ABOUT COOKING ON THE BAY
Tonya Jennings is passionate about food and cooking.
Participants in classes have commented on how Tonya generously and enthusiastically enjoys sharing her knowledge, experience and ideas. There are interesting foodie hints, tips and musings both during the sessions and whilst sharing the delicious lunch that is taken ‘at the table’, overlooking the views of the bay and beyond.
Tonya’s vibrant and engaging personality will encourage you to want to share ‘the pleasure of the table’ experienced in the morning’s classes with your friends and family. You will be inspired to race home and repeat the dishes you have learnt in the day’s class. Tonya is Melbourne trained at Holmesglen, in Paris at Le Cordon Bleu and the Ritz Escoffier and in Burgundy at La Varenne l’Ecole de Cuisine. She has also visited regional cooking schools in the Dordogne, Normandy and in Tuscany, Italy.
Before training as a chef, Tonya was a librarian, information manager, library trainer and library consultant. Cooking on the Bay boasts an extensive library collection of over 3000 cookbooks and books related to food and France.
Tonya’s love of cooking and entertaining is at the very heart of her success.
ABOUT COOKING ON THE BAY
“Good cooking is the source of true happiness” Auguste Escoffier.
Cooking on the Bay invites you to come and enjoy our hands-on cooking classes whilst experiencing the lifestyle and the beauty of the wonderful Port Phillip Bay. Come and ‘Create Cook Celebrate’ glorious food with us! Enjoy a cooking day ‘at the beach’ in St Kilda, followed by a leisurely lunch or dinner, overlooking the picturesque bay.
‘At Cooking on the Bay, we create, cook and celebrate good food to make sitting around the table and dining, a pleasurable, delectable food taste sensation for both family and friends’.
Tonya’s gastronomic philosophy is to cook fresh, local food in season, to cook for taste and to cook food simply, thereby enhancing the natural food flavours, so the food looks and tastes delicious. ‘Fresh, local, in season’ gives real food, real flavour’.
Our cuisine is modern Australian, taking the best ideas, using the freshest, local produce, combining the cooking principles, techniques and inspirations gained from many cooking traditions and cultures, and forming it into what we like to eat today.
At Cooking on the Bay, you are encouraged to develop a passion for cooking healthy, tasty, delicious and scrumptious food. You will learn to create and develop a style that is natural and true for your own tastes.
Create, cook and celebrate – watch, participate, touch, chop, smell, taste and enjoy.
Cooking on the Bay teaches the principles and techniques of cooking, enabling you to then transfer that knowledge, adapt and vary it to many other cooking applications and recipes.
Cooking can be easy, when you know how to do it! Learning to cook well, will give you confidence and presence in the kitchen and at the table. It will save you time and money, improve your health and reduce dinner time stress.
As we are all going to eat three times a day for the rest of our lives, it is important to learn about food and cooking, discover your culinary skills and enjoy your cooking experience. Cooking on the Bay Cooking School provides inspirational ideas and menus for delicious, scrumptious entertaining and dinner parties. This also helps you create tasty, easy, healthy midweek meals and nourishing family weekend breakfasts, lunches and dinners.
Delivering skills in practical preparation, ‘mise en place’, cooking and presentation, we offer shortcuts that should save you time. With a focus on kitchen safety, we demonstrate knife handling and sharpening techniques, whilst also having some fun with table settings and dining etiquette.
Your experience at Cooking on the Bay, will delight your senses and encourage you to share good food and goodwill with those you love and those who are close to you.
