Meet
Tonya
Tonya’s passion for food and cooking is evident from her training as a chef in Melbourne and at prestigious international cooking schools including Le Cordon Bleu and the Ritz Escoffier in Paris and La Varenne l’Ecole de Cuisine in Burgundy. She has an extensive personal culinary library of over 3,000 cookbooks and books related to food! Tonya loves teaching cooking and enthusiastically shares her knowledge of food through her cooking classes conducted in her home. She enjoys talking about Australia's food, culture, history and way of life and is thrilled to be able to share this with travelers from around the world.
What to expect
Please note menu might vary. If there are particular dishes you are interested in trying, please include your request in the booking form.
In-home meal:
(2-6 guests)
Tonya lives in a beautiful, modern apartment with antique styling in St Kilda, Melbourne. Her apartment is opposite the St Kilda boat marina and from her balcony you can enjoy stunning views across Port Phillip Bay. St Kilda is a bayside city suburb, very easily accessible via public transport and just 8 km from Melbourne's city center. Tonya warmly welcomes you into her apartment with tea and cake to experience her modern Australian food. Her food philosophy is to cook with fresh, seasonal, locally-produced ingredients using simple recipes that help enhance the natural flavors of the food, making the food look and taste delicious. Your meal, served with wine, is enjoyed at her dining table with views overlooking the bay. Enjoy seasonal dishes like scallop ceviche with a pear, ginger and lime dressing, slow-roasted ocean trout served with creamy, lemony aioili and garnished with native Australian finger limes, or herb-marinated pork fillet, pan fried and finished in the oven. Your meal will end with a dessert such as pavlova-style meringue rolled with vanilla bean cream or chocolate fondant with seasonal berries accompanied by a cranberry jelly or ice-cream. Tea or coffee will be available upon request.
Cooking experience:
(2-6 guests)
During your hands-on Melbourne cooking class, learn to make three modern Australian dishes that you will enjoy together, with wine. Tonya starts this 3-hour cooking lesson by giving you an overview of the menu that you will be preparing, and providing helpful tips for the preparation and cooking process. A few dishes that you might prepare are oysters and verjus jelly with a shallot dressing, green peppercorn and chive jus, slow-roasted ocean trout with creamy, lemony mayonnaise and native finger limes, or hazelnut torte with blueberries. At the end of your cooking class you will be given a folder to take home with all the recipes and tips that you learned so you can easily recreate the meal at home.
Market visit:
(2-4 guests)
Please note the market tour is available only on Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, when the market is open. For market tour experiences, meet Tonya at her apartment for a quick refreshment. She will then drive you to the local South Melbourne market, 10-minutes away. This is a wonderful opportunity for you to experience one of the biggest local markets close to the city. On this tour you will have the opportunity peruse and buy from the wide variety of wonderful local fish, meat, poultry, vegetable, dairy, cheese and chocolate purveyors. After you buy a few ingredients needed for your class, Tonya will drive you back to her apartment so that you can join her in the kitchen to prepare your modern Australian meal.
Notes:
Tonya can offer vegetarian, low-carb and gluten free meals on request. A glass of Australian wine is included in your experience cost. Please note the market tour is available only on Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, when the market is open.
Languages spoken:
English
Sample menu
PERSONALLY VETTED REVIEW
A Traveling Spoon ambassador visited this host. Here is their personal review.
Tonya was engaging, patient, encouraging and very generous with sharing of her passion and knowledge. Her home was spotless, bright and airy. The entire meal was delicious - the taste, balance and presentation were outstanding. Everything was done to an exceptionally high standard and clearly a lot of detailed planning goes into every class Tonya holds. I have to admit on first seeing the menu, I though there is some very technical and difficult elements to the menu and wondered if I would be able to prepare and cook them – however, I need not have worried. Tonya’s advice to break up the preparation steps into chunks and work through the chunks systematically - made preparing technically difficult processes easy and very doable. This was a hands-on cooking class and we prepared every item from scratch using locally sourced ingredients from Tonya’s favourite local market. At the end, we all sat around and enjoyed the beautiful, balanced and delicious meal we had created and there was a feeling of pride around the table! I found Tonya’s class inspiring as it built my confidence in the kitchen, to be able to prepare a technically difficult meal from scratch with so much ease; this is an absolute credit to Tonya and her infectious enthusiasm, passion, skill and teaching. I will definitely make these dishes again, and again!
Violetta and Gary, Traveling Spoon Ambassador
Traveler reviews
Great learning, delicious dinner, fun time, delightful host/chef, on the harbor - what's not to like?
Tonya is a real pro - she was welcoming, adjusted quickly to our skill and knowledge level, had a keen sense of when to just give a direction and when to demonstrate, maintained a relaxed learning climate and provided material to take home to make home meals easy. It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening, in a lovely home, and we have several new techniques to try and dishes to prepare. Plus, she steered us to a remarkable art show in Melbourne which made our visit all the better. We are off to our next Traveling Spoon in Morocco.
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Cricket
March 27, 2023
Great learning, delicious dinner, fun time, delightful host/chef, on the harbor - what's not to like? Tonya is a real pro - she was welcoming, adjusted quickly to our skill and knowledge level, had a keen sense of when to just give a direction and when to demonstrate, maintained a relaxed learning climate and provided material to take home to make home meals easy. It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening, in a lovely home, and we have several new techniques to try and dishes to prepare. Plus, she steered us to a remarkable art show in Melbourne which made our visit all the better. We are off to our next Traveling Spoon in Morocco.
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Richard
March 27, 2023
My family and I enjoyed our day with Tonya at the Cooking on the Bay class and trip to the South Market. Superb food there. We tried a couple of recipes and were happy with them on Xmas Day. Wonderful. Thank you Tonya.
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Caroline
January 06, 2020
