Talks, Workshops & Collaborations

WORK WITH ME

I’m a Sunday Times bestselling author, fermenter, gardener and educator. Most of my work sits somewhere between fermentation, flavour, agriculture and food culture, and I’m particularly interested in the places where those subjects overlap.Alongside writing books and publishing The Black Butter Club, I work with restaurants, food businesses, festivals, brands and other organisations on talks, workshops, professional training, product development and creative collaborations. My wider work also extends into heritage crops, seed sovereignty, and the relationships between food, microbes, agriculture and place.

Talks & Keynotes

I’m available for keynotes, talks, panels and conversations around fermentation, food culture, flavour, preservation, seasonality, agriculture, biodiversity and the wider systems that connect them.Previous appearances have included a keynote at Soil to Soul in Zurich, talks with the Mouldy Boiz at Farmacy, and panel discussions at the Hay Festival and Omved Gardens, for The Fermenters Guild.

My interests extend beyond fermentation itself into questions around how food is grown, cooked, and preserved. This includes my work with heritage crops and seed sovereignty, including growing endangered Welsh varieties and working alongside organisations such as Llafur Ni to help preserve and better understand the agricultural and genetic diversity held within them.

I’m particularly interested in conversations that move between disciplines - microbes, agriculture, ecology, culture, flavour and place - rather than treating food simply as a collection of techniques.

Workshops & Demonstrations

I teach public and private workshops ranging from introductory fermentation through to more specialised techniques.These have included hands-on fermentation workshops at Hampton Manor, alongside live demonstrations such as my fermentation demo at Abergavenny Food Festival.Workshops and demonstrations can be built around a particular technique, ingredient or theme, or developed specifically for an event, venue or audience.

"The man has a knack for making even the most ambitious projects seem entirely possible" – Yotam Ottolenghi

Brand & Online Collaborations

I occasionally work with companies and organisations whose work overlaps naturally with food, growing, craft, cooking or the natural world.Previous collaborations have included projects with Columbia and Fortnum & Mason, alongside recipe development, filmed content, editorial work and other creative partnerships.I tend to favour collaborations where there is enough space to make something useful, interesting or genuinely enjoyable for the people who follow my work.

Product & Creative Collaborations

I also work selectively with brands and makers on longer-form creative projects and product collaborations.One example is the Taski × Sam Cooper Nakiri, a collaborative kitchen knife developed with Taski.I’m particularly interested in projects where there is an opportunity to genuinely contribute to the idea, design or development of something, rather than simply promote an existing product.

"Sam Cooper is the definitive voice of fermentation in the UK"
– Will Murray, Fallow

Professional Training & Product Development

I work with restaurants, chefs and food businesses on practical fermentation training, research and product development.This ranges from introducing a kitchen team to the fundamentals of fermentation through to more specialised work with kōji, miso, lacto-fermentation, vinegar, cultured dairy and other preservation techniques.I can also work alongside chefs and product teams to develop ferments around a particular ingredient, menu, product or production system - from initial experimentation and recipe development through to refining processes for consistency and practical use in a professional kitchen.Training and development can be designed around the experience of the team and the specific needs of the business.

Get in touch

If you’re looking for a speaker, planning a workshop or event, would like to develop a fermentation project, train a kitchen team, create a product together, or have an idea for a collaboration, I’d be very happy to hear from you.A media pack with further information about my work, audience and previous collaborations is available on request.Click the button below.