He leads our foraging walks and enjoys organising bespoke foraging events.

Rob Wicks points cameras at food for a living. He’s a producer-director specialising in short food films and photographs. He worked for the BBC for 17 years and now runs his own food media business – Eat Pictures – producing mouth-watering films and photography in Bristol, UK. He's been creating photographs and short films of Demuth's recipes for about 7 years. Rob is passionate about storytelling. He combines the use of narrative with irresistible food images to attract and engage a wide audience. More information at www.eatpictures.com

Richard is founding chef and owner or Acorn Vegetarian Kitchen in Bath, winner of VIVA! awards best restaurant and Good Food Guide listed since the year it opened. 

Richard’s philosophy is that plants should be treated as the stars of the meal and should be cooked to the highest standards using a combination of classic technique, modern tricks and ancient traditions. 

Christopher Robbins is a forager, medical herbalist, nutritionist and lover of wild plant food. He leads our foraging walks and enjoys organising bespoke foraging events.