“Good cooking is the source of true happiness”
Auguste EscoffierOn_the_bay_symbol

Cooking on the Bay Cooking School Class Dates are all on the website. Book your class NOW!

COME – Learn to Cook with Tonya at Melbourne’s leading Cooking School,  Cooking on the Bay, in St Kilda, right on Port Phillip Bay.

In Tonya’s cooking classes, you learn to cook healthy, fresh, real, nutri-rich food, full of genuine and real flavour. These cooking classes teach you how to develop your cooking confidence ready for you to take those cooking skills learnt in class, into your kitchen at home.

You gain quality learning, from Tonya’s informative, experienced and professional teaching. Tonya demystifies and simplifies the cooking process for you. Her recipes are easy, clearly written and taste so good. Clients say that Tonya’s ‘expertise and patience with us all is amazing’.

You will enjoy and appreciate the welcoming, warm, hospitality received at Cooking on the Bay, where Tonya creates a friendly, relaxed environment. This makes it easy for you to learn; the socialising with others in the class also make the class so enjoyable.

Importantly, Tonya teaches you the fundamental methods and techniques of cookery to enable you to become an excellent cook, with renewed confidence in your own kitchen. Her enthusiasm excites and is contagious. Her cooking classes are ‘wonderful, fun, engaging’.

Book your class now

Become ‘a new you’ in your kitchen! Embrace the pleasure and joy of cooking; learn the cooking skills, for you to cook any dish, following the correct formula.
Tonya simplifies and demystifies the cooking process for you.

Cooking is relaxing, meditative, and a pleasurable way to end your busy. Take the time to enjoy this experience and bring joy to your family.

At Cooking on the Bay, you learn about flavour, textures, and balance, to give real food, real flavour. Discover your cookery awareness, develop your confidence in the kitchen; be introduced to easy, sensational cooking which you can reproduce in your kitchen at home. How exciting is that for you?

Enjoy a cooking day ‘at the beach’ in St Kilda, followed by a leisurely lunch or dinner, overlooking the picturesque bay, whilst enjoying the company of new-found cooking friends.

Do look at the Cook at Home with Tonya series of cooking videos on YouTube! During the forced closure of my Cooking on the Bay kitchen I loved cooking and connecting with you in my Cook at Home with Tonya series of YouTube videos.  They have been a huge success! I am so delighted you have enjoyed them and loved cooking some of these dishes.  I will continue to build this collection for you to enjoy at home.  All the recipes are in my Recipe collection, here on the website as well as on the YouTube channel.
I would really love you to subscribe to my YouTube channel. Once I have a 100 subscribers, YT gives me my channel name of Cooking on the Bay, which is a big deal! To subscribe click here>>>

Gift Vouchers are always available on the website to give to someone special.

‘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’.
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Tonya’s gastronomic philosophy is to cook fresh, local food in season, and to cook for flavour and for taste.  By cooking food simply and for the best nutritional value ensures a satisfying food experience, enhancing the natural food flavours, producing food that looks and tastes delicious.  Our cooking school produce is all fresh, local, and in-season.

Tonya teaches you the fundamental methods and techniques of cookery to make you an excellent cook in your own kitchen

At Cooking on the Bay, you learn how to cook.  And the result gives real food, real flavour.

Last year I launched this exciting new cooking program at Cooking on the Bay – the Cook Real Food Program!

In Cook Real Food you will re-discover the pleasures of the art of cooking – to cook for flavour and taste and to enjoy the dining ‘culture’ of the table.

What makes this program different? The program’s core foundation is the food philosophy of the Low Carbohydrate Healthy Fat lifestyle.  We cook using minimal carbohydrates; the ones found in fruits and vegetables, as you can see in this beautifully illustrated up-side-down Food Pyramid. It is totally different from the one we have been taught for years.

In these Cook Real Food classes, you learn how to make delicious, nutritious, natural meals, using minimal carbohydrates.  Healthy meals for your family and friends without spending hours and days in the kitchen.  I help you with the key elements of this program, including suggesting ingredient substitutes, planning tips along with thoughtful shopping and storage ideas as well.

At Cooking on the Bay, you are encouraged to develop a passion for cooking healthy, tasty, delicious and scrumptious food and you will learn to create and develop a style that is natural and true for your own tastes.

UPCOMING COOKING CLASSES

‘We would love you to join us in one of our classes’.On_the_bay_symbol

COOKING ON THE BAY’S FULL DAY COOKING CLASSES

COOK REAL FOOD

Our Cook Real Food Program, uses the freshest, local produce, and combines the cooking principles, techniques and inspirations gained from our many cooking traditions and cultures, and formed it into what we like to eat today.  Our cuisine is produce driven, all-embracing, exciting and varied.

FRENCH ODYSSEY

Discover the French passion and ‘joy of cooking’.  To the French, food is a constant conversation and cooking is a pleasure. Take a French Culinary Journey through France, learn classic French dishes; enjoy the tastes, textures, aromas of bistro and sophisticated French fare.

ITALIANICIOUS

Capture the passion of Italy. Discover the basics of Italian gastronomy, freshness, simplicity and lack of pretension, with delicate as well as robust dishes packed with flavour. Italians enjoy their cooking and eating is a festive, fun affair with music and laughter.

MEDITERRANEAN

Feel and taste the sun-drenched cuisine of the vibrant Mediterranean culinary region. This cuisine is full of robust flavours: sweet, sour, and exotic, heavenly spices.  Learn the dishes from countries where people are passionate about the food they produce and eat.

STOCKS, SAUCES & SOUPS

A good cook has a solid knowledge of basic cooking principles, methods and techniques.  Stock-making is the key to making good sauces and soups, which will enliven all your dishes. Master stock-making, produce wondrous dishes and cook like the professionals!

FULL DAY COOKING CLASSES

HALF DAY COOKING CLASSES

MOROCCAN EXOTIC SPICE
FLAVOURS OF THE MEDINA

Come and engage all your senses in our Moroccan Cooking Class, as you learn how the Moroccans use their colourful and complex spices, and discover the ancient Berber dishes of Marrakesh.

SPANISH CUISINE
CAMINO INSPIRATIONS

Learn to cook some classic Spanish dishes, tortilla, pulpo, paella, drink some Spanish Sangria! Learn, taste, smell, cook and enjoy the diversity of the flavours of Spain in this culinary journey.

FRENCH BISTRO CLASSICS
DESSERTS

It is tantalising selecting the dishes for this menu! Where does one start? Desserts are everyone’s favourite!

This class will feature many classic dishes.

AT OUR ITALIAN TABLE
RISOTTO AND ARANCINI

Making the best seasonal risotto, with mushrooms and porcini, with our mushroom and chicken stock; then to follow with lightly shallow-fried and crispy arancini and an arancini ‘cake’.

FRENCH BISTRO CLASSICS
CHARCUTERIE I

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!

CREATE

Create dishes, learning new skills to help you be able to recreate dishes at home with ease and confidence.  Recipes vary in degree of difficulty and individuality.

COOK

Be inspired by our French, Italian, Mediterranean, Modern Australian classes, and Masterclass Series in Stocks, Sauces and Soups, and Pastry.

CELEBRATE

Celebrate your cooking achievements, new skills and accomplished cuisines and enjoy the food that you have created with your new friends.

SUBSCRIBE TO THE COOKING ON THE BAY NEWSLETTER

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TONYA’S MUSINGS

The Three Holy Birds of French Cuisine

Sometime ago I heard about the ‘three holy birds’ of French cuisine.  My curiosity was aroused, I had never heard of them before, and so I asked my Kureelpa French friends, Yvonne and Daniel,  what [...]

Walnut and onion bread

I often bake this bread for the French Odyssey - Journey through France cooking classes, especially if we are making the walnut and Roquefort cheese terrine.  Walnuts are grown widely in SW France, and when [...]

Mandarin and Pistachio Flourless Cake

I look forward to baking this cake in autumn when mandarins are at their peak; some varieties continue into June and winter, which gives you time to get into the kitchen and start baking.  In [...]

Pithiviers with duck confit and mushrooms

On one of my early visits to France years ago, we stayed in a divine little Chambre d’Hôte, L ’Impasse du Temple, now called a Maison de Maître. It was located down a difficult to [...]

RECIPES

Ras el hanout – the magical Moroccan spice blend

In Morocco, the spice shops in the souks sell a large variety of both ground and whole spices that are the foundation of Moroccan cooking. When you buy your spices from the spice merchant, he [...]

Walnut and onion bread

I often bake this bread for the French Odyssey - Journey through France cooking classes, especially if we are making the walnut and Roquefort cheese terrine.  Walnuts are grown widely in SW France, and when [...]

Mandarin and Pistachio Flourless Cake

I look forward to baking this cake in autumn when mandarins are at their peak; some varieties continue into June and winter, which gives you time to get into the kitchen and start baking.  In [...]

Pithiviers with duck confit and mushrooms

On one of my early visits to France years ago, we stayed in a divine little Chambre d’Hôte, L ’Impasse du Temple, now called a Maison de Maître. It was located down a difficult to [...]

Shortcrust pastry – Pâte Brissé

Both Pâte Brissé and Pâte Sucrée are short cut pastry; Pâte Brissé is the same as Pâte Sucrée but without the sugar. Ingredients: 200g flour 100g cold, unsalted butter, cut into [...]

Coronation Quiche

A few days before the Coronation of King Charles III, the BBC published this ‘official’ recipe from Buckingham Palace, created by Mark Flanagan and Lucy Wilson.  My long-time friend and cooking ‘partner’ Christine, who [...]

Madeleines de Lorraine

My preparation for the French cooking classes morning tea often includes making Madeleines, the plump, little cakes, the French love to eat. Madeleines are moulded in the fluted scallop shape of the pilgrim’s shell, adding [...]

COOKING ON THE BAY’S TOURS

CULINARY FRENCH TOUR

For some years, Cooking on the Bay Cooking School hosted culinary weeks for groups of enthusiastic Australians and Americans at La Combe en Périgord, a residential cooking school in the beautiful Dordogne region of south west France.

PICNICS IN PROVENCE

For those interested in travelling to Provence, Cooking on the Bay has a relationship with Nikki Maxwell and her Picnics in Provence culinary tour business.  With Nikki you explore unspoilt France, places she has discovered over many  years of living and travelling there.  Places well off the beaten track, plus you dine in a variety of sensational restaurants! Perfect France.

MOROCCO BEYOND THE BAY

The House of Fusion culinary riad in , Morocco, and Cooking on the Bay Cooking School, have partnered together to bring you a fabulous, foodie, culinary Moroccan adventure, cooking at the House of Fusion, and road trip into the Sahara desert.