In France, cooking is a pleasure, the French cook because they want to eat and dine well and they love the cooking process.

Discover this pleasure by taking a culinary journey through France with classic dishes cooked in our small, relaxed, hands-on cooking classes. Cook with like-minded gastronomes!

French Cuisine has given us the classic technical foundations and methods of cookery that have inspired chefs and cooks over the ages.  Learn to cook some favourite French dishes that are so intrinsically French.

Dishes such as magret de canard, ocean trout rillettes and pork rillettes, la Bourride, fish soup, with sauce Rouille, blanquette de veau, coq au vin and regional favourites such as Burgundian gougères, Soupe au Pistou, pain d’épices, and pissaladière; Tarte aux poires Normande, clafoutis.  Desserts include crème brûlée, cherry clafoutis, meringue roulades, chocolate and crème pâtissière profiteroles and Tarte Tatins, apple, nectarine, plus savoury tomato and onion!

Included also are dishes of la cuisine nouvelle, the cuisine of today with more contemporary dishes. Enjoy the tastes, textures and aromas of simple and sophisticated French fare.

All classes are small, relaxed, friendly, and completely hands-on, giving you the opportunity of maximum learning opportunities.  You are welcomed with a tea, coffee, or cool drink plus a cake or biscuit baked in-house in the Cooking on the Bay kitchen.

After the morning’s cooking class, you then dine at the table ‘à la française’ and enjoy the delicious ‘fruits of your labour’ in the Cooking on the Bay dining room.  From a choux pastry hors d’oeuvre, followed by a multi-course lunch at the table, accompanied by wine, sometimes a bite of cheese, always one or two desserts, and a coffee.

After you have cooked your way through the menu I carefully prepared for you, you will be a transformed cook!

The menus change with the seasons and include the best local, seasonal, ‘nutri-rich’, healthy, real food in keeping with my Cook Real Food philosophy.

Note: Classes are available on any date of your choice for groups of 6+ – Please contact Tonya for availability

Classes $295 p/p

By the way, there is now a Partners and Friends Class Luncheon available, without the cooking class. This is available for guests of people attending the Cooking on the Bay cooking classes, and who do not want to cook!

Guest arrival time is around 12.30pm; we are usually finished then or nearly finished anyway. Your guest can relax with a glass of wine if we are still finishing off a dish or 2.

The cost for the lunch with wine is $145 per person. Email me to book and pay this Luncheon option.