Autumn has been so kind to us again this year here in Melbourne.  With clear blue skies, warm sunshine, golden leaves and colourful, glorious sunsets, which are often the best in Autumn and Spring. 
Autumn is perfect weather to get back into the kitchen, goodbye to the barbeques for a while.  We have new seasons mushrooms, delicious crisp and crunchy apples and those wonderful, old yellow quinces which have fruited so well this year with many back garden trees laden!

My stock pots are bubbling away with various stocks ready for soups, ragus, pies, curries and risottos.  The basis of all these dishes is a great stock.  The next Masterclass in Stocks, Sauces and Soups is Saturday 1st July.  Come and learn how to make these basics and the flavours in your dishes will be transformed!

Autumn sees the gradual return of the comfort foods prior to the blistering coldness of our winter; you need some good stocks for them to taste great!

Very exciting news - we are trying out these four hour half day and evening cooking classes to see how you like them!

These classes will be offered on a Sunday from 1pm – 5pm with some Sunday mornings as well. 

Week-day evenings from 6pm – 10pm. There will be lots of hands-on cooking and a dining finale with wine, of course.

Within each of these four-hour classes there are specialised topics.The French Bistro Classics Program will start with classes on Desserts, and then Charcuterie

At Our Italian Table will start with  Risotto and Arancini - more topics will be added as we go along.

As usual, all menus which will change with the seasonal produce available.

French Bistro Classics – Desserts on Sunday June 24th at the new Sunday time of 1pm – 5pm.  The menu will include dishes such as Oeufs à la neige - Snow Eggs or Île Flottante – Floating Islands, lemon and meringue tarts, vanilla bean and passionfruit bavarois, crème brûlée, chocolate délice mousse cake, soufflés, classic crème caramel, tart tatin, savarin, rum baba, passionfruit roulade….and so the list goes on…we will also include the occasional petit fours such as madeleines and canelés. There will be some tastings to take home, for sure!

French Bistro Classics – Charcuterie I on Wednesday 27th June 6pm – 10pm.  The menu for Charcuterie I will include duck rillettes, salt cod brandade and a French country terrine, served with cornichons, baguettes and our tomato relish, and of course dining with wine! There will be some tastings to take home, for sure!

At Our Italian Table - Risotto and Arancini on Sunday 17th June at the new Sunday time of 1pm – 5pm.  Making the best seasonal risotto, with our Masterclass stock, arancini and an unusal arancini ‘cake’.

These classes are advertised on the Cooking on the Bay website, and will be promoted also on Facebook ; Instagram @cooking_on_the_bay and in this Seasonal Newsletter.

Until these new classes are completed and loaded into the website, please email me with your bookings and any queries.  tonya@cookingonthebay.com.au

The class fee is $145 per person; everything needed for the class is provided and, as always, includes the comprehensive recipe booklet.

I look forward to seeing your familiar faces in class again soon.

The Cooking Class Program for the remainder of 2018 is at the ned of this newsletter.

It has been an action-packed time for us at the Cooking School. planning new exciting classes with wonderful dishes on the menus. 

The Moroccan and Spanish classes have been avaialble since the beginning of the year and have been enjoyed by many now.  You will find all details on the website so click on these links to discover all:

• Moroccan Exotic Spices and Flavours of the Medina 
• Spanish Cuisine – Camino Inspirations

When I reflect on the cooking classes here at Cooking on the Bay, I think of all the lovely people who have passed through the doors, the interesting conversations we have had and the wonderful food we have cooked together, always with warmth, laughter and fun. 

I know people come to my classes to learn new skills and recipes, but I also get a lot out of the classes as well.  I meet such interesting people and inspiring people who also enrich my life in so many ways. 

After classes, I think how amazing it is that a group of people come together at the start of the day as strangers and by the end of the class, sitting at the table over lunch, interacting as friends. Everyone brings something special to the day and to the table.  You all know what I mean here and so thank you, as it gives me much pleasure. Cooking and dining draws people together in so many lovely ways

Mother’s Day is a good time for saying thank you to for all the nice things mothers do for us.  Giving a special something is a way we can show this appreciation. One of our cooking class Gift Vouchers is a great idea as it is a long-lasting gift which keeps on giving, each time one for the dishes is cooked again at home.  You may like to come with your mother as well! 

Cooking on the Bay Gift Vouchers may be purchased via the website and we will immediately email you back with the vouchers and with some information on the classes.

Cooking on the Bay - Chef's Knife.  This is a beautifully crafted Icel Zanger, 20 cm Chef’s knife, the same we have used in the cooking classes for 14 years!  They are available for sale at $95 as well as the quality Cooking on the Bay Aprons we wear in class, priced at $30.00.  Both are very practical and useful gifts!

Over the March long week-end we had a ‘special photography cooking class day’ with my friend and colleague, writer and photographer, Petra Frieser, who came down from the Sunshine Coast specially to photograph and video the event. With long standing, regular cooking class friends, we cooked an eclectic menu, so there was a variety of dishes to photograph and of course eat. 

It is difficult to focus on the photos when teaching, so it was great to have a professional to do this for us.  The purpose of the day was to video and photograph the group cooking great dishes for Facebook and Instagram and other marketing purposes!

Over the next few months you will see some of her photos on the website and in the newsletters.  A video or two have already been loaded onto the website and onto Instagram.  Here is a video ‘taster!’

Quarterly Book Club – our Autumn book is by Jacques Pépin, called “The Apprentice: My life in the Kitchen. The man Julia Child called ‘the best chef in America’.

As a former librarian and book-lover, I have an extensive cookbook library.  From time to time I have shared some of the titles I am reading with you.  Now I have decided to write a quarterly review of my recent reads.  It will be either a cookbook, biography, autobiography or a story by passionate cooks, gardeners and some travel thrown in along the way.  You may like to read some of these also!

Jacques Pépin, ‘The Apprentice: My life in the Kitchen.  Jacques is a French born, American chef who has had an amazingly successful career as a great chef, cooking school teacher, television personality cooking alongside Julia Child on cooking show, columnist and the author of twenty-one acclaimed cookbooks including his wonderful La Technique first published in 1976 as a hardcover, then as a huge paperback, and stayed in print for 22 years.  I treasure my hardback copy of this book and refer to it often. Illustrated with over 450 photos it shows the step-by-step procedures for more than 150 basic, classic cooking techniques.  His books are the result of his passion, dedication and hard work.

Jacques’ memoir is a captivating, amazing life story detailing his time in war-torn France when he was 6 and sent to live in the country for safety; he worked on the farm in exchange for food.  He started cooking with his mother in her restaurants from the age of 8 or so, on to an apprenticeship at 13, then to become chef to three French Presidents, chef of the famed Plaza Athénée in Paris and Le Pavillon in New York.  He arrived in America at 21 with little or no command of English.  He collected a large group of well-connected foodie friends, including Craig Claiborne, James Beard, and Julia Child, whose adventures redefined American food.

In this memoir, Jacques has also included some of his favourite recipes throughout the story, mostly simple, family favourites such as Moules Ravigote, Apple Tart, Split Pea Soup and a succulent Poached Chicken.

His food philosophy was to master classic French techniques.  As we know, and I teach in class, a technique mastered is the entrée to hundreds of meals.  One must understand the basics. From mastering the techniques, you can then develop your own intuition in the kitchen, to cook food simply allowing the food to be the hero, and to use the best quality, local and seasonal produce.  It is all about the food!  My philosophy is the same, as it is for many other chefs these days – to cook local, fresh, seasonal food – and is still the best and only way to go.

Let me know your thoughts! You can post your comments on the Facebook page and we will have a ‘conversation’ sharing your thoughts and comments.  And your reading suggestions as well.

Private classes available on request for groups of 6+

May – Saturday 5th - Mediterranean – A Touch of Spice

May – Thursday 10th - Italianicious – Cooking with Passion
May – Saturday 12th - Italianicious – Cooking with Passion

May – Thursday 17th - Taste of Melbourne – Modern Australian Cuisine
May – Saturday 19th - Taste of Melbourne – Modern Australian Cuisine

May – Thursday 24th – A French Odyssey – Journey through France
May – Saturday 26th – A French Odyssey – Journey through France

May – Thursday 31st - Moroccan Exotic Spices and Flavours of the Medina – 8.45am – 3.30pm

June – Saturday 2nd - Mediterranean – A Touch of Spice

June – Thursday 14th - Italianicious – Cooking with Passion
June – Saturday 16th - Italianicious – Cooking with Passion

June – Sunday 17th June At Our Italian Table - Risotto and Arancini at the new Sunday time of 1pm – 5pm. 

June – Thursday 21st - A French Odyssey – Journey through France
June – Saturday 23rd - A French Odyssey – Journey through France

June – Sunday 24th 1pm – 5pm - French Bistro Classics – Desserts at the new Sunday time of 1pm – 5pm. 

June – Wednesday 27th – French Bistro Classics – Charcuterie I – Terrines, Rillettes, Brandade 6pm – 10 pm

June – Thursday 28th - Mediterranean – A Touch of Spice
June – Saturday 30th - Mediterranean – A Touch of Spice

July – 1st Saturday - Mastery in the Kitchen – Stocks, sauces and soups

Barging and travelling in France

August – Thursday 9th - Italianicious – Cooking with Passion
August – Saturday 11th - Italianicious – Cooking with Passion

August – Thursday 16th - A French Odyssey – Journey through France
August – Saturday 18th - A French Odyssey – Journey through France

August – Thursday 23rd – Mediterranean – A Touch of Spice
August – Saturday 25th – Mediterranean – A Touch of Spice

August – Sunday 26th Spanish Cuisine – Camino Inspirations – 8.45am – 3.30pm

August – Thursday 30th - Mastery in the Kitchen – Stocks, sauces and soups

September – Saturday 1st - Italianicious – Cooking with Passion

September – Thursday 6th - A French Odyssey – Journey through France
September – Saturday 8th - A French Odyssey – Journey through France

September – Thursday 13th - Mediterranean – A Touch of Spice
September – Saturday 15th - Mediterranean – A Touch of Spice

September – Thursday 20th - Italianicious – Cooking with Passion
September – Saturday 22nd - Italianicious – Cooking with Passion

September – Thursday 27th - A French Odyssey – Journey through France
September – Sunday 30th - A French Odyssey – Journey through France

October – Thursday 4th - Mediterranean – A Touch of Spice
October –Saturday 6th - Mediterranean – A Touch of Spice

October – Thursday 11th - Taste of Melbourne – Modern Australian Cuisine
October – Saturday 13th - Taste of Melbourne – Modern Australian Cuisine

October – Thursday 18th - Italianicious – Cooking with Passion
October – Saturday 20th - Italianicious – Cooking with Passion

October – Sunday 21st- Mastery in the Kitchen – Stocks, sauces and soups

October – Thursday 25th - French Odyssey – Journey through France
October – Saturday 27th - French Odyssey – Journey through France

November – Thursday 15th - Mediterranean – A Touch of Spice
November – Saturday 17th - Mediterranean – A Touch of Spice

November – Thursday 22rd - Italianicious – Cooking with Passion
November – Saturday 24th - Italianicious – Cooking with Passion

November – Thursday 29th - Taste of Melbourne – Modern Australian Cuisine – Festive celebrations

December – Saturday 1st - Taste of Melbourne – Modern Australian Cuisine – Festive celebrations

December – Thursday 6th - French Odyssey – Journey through France
December – Saturday 8th - French Odyssey – Journey through France

December – Thursday 13th – Italianicious – Cooking with Passion
December – Thursday 20th - Taste of Melbourne – Festive celebrations

December – Saturday 22nd - A Taste of Melbourne – Festive celebrations

Sunday classes are added when the Saturday classes are fully booked

Private classes available on request for groups of 6+