About this event
On Friday 20th November, join us at Jamie Oliver Cookery School, Oxford Street for a cooking class, everyone single.
Split across two vibrant classrooms on the third floor of John Lewis, the spaces have been designed with creativity, connection and memory-making in mind and form the perfect environment for meeting new people.
We’ve worked closely with their experts to pull together a menu exclusively for Haystack guests and designed a bespoke format that combines the opportunity to cook in curated pairs, followed by a group dinner party dynamic. All the fun of a dinner party, everyone single.
This month, we’re cooking a Sichuan sensation...
Get stuck into this superstar Sichuan sensation and learn the secrets behind powerful Kung Pao flavour. You’ll nail the stir-fry and discover how to balance sweet, heat and umami. Plus, there’s egg-fried rice and a smashed cucumber salad to tie it all together. Become a Kung Pao pro: Marinate and stir-fry chicken (or oyster mushrooms for vegetarians) to absolute perfection. Upgrade your egg-fried rice: Learn the secrets to proper, restaurant-level results. Super smashed cucumber salad: Turn a simple cucumber into something truly magnificent. Then take a seat at our chef’s table to tuck into your knock-out Kung Pao.
7pm - arrive to be greeted by your host for the evening and enjoy your first glass of fizz on us. Then grab yourself an apron and meet your cooking partner. We’ll be using our Haystack matching system to pair up single people with similar interests and we’ll be swapping partners halfway through the class.
After cooking, we’ll head out to the beautiful dining area to enjoy our creations and drinks will be available to pair with dinner.
10pm - the event closes, however for those eager to continue the evening there is of course the option to continue on for some drinks.
Your ticket includes:
- All ingredients, equipment and aprons
- Arrival glass of fizz
- Easy-to-follow demos, led by an expert Jamie Oliver trained teaching chef
- A sit down meal to enjoy your culinary delights around the chef’s table
- A digital recipe pack with everything you need to recreate the magic at home
See you at the chef’s table?
We’re a small business with a big mission - to make dating fun again. We feel really passionately about connecting fun, interesting people and put our heart and soul into every event we host.
We couldn’t feel more grateful for the absolutely lovely community we’ve built - feel free to read what some of our guests have had to say here.
If there's anything at all you want to see us do differently, please reach out; we read every email and we care a huge amount about you guys!
But for now, if you’re open to meeting some new people, we’d love for you to join us for a cooking class on Oxford Street!x
FAQs
Are dating events worth it?
We have worked very hard to create events for single people that don't feel like typical ‘dating events’, which we know can sometimes feel overwhelming. We hire great venues, invest in fun entertainment and bring compatible single people together in groups, so you can go on multiple low-pressure dates in one evening. There are always new dating apps popping up, but let's be honest - we can barely keep up with our family's WhatsApp chat, let alone another dating app. We're all about getting people off their phones and meeting in real life.
What are your dating events?
Our events use a combination of technology and human judgement to bring single people together. When you arrive, you'll be greeted by our lovely Haystack host/s, who'll help you settle in before introducing you to your matched groups. Depending on the event, you'll meet different groups of people throughout the evening. We host everything from relaxed drinks in beer gardens to arcade games, crazy golf and sporty activities. The whole idea is to make meeting new people feel as natural as having a drink with friends - with the added bonus that everyone happens to be single.
How do you match single people?
When you book, we'll ask you a few questions about yourself, your interests and your dating preferences. Behind the scenes, we use a combination of matching technology and our team's judgement to put together groups of people we think you'll get along with. Depending on the event, this might involve our own software, AI-assisted tools or manual matching. We consider things like age, dating preferences, shared interests and the overall balance of each group. The aim? To make meeting new people feel as natural and pressure-free as possible. Some sensitive matching information requires your separate consent, and you can find the details in our Privacy & Data Protection Notice.
We know making friends as an adult isn't exactly easy, so we now also optimise groups for friendship matches too!x
What should I wear?
We get this question a lot - our recommendation is something you'd wear to a first date in a gorgeous bar or an evenin